Smogon Premier League XI - Semifinals

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Won vs dawob, ggs
http://smogtours.psim.us/battle-gen8doublesou-480752

After not being able to find my footing early in SPL, happy I was able to rebound to post a 5-5 total record. Thanks to the Cryos for a great season. No trophy this time, but I think we played a damn good tour and I'm glad that I was able to come along for the ride. Special shoutouts to old man Biosci for keeping me sane and motivated in my first tour being unsupported. Between you and Finchinator, it made it so much easier to get through that rough stretch. Taking a bit of a break from DOU, but I'll be back stronger than ever.

:heatman: signing off o7
 

Sacri'

the end is here
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
thats the season, ggs classiest. i'm still quite annoyed at the way things went down this week but ultimately we still have much to be proud of. it feels like i say this at the end of every team tour at this point but i still owe this much to quite a few people: sorry for being so abrasive, i have yet to find a better way to deal with the frustration these tours bring me. some of you definitely baited and deserved what i threw at them but thats definitely a minority so apology where it's due. moving on, this was absolutely one of my favorite team tour experience so a shoutout post felt appropriate.

Finchinator Us teaming up was a long time coming and it turned out every bit as interesting and motivating as I thought it would be. Even outside of your notorious in chat help, you were thorougly impressive this tour. Your confidence was extremely refreshing and we absolutely needed it at several keys points. Getting to know you both as a mate and as a person was definitely one of the best things that happened over the course of these past few months. Wishing you all the best both in mons and irl moving forward.

Eo Ut Mortus Ever since you kicked my ass in snake, I had wanted to team up with you. I've said this so many times at this point, you're genuinely great at this game. Even though you've had your struggles this time around, your building and playing skills still thorougly impress me so please don't give up on this ungrateful game. Glad we became friends along the way (it is, after all, the only thing that matters).

ggggd Obligatory dick sucking time lol. You are just fantastic at this game on top of being a really chill mate, I dont know how many weeks you've clutched for us at this point, knowing that you were playing last was the best feeling I could ask for in a teamtour. Cant wait to see you owning everyone in wcop.

Updated Kanto Before going into this, I still didn't quite know how to feel about you. Safe to say that is no longer the case, you were super fun to have around all season. You've had your struggles here and there but your drive for the game and the confidence you had in your playing and in the teams you brought were nothing but commandable. See you around!

Garay oak Despite some irl stuff making you less active than you could have been, you were a great teammate. I can't thank you enough for not giving up after a rough start in a tier that no one seems to remotely understand. As I told you, can't wait to team up with you again, perhaps with you playing something else hopefully?

HML am Before the season started, I did not have a clue who you were. A shame that your luck was so horrendous over the last few weeks, you definitely have a lot to be proud of. Hope you find your footing in some other tier than RBY so that we can team up again, I believe in you man.

z0mOG What a season you had LOL, memes aside, I didnt know what to expect from you in adv but you made quite clear that you absolutely knew what you were doing out there. You were definitely fun to have around as well, gl moving forward (even though you def dont need any :p)

Tman Much like Garay's, I have to praise your ability to turn up after a difficult start. Adaptating to a new gen certainly isnt easy but I loved seeing you grow more confident with each passing week. Your attitude was delightful throughout the tournament so definitely hoping to team up with you again, wishing you the best until then!

soulgazer I knew the trade would turn out to be a net positive the very second rui brought it up lol. I definitely was proven right, aside from a few difficulties here and there you yet again proved that your skills have yet to die down. Good luck with everything, own that degree dude.

obii Despite being dead as fuck for like half of the season, I was glad to have you around again bro. Thanks for genuinely trying this week after this unexpected LU change, wishing you all the best moving forward!

shawyu 1313 Thanks for turning up in a tier you didnt play at all before the tour man. Your attitude was fantastic throughout, hope you had a great time in your first spl, expecting to see more and more of you.

Jordy Our mids pick definitely turned out to be the right one. Your efforts and constant activity throughout did not go unnoticed, hoping to see you starting in ss somewhere down the line.

Mr.E Obviously a difficult tournament for you. You still had some good displays so dont worry too much about how the season ended. Most of all wishing you to find happiness somewhere down the line, see you around.

Triangles PDC Coconut crayon pop Triangles and PDC, despite all the shittalking, I find myself forced to admit that you both were good managers. The draft you put together was far better than I had believed at first and you were both fun to have around and useful in some of the boomer tiers. I'll def go to my grave saying you were the woat managers and the reason for every of our losses tho lol. Rui and Coconut, thank you both for the great help in lc and dpp, had a blast interracting with you both (thanks rui for not actually quitting on us despite theatening to like 80 times)

Djokra Biosci lax Ophion thank you for your help and your constant cheering throughout this season, it was great getting to know y'all a bit more.

teal6 DeepBlueC xray MetalGro$$ thanks for joining us this week, I genuinely thought everyone wanted us to lose so it was nice to know y'all were rooting for us and obviously thanks for your help.
 
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Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Good games, Classiest. You guys are a deserving team and I hope that you guys win the tournament. I am excited to see what a number of my friends and old teammates are able to do in the finals. Please remember to insert snaga into your starting line-up in order to maximize your odds.

Cryonicles, it was a bitter ending to a respectable season. We had a lot of upside, but ultimately our flaws showed down the stretch and this week was reflective of that. I have some words -- both positive and reflective -- for the individuals on the team which I will include below.

As for myself, this is a bit of a disappointment. And I am no stranger to large scale disappointments at this point. I have seen myself as one of the leaders on each team I am on outside of WCOP Northeast. Over all of these years, which includes dozens of official tournaments, I have not been able to win a trophy. Despite my work ethic being second to none, my results are second to countless fellow competitors. The fact of the matter is that I hold myself to ridiculously high standards. I view my overall trajectory, which may take years and years to reach still, to be near that of the best players and teammates out there such as BKC and ABR. That means absolutely nothing if the results do not prove to be remotely close to the top players, however. When I say results, I am talking beyond the sheet. I played a strong tournament and put up a positive record, which I have proven myself capable of doing time after time. What I mean is the outcome of the teams I am on. I have been on countless teams that have put up middling results, even if they have shown signs of brilliance earlier on in tournaments. It is disappointing that my team has lost in the first round of playoffs in every single time I have made the playoffs besides the WCOP Northeast won (so 6 of 7 times). Team tournaments include countless factors, but with such a large sample size this has to be at least a partial reflection on me as an individual. The fact of the matter is that I do not know if I am a good enough leader and teammate to be the face of a team that is going to win an individual tournament. I don't know if I have been in the past, I don't know if I am one in the present, and I don't know if I will become one in the future. I do know one thing though: I will keep trying until I cannot do so anymore. Maybe I will never succeed and in 10 years when the community is filled with entirely new faces, I will seem like a complete meme in Smogon history...someone who was all over the place, but never actually won shit. Or maybe I will keep going and my efforts will prove worthwhile. I don't know, but I have a lot of fun trying each time and while the endings have all been bittersweet thus far, I have confidence in the process. I play this game for fun, but I have noticed that the grind and the competition is where I derive my enjoyment. I will continue my pursuit of the red trophy so long as it is possible for me.

Triangles - Always a pleasure to work with you. We do not see eye-to-eye always, but you always want what is best and I respect that. I always viewed you as more of a player than a manager type. Your ADV is phenomenal and you were able to help z0mOG at times, which was great, but I know you wish you could have helped in some other tiers a bit more. Do not feel bad. I think you did all we could have asked for and I am excited to see you get back into the ADV field in the near future. Your craftiness is always appreciated. Thank you for picking me and hopefully I did not drive you too crazy.

PDC - You have been one of my friends on here for over five years now and I have considered myself sorta close to you IRL for a few years now, too. I know you are a good guy and your presence is always one I appreciate. With that said, you probably should not have managed this SPL. I do not know if you could have predicted your inactive stint, but I think your perception of the playerbase was not where it needed to be at times and I know you wish you could have been more present down the stretch. I appreciate your input always still and I think you were valuable in ADV through ORAS at points, but we never really had a true leading "manager" and at times that did hurt. I also disagree with your philosophy when it comes to antagonizing people in the chat, but that's neither here nor there. You are a creature of your habits and so am I. I do hope that one day you give it another full-on try to play with the best players out there, but the more time elapses the less likely that seems. Whatever happens, good luck bro.

crayon pop - I was actually pretty upset with you after the auction when we got into a big disagreement and I still think we do not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but you clearly were a valuable member of our team. Your DPP expertise will never go unnoticed. Your teams are perhaps second-to-none and your playerbase knowledge put us in an advantageous position time after time. I wish you would commit fully to playing a big official tour at some point, but seeing as that is probably not in the cards, it has been fun man. It was a pleasure seeing what you did to our budget DPP slot and I hope you actually do quit this time if you want to.

Coconut - Always a pleasure to have you around. I have been through a lot recently, so sometimes it's hard for me to know when to shut the fuck up and you were always there to put me in my place. Respect for that, but also for your input throughout the season and general chat presence. I hope we get to team up once more at some point in the near future.

obii - I think your days slaving over discord and putting in countless hours to team tours are numbered, but I still appreciate that you stuck it out for this tournament, even if you only played once. You are one of the people I respect the most on here and teaming with you over the years has been a pleasure. I think you genuinely can play this game, by the way. I do not really give a shit what people say. If you had a larger sample size, it would at least get closer to even than it is now. Anyway, thanks for sticking around and being a rock when we needed you in the chat at points. Thanks for keeping it real at other points, too. Hope everything goes well for you moving forward.

Sacri' - You are a great teammate and an even better player. In the team chat, you have been a pleasure and it has been fun working with you. I think you are one of the top SS players and I hope that shows moving forward even more than it already has. It is clear that if you set your mind to the game and do not get distracted by external bullshit, then you will reach your goals over time. I am excited to see if you will evolve into the next big named French player that stands out in the tournament crowd. I think the trajectory is there, but you have to prove some consistency moving forward. I know you can do it, so good luck. With all of this said, I do think that you tend to take things too personally. Do not take this as criticism so much as friendly advice. Over the last few weeks, it seemed like a huge struggle for you whenever things did not go our way. I know what it feels like when you invest so much into something largely outside of your control and it does not go your way. It is a shitty feeling and it makes you want to state your grievances, but sometimes it's best to just let it rest and stay confident in what is happening in the future. The past is the past. You cannot change it, unfortunately. People are going to try to antagonize/bait you more and more if this happens. Our community is vicious like this. Do not give in and do not even bother responding. It will minimize itself and believe me when I say you will feel less stressed as a result of this over times. I really do enjoy seeing you play and I do not want to see the negativity ruin your experience or cut your time playing short, so I hope that the future brings you good fortune and more positives overall.

ggggd - I did not know you too well before this tournament, but I knew you were solid and z0mOG spoke highly of you previously. Well, it turns out he was right. You were perhaps the most dominant player this tournament. Your gameplay was nearly mistake free and you went above-and-beyond whenever necessary in order to finish each week with your game in the win column. I am excited to see if you are able to have that success translate to OU in tournaments such as WCOP. Keep on going and I bet that you will make an even bigger name for yourself in the future. I hope we can team again sometime soon.

z0mOG - I think we ended this year on a lot better of a note than last year. I am glad you got to play ADV. I do not really care if people try to discredit your record or even what your record was specifically. You put in a ton of time and effort and I respect that a ton as a fellow competitor. We will never agree on a ton of philosophical stuff about Smogon, but it was a pleasure to team with you and I am glad that we both had positive campaigns this time around. It was weird at first to be on your team again as I did not truly expect us to get you or you to be 3k, but I always knew you would easily be worth that amount. I think it is safe to say you proved that and so much more. Thanks for everything and I hope you stick around. Looking forward to another East vs West showdown if that is in the cards.

Eo Ut Mortus - In our seventh official team tournament together, we finally made the playoffs. It is a shame that we were not able to bring home a trophy, but I just do not think our group was consistent enough for that to be too likely at the end of the day. As always, it was a pleasure to team with you. I enjoyed grinding out games with you each week besides 1-2 weeks when I was burning out. I think we both adjusted a ton to things over the course of the season. While I know you are probably not happy with your record, I think you played well and I also think you had a pretty large impact on the shaping of the early SS metagame. I am excited to see your future creations and performances. I wish that the season did not end on such a negative note for you and I am sorry if the fallout from your last game ruffled any feathers, but please know that I and everyone else in our chat has the utmost respect for you. I have no clue if we will team again, but I do hope that one day you can get a trophy. You deserve it more than anyone else on this site.

Tman - I know it started rough, but you turned it around so well. It is always hard to be a DOU player in tournaments that are predominantly singles, but you always crush it. I love teaming with you and talking with you. Thanks so much for everything and I hope we can build on this and win a tour together sometime, if you do come back to doubles. If not, best regards bro.

soulgazer - Never teamed with you before somehow, but glad I got to here. You had some really good games and some less stellar moments, but the trade was easily worthwhile. I am sorry if tensions were high at points, but that was just the team we had and I do not think much was changing that given the group we had. I hope you at least had a positive experience overall.

shawyu 1313 - You were easily one of my favorite teammates. You did whatever you could to help out in just about every tier you knew. I know DPP was not your main tier and it very much still is not. The lack of metagame knowledge eventually showed with time and your sample size growing larger, but you still put up a neutral record and that is something to be proud of in your debut. I hope you get a chance to play a tier you are better at like BW in the future. Speaking of the future, managers should really pick you up. You work hard and you are always determined to make an impact. I am so glad we did despite my initial questions with regards to picking you as a substitute. Thanks for everything and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you on here.

Updated Kanto - You drive me crazy sometimes, but overall I like how you play the game and I am always excited to see how you pilot the teams you use. I do not have the balls you do on a lot of levels and seeing players with different perspectives helps me grow and branch out myself, which is always cool. I am sorry the season did not go according to plan for you, but at least we kept the playoff streak alive and you won a decent amount considering how packed your schedule was.

HML am - 3k RBY player from the UK with 0 SPL experience? The expectations were insanely low, but you proved that you could battle with the best in the field. Your record is far from indicative of your play, in my eyes. You could have just as easily been positive, if not neutral. You played a solid season. Yes, there were periodic blunders, but overall you were someone I was excited to see go into battle for us each week. I do not like RBY at all, but I hope you find your footing elsewhere and keep up the positives moving forward. I know you have a ridiculously high ceiling as a player and I also think you are just getting started. Also, it was always fun talking to you about other things like b99. Keep up the good work all around bro.

Garay oak - We have seen better days together, but you managed to put up a respectable performance considering how unfortunate you got and your busy schedule clashing with your desire to take up a metagame that was essentially foreign to you coming into the tournament. The fact of the matter is that you can play with competent OU players and this performance showed that, but sometimes the wins do not come easily in this game and that is ok. I hope we can team together in the future if your activity returns to normal and if not it has been a pleasure over the last couple of years. Your attitude and work ethic are superb. Thanks so much for everything.

Mr.E - You are a genuinely good player and I do not know GSC well enough to discuss your team choices, but it seemed like you grew better at working with teammates as the season spanned on. It has been a fine experience teaming with you twice now in terms of in-chat interactions, too. You have been nice to me personally a majority of the time and I hope you can say the same for me. I do take some personal issue with your mindset though. I think you need to stop worrying so much about things that are out of your control man. I know that it is easy for someone who has been more fortunate than you over the years to say that, but the fact of the matter is that you cannot control what other people say, you cannot control what the RNG does, and you cannot control the community as a whole, no matter how annoying or wrong the majority of the community may be at times. I know that this community is garbage sometimes. I know that a lot of the people in the chat act like they are that bully who peaked in middle school and cannot think of any other ways to express their frustrations than to express it in the chatroom. You can control how you respond to people who are acting this way towards you -- ignore them and then they will stop because they are not provoking the angry reaction they desire. You can control how you approach the games you play -- maximize your chances of winning instead of dwelling on instances of luck (you actually did a very good job at doing this later on in the regular season, which I personally commend you for). Take everything life gives you and make the absolute most of it. I want to see you succeed and be happy given all I have heard, but I cannot help but instinctually feel that you are not doing yourself favors and you are victimizing yourself a bit more than necessary (this is not me saying you are not a victim so much as me saying that there is more to situations than being a victim/offender). I wish you the best and I hope that you can turn things around on here!

Descending - You are a really nice guy. I know you are busy and on the quiet side, but I appreciated your input whenever possible. It is cool to see you play so many formats at a competitive level. I hope our paths cross again sometime soon and I look forward to seeing your run in tournaments like OST!

Jordy - You are a good friend and clearly a capable builder. I do not think your playing is there quite yet, but it will be there in the very near future and you have a fantastic sense of the metagame. Your influence went a long way at times, but at other times it did not work as our players had alternative preferences or comfort zones. This is ok though. You were a welcome addition and I am glad we got you. I hope you get more opportunities in the future as you deserve them without a doubt. Keep on contributing, building, and playing!

Leftiez - Thanks for beating John bro. I am sorry things did not work out. I hope IRL is going well, take care bro.

Jirachee - You had the audacity to sign-up again and then dip after things went south during the first week without any warning. You even started basic preparations for the next week on Sunday and then suddenly disappeared, leaving us with no clue what to expect. You made us throw a completely inexperienced substitute into DPP on virtually no notice. He actually went even, too, but if we were able to prepare we could have not only done better in the tier, but positioned ourselves with a more balanced and proven line-up going into the playoffs. This is the second time you essentially leave mid-tour without much warning, too. I hope you do not come back to this game at this point as you are basically a living, breathing false advertisement. I like you when you are around, but this type of thing is not acceptable and was a huge burden to our team and the dozen+ people who signed up, dedicated their time/effort, and wanted to win with the team we had. Think before you act in the future.

Djokra - You were a fantastic addition to the chat. You were helpful in testing across almost every metagame, you were active in chat discussions, and you were always supportive. I think you were the subject of a lot of community-wide criticism for being verbal in support of our team in the chat despite not being an actual member of the team. In your position, sometimes it may be best to tone it down a bit just to avoid this mess, but I did personally appreciate your support a ton and I hope you ignored the people who spoke out against you. I do not know what the future holds for you on here, but I hope you continue to have fun and involve yourself as you please. I did not know what to expect when you joined the chat, but I am very glad you did now that I have worked with you and I wish you nothing but the best moving forward.

Ophion - You joined when I wanted another BW tester and your testing help spread across many tiers. You are still new and a bit raw in a lot of regards, but your efforts were appreciated nevertheless. You are a good egg and you will continue to make progress as a player and user as time elapses. I am excited to discuss things with you in the future and I hope that you continue to have positive experiences on Smogon. Your work ethic is impressive and I think it will get you a long way once you gain more playing experience and tournament exposure. Good work bro.

elodin - You are my favorite. This is all.

lax - Some philosophical debates and team differences aside, you are a friend and I was happy to have you around. Thanks for supporting us and I hope to see you playing big games again soon. WCOP could be very hype!

Biosci - You are a really nice dude and your depth of doubles knowledge is great. Thanks so much for joining to help out the heatman and it was a pleasure finally getting to share a team chat with you for a fr tournament. I hope you come back and kick some ass at some point, but if not I wish you the best man.

MetalGro$$ DeepBlueC xray teal6 - Thank you for joining during the playoffs. While it was short lived, I appreciated the contributions each of you offered. I consider all of you friends and I wish you guys success moving forward. Please let me know if any of you ever need anything!

dice zf Raiza John W Frania Pearl - It was fun discussing BW and testing with you guys. Thank you and hope everyone enjoys the metagame!

Leo Lusa - I know you guys only put up pretty average records in SS, but it was really cool seeing both of you break out and prove that you can compete in this field. I hope to see your team continue to compete in WCOP. I really love when teams with less big names can put together success and I think that this is the perfect opportunity for that. Raptor could be grouped in this, too, but he is honestly one of the hottest players rn so perhaps he is a big name.

CrashinBoomBang - I meant it when I said I felt bad for you dude. You spend so much time on here trying to provoke people and saying negative things whenever you are in public, but you only get responses from a select few people who are foolish enough to engage you. I hope that you encounter more positivity in the future and your mindset can change for the better. I know that you actually give a shit about ORAS and I hate knowing that people who are passionate about their metagames can be so consumed by external hatred. I love seeing the people who go out of their way to keep the fire burning for past generations thrive and I know that this is only a limited pool of people.

Mannat - Rough break in your games, but genuinely glad you got your first official games in. I hope you can continue to grow as a player, reign in your wild side a bit, and eventually find yourself a consistent place in this setting.

TPP - Your work ethic is amazing. I love the work you put into everything ranging from team tournaments to contributions to the non-tournament community. I hope we can team together sometime soon.
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
Dan Marino ain't got a ring either and football is a lot more skill-based than Pokemon. :blobthumbsup:

"I know that feel, bro." You're the only common denominator in all your failures, but at the same time there are countless factors you can't control and to some extent it's impossible to tell the difference. You don't want to be too easy on yourself and not pull every lever you can access to test if it leads to change, but at the same time it's unhealthy to be overly harsh on yourself. There's no way of knowing if and which outside factors are holding you back. All you can do is your best job of separating emotionally and trying to see things logically and objectively.

Are you posting positive records? Yeah. Are you helpful to your teammates? Yeah. Maybe it's tougher to define a nebulous concept such as leadership, but my interactions with you have been largely positive and judging by the general consensus of what people think of me, they'd probably say getting along with me is no small feat. The dice simply haven't rolled in your favor yet. Maybe they never will. But the journey is just as important as the destination, you are not defined solely by your ultimate success or failure. You have the right attitude, the drive, and seemingly the skill. That's all you can do.
 

Triangles

Big Stew
is a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Past SPL Champion
World Defender
At about week 2, I said in manager chat that I felt I had wasted this year managing because I'm in my playing prime and I'm not very good at helping outside of my OTP tier. Both of these things are true, but I would absolutely do this all again in a heartbeat. You guys made this experience amazing. I think I'll be back to manage again next year in some shape or form, much to the chagrin of anyone I buy.

Personal messages
z0mOG - I loved working with you, I think you are a fantastic player and I really admire your aggro style of play and building. You are also a hilarious guy and great to chill in the disc with. Hope we stay in touch
Finchinator - When you buy finch for a team tour, you know exactly what you are getting - consistent high level play, relentless hard work, and excellent support across every tier. You said in your shoutouts that we never had a leading manager figure. We did, it was you...
crayon pop - I'd never be here without you. When we met in SPL 8, that changed my trajectory on this site forever. You have influenced me as a player and person a huge amount. As for the season, you were doing your usual awesome building and matchup call stuff, what's more to say. You are the best Pokemon brain I have ever had the good fortune of interacting with, and your talent is incredibly wasted. I'm pretty sure you'd 9-0 either the DP or RSE pool this year. You are quitting now, so good luck with life after mons and see you next week.
Coconut - First Lady of the Cryos. In a manager chat containing the 4 abrasive personalities of me, PDC, Rui, and Finch, you were invaluabe as the calming voice of reason. Your chat presence improved the team immeasurably.
Sacri' - I secretly watched all your games.
Djokra - You were an awesome helper in the old gens - I really appreciated your drive and willingness. You are also an extremely kind person.
PDC - I (and a few other people) had a go at you for your supposed absenteeism. You then pointed out you had considerably more lines than me, which shut me up pretty fast. Your Pokemon smarts are excellent, and you drafted very well. Keep up the onlyfans content.
Mr.E - Never lucky for 15 years. I hope you stick around because I wouldn't want this to be your last SPL showing - you are a great talent but there was a lot of BS this time round.
HML am - Let's net some time

Everyone else, thank you for working hard and playing your hearts out all season. It took a healthy serving of luck to knock us out, and that is just how Pokemon do be.
 
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