The World Cup of Pokémon 2020 - Qualifying Round 2

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Bad Grief

Banned deucer.


I made a cheesy potato quesadilla using the panini press I got for my 19th birthday! It turned out pretty good and I only used a simple set of ingredients:

-Two tortilla shells
-Even coating of butter on one side each to prevent sticking and burning, adds flavor
-Shredded mexican cheese
-Leftover french fries

I pressed the ingredients together for about three minutes and it ended up crisp and brown! I also put sour cream and mild taco bell sauce on it for authenticity! A great snack for those wanting to make something crispy and savory at home, and the lack of meat is perfect for vegetarians. :)
This isn't even Food... you'd get more nutrition using the kiosk in the lobby of McDonalds and adding vegetables to a McDouble. Also, to the 47 people who liked this post, this persons not on a team/isnt a "tour bro" so that button click didnt even increase your chances of getting drafted in SSD by even 0.01%
 
YAHALLO AND WELCOME TO PART 2 OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
In this edition, we will be ranking 5 more teams. Let's get to it.

Latin America



Latina America returns after a very surprising run last year. I find it really hard to believe that this rag-tag group of unproven players can possibly repeat such a fluky performance, but we will have to wait and see I suppose. Vai Lusa, who was coming off of a solid SPL campaign, apparently abandoned the team, leaving a hole that will be hard for the squad to replace. The team also finds itself without its spiritual leader: Posho. Posho was the face of Latin America; I'm sure he's one of the only LA players the general public could name at the drop of a hat. His play has obviously left a lot to be desired as of late, and the removal of his signature tier, BW OU, certainly would have hurt his chances of returning to form in this tour. Either way, for whatever reason, he has decided not to participate, leaving his goon squad to carry on his legacy. Can they do it? I'm pretty skeptical, honestly.

The lineup definitely lacks in the star power department. The team basically has two notable players: Gondra and xImRaptor. The Gondra bandwagon was carried out to sea, attached to an anchor, and thrown overboard after his horrendous Snake III performance. The Jerk fell out of favor with him, allowing the Ruiners to pick up the once-promising player for pennies on the dollar. He returned Rewer's investment in a big way, going 9-2 while taking down some pretty notable players along the way. It remains to be seen whether his SM OU expertise can carry over to SS OU, but he's probably a good enough player with enough of a track record to where I feel confident in his ability to go positive in this tour. xImRaptor, meanwhile, is sort of a super-rookie, who leapt onto the tour scene in a big way with back-to-back solid performances in Snake and SPL. He has come a long way since being part of the cursed Lindworms' trio of draft blunders. I haven't totally consumed the kool-aid yet, nor do I know how much of his skill will translate over to SS OU, but I think he has a pretty good shot of going 2-1.

Gondra and Raptor are going to have to do some major carrying, because the rest of the team is a bit of a joke. The player with the greatest amount of promise here seems to be ZDen, who has managed to accrue a nice 6-2 sheet record so far. I'm still pretty skeptical of his abilities due to the small sample size here, but he has shown some flashes of ability. Raichy is a journeyman played who has amassed 23 games on the sheet, albeit with a negative record. I don't have too much faith in his SS OU abilities, but maybe he can get a win. Leo has a decent amount of experience on the big stage, but hasn't really done anything noteworthy enough to make me a believer. Maybe he can get a win too; who knows? The other slots on the team are even more sketchy. beatiful is a ladder hero who has been laddering with some nonsense offense team for eons now; I don't really give much weight to one's ladder abilities, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him get smashed. Flamita is apparently 2-2 on the sheet, even though I honestly have never even heard of them before. I think he's an oh95 jaja goon? LOL idr. Either way, I don't really have any expectations for him. Probably the sketchiest slot on the lineup, though is Feliburn, an RU mainer who has notoriously struggled on the big stage. I find it very hard to believe that a struggling RU player can successfully transition to SS OU; it would not be shocking to see him go winless. The subs are irrelevant, so let's ignore them.

Overall, this is clearly a very top heavy team. It would be pretty surprising to see them make the playoffs; I feel like they almost certainly used up all their magic last year.

US Northeast



Well, the Jerk is back for yet another tour. East fell short last year for the first time since 2014, as they were toppled by lax and the rest of the West brigade. The team was hurt a bit, in my opinion, with the transition to 8 SS OU slots; not only are there 2 less slots now, which hurts a team as deep as East, but one of the team's three main carries, the GOAT aka BKC, was severely nerfed. All that being said, it's pretty clear that this team is still the clear favorite to take home the trophy, with a roster laden with superstar talent and a nice bunch of complementary players.

The headline players here are obviously ABR and bro fist. ABR's looking like the best player on Smogon at the moment; he's currently in the Smogon Tour finals, and is also in the Smogon Classic playoffs. He's obviously always a threat to go 6-0 in World Cup, and it would be very surprising to see him finish the tour with anything more than 2 losses. Speaking of going 6-0, bro fist is the master of this tournament. He's arguably the best World Cup player ever, and demolishes the tournament year after year. He had a rare "poor" showing last year, losing both of his playoff games to a white hot lax, but I find it hard to believe that he will suffer the same fate again this year. As someone who has teamed with him before, I can confidently tell you that I have never had more faith in someone's ability to win a close game than I had in John during his East tenure. Expect more of the same here.

Unlike other teams on this list, East obviously does not fall off too hard after their top-end talent. A bit below the team's two superstar carries is their Jerk partner, starmaster. He's mainly known for being that one dude who was banned for 200 years for ghosting a 10-year old before being unbanned early due to his Jerk connections. He was massively hyped by all of his friends during his ban, and finally showed off some his potential with an amazing 7-2 run last SPL. With the incredible team support provided by ABR, I wholly expect Star to go 5-1 or so. Next up, we have Insult, whose really evolved quite a bit since his debut a few tours ago. He has yet to be negative in a team tour, and has a pretty solid 14-7 record over the past 2 tournaments. He was a monster for the Classiest last SPL, and had the mental fortitude to not forfeit after a rough series of events in what was basically a lost game against Vai Lusa in Week 9; Lusa ended up choking on balls, as Insult helped the Classiest claim a playoff spot. He also made it to the semifinals of the latest OST, before falling to noted sheet God FlamingVictini. I've honestly come around quite a bit on him, and with the infrastructure surround him, he really might make a push for 5 wins this tour.

Finchinator finds himself in SS OU after his home of BW OU was a victim of the tournament's format change. We all know Finchinator is a tryhard, and we all know he's a pretty solid player. He's had some rather laughable moments lately (the infamous Omastar game comes to mind), but it would be foolish to expect him to struggle here. He obviously puts in a lot of work, and I'm sure he's played an incredibly large amount of SS OU games. I expect him to finish with around 4 wins. teal6 has been pretty impressive on the big stage lately, amassing a nice 13-7 record over his last 3 tours. He himself admits that he has been in pretty poor form lately, but I wholeheartedly expect him to get back into shape before his first World Cup Game. He does play a bit balls-to-the-wall at times, which can hurt his consistency, but I trust in his ability to go positive.

marcop is a bit more of a question mark. He seemingly came out of NOWHERE and somehow went from being Finch lackey to top ADV player overnight. It was a very interesting transition. I don't really know how good he will be at SS OU, though. He did manage to do pretty well in the last OST, but his run was a bit...suspect at best (st tyrannus / polish vodka / bruno de lucas / tectonic destroyer / haru / conflict). He does have amazing team support, so I think he will probably do decently. We will see, though. The last slot on the team is a real question mark, though. The team decided to put their faith in robjr for now, who I really have no faith in outside of lower tiers. He's really struggled to put together solid campaigns when he's not in the confines of UU, as evidenced by his putrid 1-6 performance last SPL. I don't really think he'll succeed. The team has some interesting options like Joey, Sabella, and the GOAT on the bench. The team doesn't trust Joey to start, which is a pretty big red flag to me. He definitely isn't as good as he was a few years ago, but I still think he's better than robjr. We also have Sabella, who, contrary to popular belief, is actually positive on the sheet. He's not a world-beater or anything, but maybe he could get some wins if he had to spell robjr. The GOAT is obviously in his own category here, but he did get smashed in Snake, and I'm not sure how much motivation he has to grind SS OU anyway. The team could have fixed all of these issues by taking Updated Kanto, but they decided that his persona did not fit their Jerk atmosphere. For any other team, this would be an insane decision, but East can afford to make these types of maneuvers.

Overall, this is pretty clearly still the best team. Their tiebreak is still out of this world with ABR, bro fist, and Star, and they have enough solid pieces to help them easily smash most teams.

US West



The US East rivals are back. The team managed to topple East last year and take home the trophy, thanks in no small part to a superhuman performance from former NU mainer lax. Is he up for an encore?

The aforementioned lax is easily the headliner here. He absolutely tore through Smogon last year, with incredible performances in both SPL and World Cup. He's shown that he can beat pretty much anyone at any time, even managing to take down the tiebreak god himself bro fist. I think he'll easily smash everyone this tour as well. West also managed to revive ben gay, one of Smogon's greatest innovators. His play is certainly not always on par with his builds, but he usually always manages to find the techs he needs to bring home the win. While I still wouldn't trust him too much in a super high-pressure situation, he's obviously still a player to be a feared, especially in what will be a relatively new metagame when the tour begins. I'm sure his crazy innovations will catch his opponents off guard and help him put up a solid record.

The next most important players on the team are z0mOG and blarghlfarghl. z0m's sheet game has yet to live up to the expectations created with his Stour trophy, but he is almost past the .500 mark following a (relatively lucky) 7-3 SPL performance. I think that he'll definitely go positive. blargh is someone who I've basically done a complete 180 on lately. I used to bold against him with fervor; now, I bold him quite frequently. It's actually pretty impressive how he's managed to turn the narrative around. He has a knack for getting wins; he's 14-7 in his past 3 tours, despite some pretty unimpressive losses along the way. He just wins; there's honestly not much more I can say here. He should definitely do well.

Speaking of turning around the narrative, Sjneider has been a beast lately He's managed to go 14-6 in his past two tours; he did pretty well in ORAS last SPL, albeit with ABR's support, and things are looking up for him. I bold against him a lot and he always seems to screw me over. That being said, I'm not buying too much of his stock just yet. If he does well in this tour too, I think I'll drink some more of the kool-aid. That being said, he does clearly have some talent, and I think he'll probably do decently. Another player whose kool-aid I have yet to consume is ima. After an impressive 8-3 performance, which is referenced about 485934085094904389 times on the STours server, ima fell back to earth with a rather pedestrian 3-4 performance in SPL XI. I'm not too big of a believer, but he does clearly have at least some talent. I think he'll do decently, but it wouldn't overly shock me to see him finish below .500 again.

The last two slots on the team are a bit more questionable. rozes obviously hasn't done anything of note in SS OU, nor has he really done anything notable in OU tiers as a whole. He does have a great deal of experience on the big stage, so at least he has that going for him. He's also in Classic Playoffs, so the former NU mainer may have leveled up his game a bit. It wouldn't surprise me to see him struggle a fair bit, though. The last player in the lineup is Valentine, who may or may not be getting ghosted? All I can say is, when he plays, he usually manages to put up a decent amount of wins. I honestly think he'll do fine. The team also has Vaboh on the bench, a player who was massively hyped following his amazing Corona PL I run. Unfortunately, he went 1-14 LOOOL what the fuck is that right? LMAO 1-14 HUHFKDSHGJHDSJ combined in his next 3 Corona PL showings. Jesus christ. Alright, he might just be unviable after all. I regret mentioning him.

Overall, this is a pretty solid team. Do I think they can win the trophy again? If lax goes superhuman, I suppose it's possible. I think they'll definitely make the playoffs, though, and for whatever reason, West is always a very feisty team when it comes down to it. They have the aura.

Brazil

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After a VERY IMPRESSIVE Corona PL showing, the BRS are back, hoping to lift an important trophy this time. The team's last win came in 2014, when they upset one of the best on-paper teams of all time. Does this squad have the talent to take home the ring? Honestly, they just might.

The best player on the team is Eternal Spirit. Gama has been a sheet warrior for a while now, and rarely has a bad tour. He did have an off SPL, but he only finished 1 win below .500; that's the first time he's gone negative in 3 years. I think Gama's mega fire, and I think that this tour he may just pop off with some insane record. I'll trust him to do well for sure. Tamahome is next up, and he really needs no introduction. He has the most wins in the history of team tours while maintaining a very solid +30 differential. The question mark here is obviously his ability to transition his talents over to SS OU. He definitely has enough skill to do so; he managed to perform pretty decently in SM OU back when he had to move to that tier. I'm really not sure how much he's played it, but it would be foolish to count him out here. I'll temper my expectations a bit, but I still expect him to do well.

The BRs somehow managed to revive Nintendi LOL jesus. Nintendi was easily one of the best ORAS players on Smogon during his peak; I always had a solid amount of faith in him. He went 6-0 in ORAS last World Cup, and honestly, I have a fair amount of confidence that he can do well in this tour. I don't think he will be as good as he is in ORAS OU, but I still expect him to go positive. The squad also features the OST runner-up: the fake jamvad. His run was a bit...questionable, so that's a bit less of an endorsement for his skills than it would be otherwise. That being said, he's still clearly pretty knowledgeable about the tier, and popped off in Corona PL too, for whatever that's worth. Just based on his OST run you have to take him seriously; that being said, he really hasn't done much on the sheet besides get that omega donation from the basedlord last SPL LOL I'm going to temper my expectations a bit, but I think he should do fine. The team also has Smogon Tour Champion Luigi, who I have been hyping for a while. He's always underrated for whatever reason; I think he'll go positive as well.

The team is rounded out by ggggd, Century Express, and Ash KetchumGamer. Pablo went undefeated last SPL, albeit in LC; he clearly has a lot of talent, though. From what I've seen, he's able to adapt to different metagames pretty quickly, so I think he has a fair shot of doing fine in this tournament. I've never really been a big Century Express fan, but he is decent at GSC. Can that translate to SS OU? I'm really not sure, but I guess this metagame is as similar to GSC as we're going to see so I guess there's that lol. Maybe he can grab a few wins; it's better than to start him than a complete random, though. Speaking of randoms...I'm not even going to pretend like I know who Ash KetchumGamer is. Apparently, he did well in OUPL, but so did a bunch of awful players....so, take that as you will. More importantly, he also made STour playoffs, so at least he has some capability I suppose. I still don't have that much faith in his ability to succeed. The team does have elodin on the bench, who is at least talented enough to maybe grab a win or two if needed I suppose.

Overall, this is pretty clearly a playoff team. They have some players with upside, and if those players hit their ceilings, perhaps they can make quite a bit of noise in the playoffs.

US Midwest

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The worst US team is back yet again. Expectations are always low for midwest, and people meme the team at every turn. Can they exceed expectations? Honestly, the roster could definitely be worse than it is right now.

The main carry of this team is pretty clearly dice. You all know I'm a massive dice fan. He's obviously not in his home tier of BW OU, which definitely lowers his floor a bit. That being said, I'm still a big believer in his talent. I don't know if, in SS OU, he's the player who should be expected to carry your team, but that's what he's going to have to here. I think he'll definitely go positive, and his ceiling is definitely very high.

The rest of the team isn't too awe-inspiring, but they do have some decent pieces I suppose. UltraBallz hasn't been too great in tours so far, and is currently 4 games below .500 on the sheet. Maybe he can make some noise, but it wouldn't be too surprising if he struggled. Tace is someone who took the tour stage by storm with a solid 10-4 run in his first two tours; he fell back to earth with a 2-5 performance last SPL, though. Has the magic run out? I haven't been too impressed by him. His season could really go either way. John W seemed pretty inconsistent from what I saw in SPL; sometimes, he just makes horrible plays. I don't have too much faith in him, but maybe he can grab a win or 2. Luthier, meanwhile, has been relatively impressive in his short time on Smogon. Can he transition his LC skills to OU, though? I'm always a bit skeptical of mainers and their ability to transition to OU tiers, so I'll temper my expectations a bit. His season could also go either way, really. Nails is definitely the most interesting name of the bunch. He's been an absolute force in unofficial tours lately, and has seemingly won at every turn. He's even done pretty well on the sheet lately, and also had a nice run in RBY cup. That being said, do I have a lot of faith in his SS OU abilities? I have absolutely no idea how much SS OU he's played, and I haven't seen enough of his skills outside of RBY to have too much confidence in him in this spot. He's clearly a very talented RBYer, but when was the last time you saw a good RBY player transition to the main OU tier? If anyone can do it, I guess it's Nails. We will see.

Everyone is on this 100percent guy's nuts LOL I don't really know why. I don't have too much faith in him, for obvious reasons. I really have no idea who the hell that even is. I don't know who cleann is either, but he did make top 8 of OST, so I assume he has at least some talent. I'll need to see a lot more before I can say that I'm a believer, though. Maybe he can get a win or two, I guess. The team has Mannat on the bench, who I'm sure will tryhard as per usual. He hasn't done much on the sheet, though, so it's not like he's going to salvage a poor slot. meeps is someone who can generally pick up wins in lower tiers, but I don't have much faith in his OU abilities. The last relevant bench player is Loki, who's literally an OMEGA BOOMER LOL this guy's before my time, dude jesus christ.

Overall, this team's painfully mediocre. Their best player is dice, whose nerfed by the lack of BW OU in the tournament. They have a bunch of players who have the ability to be competent, I guess...so there's that. The X factor here is Nails; maybe he can continue his ridiculous streak in SS OU and help carry the team. I don't think they'll make the playoffs.

I'm going to wait to do the tier rankings. It's hard to properly tier all of the teams until I see all of the rosters. I'll just number them for now.

Rankings

1. US Northeast
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2. US West
3. Brazil
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There's a pretty clear divide here.

4. US Midwest
5. Latin America
6. UK
7. Greece
8. China
9. India
 
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Amaranth

is a Site Content Manageris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
UPL Champion
Nails is definitely the most interesting name of the bunch. He's been an absolute force in unofficial tours lately, and has seemingly won at every turn. He's even done pretty well on the sheet lately, and also had a nice run in RBY cup. That being said, do I have a lot of faith in his SS OU abilities? I have absolutely no idea how much SS OU he's played, and I haven't seen enough of his skills outside of RBY to have too much confidence in him in this spot. He's clearly a very talented RBYer, but when was the last time you saw a good RBY player transition to the main OU tier? If anyone can do it, I guess it's Nails. We will see.
This man was literally the best VGC player in the entire north american continent in 2017. Patch up your player knowledge if you want to armchair this hard, Nails will steamroll this tour if he cares

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Good luck Italy :heart:
 
This man was literally the best VGC player in the entire north american continent in 2017. Patch up your player knowledge if you want to armchair this hard, Nails will steamroll this tour if he cares

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Good luck Italy :heart:
I obviously know Nails is good at VGC LOL I literally met him irl for a VGC tour. I don't trust Doubles mains to transition to OU either; I'd say that's even less relevant, honestly lol. I don't think a single VGC player has ever been good at OU.
 

Amaranth

is a Site Content Manageris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
UPL Champion
I obviously know Nails is good at VGC LOL I literally met him irl for a VGC tour. I don't trust Doubles mains to transition to OU either; I'd say that's even less relevant, honestly lol. I don't think a single VGC player has ever been good at OU.
Ok so you understand that this man has jumped from being one of the best at VGC to being one of the best at RBY, two completely different metagames, and you still doubt his adaptability to new tiers. Nice one, flawless logic
 
Ok so you understand that this man has jumped from being one of the best at VGC to being one of the best at RBY, two completely different metagames, and you still doubt his adaptability to new tiers. Nice one, flawless logic
We've seen a lot of Smogon tour players successfully transition to VGC; people like blarajan, Cased, sogeking, and Nails were never even top tier OU players when they did so. When Nails went to VGC, he was a pretty mediocre player who had never really done anything notable in tours; he even had a pretty negative sheet record. think it's pretty easy for a good Smogon player to be good at VGC if they want to be, honestly. I don't think it's that hard to get pretty decent at RBY OU, either. He's obviously gotten better than decent lately, but I don't think adapting to that metagame requires an insane amount of skill or anything. I managed to get to a respectable level of competency with very little practice. It does take skill to reach the peak of the tier, but to me, OU is a completely different playing field, and the playerbase is at a much higher level than what you'll find in RBY. Obviously, it's still a credit to Nails that he was able to get to the top of the table in both of these wildly different environments, but I think being good at OU requires a different level of skill. These tiers are also extremely different than OU; it's not like his past experiences are going to help him succeed here. By your logic, Nails should be a top BW / ADV player on the site since he's been playing those for years, but he clearly isn't. I'll believe it when I see it.
 
I would like to thank everyone in team UK for reporting the attempt to cheat. Good to see that people still value integrity and have self respect. I wish everyone on ps realise the fact that, although getting a win or even getting a cup sounds great is not worth if you have to cheat. I mean you should respect yourself enough to not be someone’s puppet(getting ghosted) or have to rely on any other unfair means to win. And if someone does offer to help, remember that they have no respect for you and it’s better to not even associate with users like these. Thank you everyone for reading and I hope we’ll have a great World Cup experience.
 
NYANPASU AND WELCOME TO PART 3 OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
I was going to do 4 teams at a time, but I did 5 yesterday, so I guess I can do 3 right now.

Germany:

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Germany is back, this time with a much shakier roster. The team was obviously hurt by the World Cup format change, and it remains to be seen whether their SS OU knowledge is up to snuff. At first glance, the team appears to rather mediocre, though.

The headliner here is xray. A man always known for his ORAS OU talents, he displayed an inability to successfully shift those talents over to SM OU when it was the main metagame. He proved his doubters wrong with a nice SPL showing in SS OU, though, albeit with a fair amount of luck on his side. I still have a fair amount more faith in his ORAS abilities than this SS ones, but I still think he's good enough at the tier to go positive.

After xray, things get dire pretty quickly. The next best player on this team is maybe Conflict? LOL The GSC OU superstar certainly hasn't been at his best lately, and struggled mightily in his home tier with a 3-6 record last SPL. He might be a bit washed, even though I will continue to support him in that tier for a fair bit longer. Now, do I have any faith that he can succeed in SS OU? Well, I suppose the metagames are more similar than some people would like LOL That being said, given his recent struggles, it would be a bit surprising to see him put forth a splendid performance in this tournament. He did have a nice OST run before losing to marcop in Round 7 of the tournament, so I guess there's that. His season could really go either way, but I'd be more inclined to expect a negative record than a positive one. After Conflict, we have Relous. He had an impressive 6-3 showing in Snake, but crash landed back to earth with a disastrous 2-7 SPL campaign. Considering his lack of real tangible success prior to his breakout Snake campaign, I find it hard to have too much faith in his abilities right now. The team is also starting Erzengel, who is coming off a decent 5-4 showing in his debut performance on the big stage. He did make some questionable plays, but he at least displayed some form of talent. I'll need to see more before I'm ready to really trust him, though. Like the rest of these players, his season could really go either way. The last relevant player here is Steve Angello, a crust player who managed to finish with a 3-4 record last SPL. It would be very surprising to see him do well, but maybe he can go 1-2 or something.

The other two here are pretty irrelevant. I think AdvanceShip made the playoffs of some tour a few seasons ago? I might be wrong on that. They also have a player who literally has 'RANDOM' in his name; at least he's aware of his status on the site, I suppose. Their bench is also a meme, featuring a bunch of randoms and an unviable 2-11 RU mainer. Yikes.

I mean, it's pretty clear that this team is trash LOL We don't really need to go too much more in depth here.

Italy



The most hyped team of the tournament is finally here. The masses are tired of US East, and everyone seems to be wanting FILO Gang to seize the throne. With a pretty stacked tiebreak and respectable pieces littered through the lineup, perhaps they can provide a challenge to the kings of World Cup.

After a dominant SPL showing, you all know that I consumed a fair bit of the Empo kool-aid. He's clearly a threat, as further demonstrated by his ridiculous Smogon Tour run this season. The team will need him to smash the competition if they want to take down East,and with a 17-7 sheet record in the past year, along with a tiebreak win under his belt, Empo is in prime position to succeed. He even put on a clinic in Corona PL, managing to nab 17 wins in 19 games. He should obviously do well; I'd predict him to get around 4 wins, and maybe even 5 if the team advances far enough. FILO Gang is also starting Clicking, a sheet warrior who I have bolded a fair amount in the past. He had an amazing Snake III run and won OLT last year as well; I think he'll easily smash the competition. Prinz is also someone I have a lot of respect for. I bold him a great deal; I don't know how experienced he is in SS OU, but he was in fact a relatively prolific OU player before he turned to ADV OU in recent tours. I think he'll do pretty well also. These three form what is definitely the second best tiebreak in the tour after US East's monster core; these three musketeers will be the key to Italy's success, and I think they should help carry them pretty far in the tournament.

The last two real notable names here are Lopunny Kicks and Santu. Lopunny Kicks always had a knack for performing on the big stage, but fell back to earth with a pretty poor 3-6 showing in SPL 11. Can he prove that his SPL performance was merely a blip on the radar, and return back to his sheet-warrior ways? He's never really had a dominant tour outside of Snake II, so I'm a bit more skeptical of his ability to perform here than I would be otherwise. He did manage to make it to Round 8 of OST before losing to Insult, but his run was EXTREMELY questionable (wildcat formation, drowsy cheesecake, rewer, gochan, robjr, devinsmokesyall....like come on people LOOOOL). There's not a single a good player on that list. Either way, I think he'll do decently. Unlike Lopunny Kicks, Santu is coming off an impressive 6-3 run in SPL. I was never a big believer in him before that tour, though, so I'll need to see a lot more before I'm ready to have faith in him. He did do well in Corona PL, so I guess there's that; he also managed to make the playoffs in the most recent Smogon Tour. He did lose to Eeveeto in Round 1, though, so like...yeah. His season could really go either way.

The last 3 slots on the team are a lot more suspect. Raiza is currently 8-14 on the sheet, and is coming off an atrocious 3-8 showing in BW OU last SPL; as been stated countless times, though, he was the victim of some unfortunate luck against him. That being said, he did make some misplays as well, and it's not like he's really done anything notable on Smogon anyway. He only managed to go 4-4 against a bunch of PU mainers in Snake, like come on LOL I'm certainly not a believer here; maybe he can get a win or two. The team is also starting Rexus, who mysterious disappeared in Snake III. A PU mainer, he has hardly accomplished anything on the big stage, with his greatest accomplishment being his OLT playoffs berth last season. I really don't have any faith here. The last starting slot on the roster belongs to Kebab mlml, who followed up a poor 2-4 Snake with a surprising 3-1 SPL performance. Again, I'll need to see a lot more before I'm ready to have any faith in him at all. The biggest X factor here is Will of Fire, a teambuilding mastermind who took home the cash prize in the prestigious blunder tour last year. He really hasn't done much on Smogon, but he clearly has some talent. Perhaps he can salvage one of these awful slots if necessary, but again, I'll need to see more from him before I'm ready to give him my vote of confidence.

Overall, this is easily a playoff team. I don't think anyone is questioning that. Do they have enough talent to beat East? On a good day, they certainly can, especially with their dynamite tiebreak. That being said, the team has a few too many question marks for my liking. I don't have a huge amount of faith in any of these players besides the top 3, and, to a lesser extent, Lopunny Kicks. FILO GANG will need some of their lesser players, as well as the enigmatic Will of Fire, to step up, if they really want a chance at taking down the kings of the tournament. There's still pretty clearly a gap between them and Northeast in my mind.

France



Year after year, France winds up being the most underachieving team of the tournament. They always have a great deal of talent, led by two of the greatest players of all time in Ojama and McMeghan, and yet they somehow miss the playoffs more than half the time. Even when they make the playoffs, they never do anything notable. With the departure of both of their icons, can the team somehow make some noise in the tournament?

The headline players here are Cdumas, Sacri', and Welli0u. Cdumas was one of the biggest sheet warriors on the site before his rather unsightly SPL X performance, where he basically cancered on the BIGs and choked multiple games. He hasn't had anywhere near the same level of success since that tourament, only managing to accrue 6 wins in 13 appearances since then. It would be foolish to write off such a talented player simply based on a slump, though. I will temper my expectations a bit, but I would still expect him to go positive. Sacri', on the other hand, has been white hot lately. The former UU mainer is 13-6 in his past 2 tours, and has garnered a great deal of respect from the community. He should definitely go positive, and even has a shot of going 3-0 depending on his bracket luck. Lastly, Welli0u is one of the biggest sheet warriors on Smogon right now. After years of mediocrity, he came out of nowhere to post 9 wins in Snake, and followed it up with 7 wins in SPL. He's clearly on fire right now, and might honestly be the best player on the team, a notion that would have seemed absolutely blasphemous a few years ago. If France wants to make the playoffs, these three players are going to have to get around 7 wins combined or more.

The other notable names here are Akola, BIHI, and Kickasser. Akola is a boomer I remember from back on the PO ladder, who returned out of nowhere recently and surprised everyone by making the semifinals of OST. As is the case with SEEMINGLY FUCKING EVERYONE WHO DID WELL IN THIS TOUR, THOUGH...HE DIDN'T PLAY ANYONE GOOD LOOOL (cheese5555, Jamez155, Namranan, Fantos13, Bad Player, Curtain, Baoba, Giannis Antetokommo-o, Sjneider). OST runs are definitely a meme. Are you kidding me? LOL At least he beat Sjneider, who's decent at the very least. But the rest of these goons? My god HE EVEN BEAT SOMEONE WHO NAMED THEMSELVES 'BAD PLAYER' LMAO YOU CANT BE SERIOUS!!!! Anyway, color me skeptical. His season could really go either way, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him get smashed. The crust rule is no joke. This man's last team tour was World Cup 2013 LOOL my god. Next up, we have another crust user in BIHI. Everyone seems to be on BIHI's nuts now, and they all seem to think that their opinions are validated by his 6-3 SPL run...BUT HE WAS LITERALLY IN THE THINKING GEN LOL come on AND he had BKC support. I'm sure as hell not drinking the BIHI kool-aid yet. I'd give him the same chance of doing well as Akola. The last notable name here is Kickasser, a player who has had some decent performances on the big stage in the past. I think he'll probably do decently.

The last two slots on the team are a bit of a disaster. They're apparently starting some Rocket League prodigy, so I guess there's that LOL I don't really have any faith here. They're also, FOR WHATEVER REASON, STARTING REDEMPTION OVER CORAZAN LOOOL THE DISRESPECT WTF!! Redemption is definitely unviable. Have you seen this guy play? Corazan had an impressive run in Stour; he should at least be starting. He did well in Snake, albeit with a fair amount of luck. Maybe he could get a win, which is certainly more than Redemption is capable of.

Overall, this team does have some talent, but they also have a fair amount of question marks. I'm sure this is one of the teams a lot of people will pick to make the playoffs because they think Akola and BIHI are amazing or some shit, but I don't buy it. They do have playoff upside, but this team isn't rife with talent or anything. Again, color me skeptical.

Overall Rankings:

1. US Northeast
----------------------------
2. Italy
3. US West
4. Brazil
-----------------------------
5. France
6. US Midwest
7. Latin America
8. UK
9. Germany
10. Greece
11. China
12. India
 
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watermess

What? Never seen an idiot before?
is a Tutoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Gandhi supports team UK

did you know Gandhi studied in the UK?
did you know Gandhi preferred studying in UK universities over Indian ones?
did you know that there are around 12,000 curry restaurants across Great Britain?
did you know that the distance from London, Heathrow to Benidorm is 1,250.4 miles?

is all of this a coincidence? I think not - Lads The evidence is damning, its all there, there is not a doubt in my mind.

Even Gandhi knew the lads would win.

Not convinced yet?
Here's a real quote from Gandhi himself so you know I'm not lying.

scenes.jpg

Big up roadman Mahatma Gandhi for showing his support while we secure this tremendous Dub
 
Didn't know Gandhi went to UK to study. Maybe nothing significant happened there. Here, in our textbooks it's only about him studying in South Africa and fighting against racism.
Curry is definitely tastier than beans on bread.
Benidorm isn't Indian, what ya doing bruh? :blobshrug:

Yeah, Gandhi knew that the hundred thousand (they call sprinkles in Britain as this lol) lads would win so he went on to study moral ethics of bible to use against them in his satyagraha.
Speaking of Queen Elizabeth, she supported our Indian Cricket Team to get our fellow men's lagaan maaf, fell in love with an Indian villager and even participating in Hindu chants.
May the team with better cheer leader win, that's all, no hate. :)
 
YAHALLO AND WELCOME TO PART 4 OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
I was going to wait for more teams, but with Round 1 being so far away and teams like Canada spending 38492890 years trying everyone out, I feel like this will take too long. I'll just do South now.

US South:



South was eliminated last year in heartbreaking fashion, managing to land in a round-robin tiebreaker with US West and Spain. Unfortunately for South, FlamingVictini was unable to participate in the tiebreak since, as we all know, he's the busiest man on planet earth. The team put forth a valiant effort, even being rewarded for the (legitimately genius) decision of picking RBY into US West. Unfortunately for them, though, TDK was unable to return to form, struggling mightily outside of his lone victory against M Dragon. Can the team surpass last year's edition and make the playoffs? At first glance, it looks like they have a pretty damn good shot.

The headline players here are Eo, FlamingVictini, and TDK. Eo is a boomer who has had a resurgence in the past year or two, and has become a widely respected battler in the newer generations as of late. It is a bit concerning that he struggled with SS in SPL, but honestly, I'm still a big believer in both his in-game talent and his creativity in the builder. His wins always seem to be pretty impressive to me, and I think he has a pretty good shot of succeeding in this tour. FlamingVictini is definitely the star of the show, though. The recent OST champion is a noted sheet God, compiling a ridiculous 35-15 record over the course of his career. You could honestly make the argument that he's the best SS OU player on Smogon right now. I think he has a pretty good shot of getting the maximum amount of wins possible. The player that will basically decide the course of South's campaign, though, is TDK. The former superstar has infamously been in a slump as of late, even though he has turned things around a bit with a combined 8-7 record in the past 2 tournaments. Those performances are still a far cry from the dominant runs he used to be known for. I will temper my expectations a bit due to his lack of recent results, but I still believe that TDK is a good player; I think he should definitely be able to go positive, and who knows, maybe this is the tour we see the 30k TDK emerge once again.

The team is also filled with three pretty solid complementary pieces in Christo, FMG, JAMVAD, and d0nut. Christo is a UU mainer who I've been a massive fan of for a long time; he proved that he was no one-trick pony with an impressive 7-3 run in SPL. I'm still not as sold on his ability to dominate in OU as I am in his ability to dominate lower tiers, so I will temper my expectations a bit here. That being said, as arguably the main conductor of the Christo bandwagon, I think he'll definitely go positive, and has a decent shot of putting up an amazing record. Next up, we have FMG, who broke onto the tour scene with an unblemished 5-0 run in SPL X. South put his faith in him a bit too much last year, though, as he crumbled a bit under the tiebreak pressure and failed to help the team advance to the playoffs. That being said, I still think he's a solid player who should go positive. The real X-factor here, though, is JAMVAD. While the fake jamvad has been making waves lately, getting all the way to the OST finals before being brought down by FV, the original jamvad has been waiting in the shadows, ready to strike. There is definitely some concern with the crust rule here, but he did manage to go 2-1 last year after a long hiatus while employing some pretty unorthodox sets. I've always been a big jamvad believer, and honestly, I think he'll go positive this tour. That might be a risky thing to believe, but I'll trust the innovator to pull through. Speaking of X-factors, d0nut's performance could also go a long way in determining the team's fate. He's been an underrated player for a while now, and is easily better than most of the GSCers who signed up for this year's SPL. Can he transition to OU? Maybe? I think he's definitely a solid battler, and I'd bank on him succeeding more often than not. His season could definitely go either way, but I'd learn towards him performing decently rather than poorly.

The last slot on the team is easily the most questionable. Currently, TPP is the starter. Now, who exactly is TPP you may ask? Well...

He's currently tied for LAST PLACE ON THE SHEET LOOOOOOOL This DEFINITELY cannot be a good sign. Now, I do remember that he got unlucky during a fair amount of his games, but either way, there's no evidence at all that he can succeed on the big stage. The team could turn to HSA, a player who has seemingly lost all of his luster once more after a brief resurgence last year. They could also turn to jacob, who, like TPP, has accomplished pretty much nothing. The real question here is....will the team turn to njnp? No Justice No Peace is definitely a player to be feared at times; he did win OST after all. He definitely has a ridiculously low floor, but honestly, I'd bank on his upside at some point. It's too bad that they don't have a great up-and-comer like Alstone; I wonder why they decided to pick Samqian over such a threat.

Overall, I think this roster's pretty amazing, honestly. They have arguably the best SS OU player on the site (I mean, I personally would still take ABR and John over FV, but yeah), and they have a host of veterans and solid pieces to help them make a run to the top. Their tiebreak is immensely threatening if TDK can get back to form, or if someone like Jamvad or FMG has a great showing. While this tiebreak's not as good as Empo / Tricking / Prinz, I like the rest of the team far more than Italy's roster. Screw it bros LOL South's the second best team. They're players aren't proven enough lately to be in the same tier as Northeast, but I would honestly be pretty shocked if this team didn't have a good run in this tournament. Congratulations, Dave, you finally have a good team for the first time in 3 years.

1. US Northeast
----------------------------
2. US South
3. Italy
4. US West
5. Brazil
-----------------------------
6. France
7. US Midwest
8. Latin America
9. UK
10. Germany
11. Greece
12. China
13. India
 
Last edited:
YAHALLO AND WELCOME TO PART 4 OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
I was going to wait for more teams, but with Round 1 being so far away and teams like Canada spending 38492890 years trying everyone out, I feel like this will take too long. I'll just do South now.

US South:



South was eliminated last year in heartbreaking fashion, managing to land in a round-robin tiebreaker with US West and Spain. Unfortunately for South, FlamingVictini was unable to participate in the tiebreak since, as we all know, he's the busiest man on planet earth. The team put forth a valiant effort, even being rewarded for the (legitimately genius) decision of picking RBY into US West. Unfortunately for them, though, TDK was unable to return to form, struggling mightily outside of his lone victory against M Dragon. Can the team surpass last year's edition and make the playoffs? At first glance, it looks like they have a pretty damn good shot.

The headline players here are Eo, FlamingVictini, and TDK. Eo is a boomer who has had a resurgence in the past year or two, and has become a widely respected battler in the newer generations as of late. It is a bit concerning that he struggled with SS in SPL, but honestly, I'm still a big believer in both his in-game talent and his creativity in the builder. His wins always seem to be pretty impressive to me, and I think he has a pretty good shot of succeeding in this tour. FlamingVictini is definitely the star of the show, though. The recent OST champion is a noted sheet God, compiling a ridiculous 35-15 record over the course of his career. You could honestly make the argument that he's the best SS OU player on Smogon right now. I think he has a pretty good shot of getting the maximum amount of wins possible. The player that will basically decide the course of South's campaign, though, is TDK. The former superstar has infamously been in a slump as of late, even though he has turned things around a bit with a combined 8-7 record in the past 2 tournaments. Those performances are still a far cry from the dominant runs he used to be known for. I will temper my expectations a bit due to his lack of recent results, but I still believe that TDK is a good player; I think he should definitely be able to go positive, and who knows, maybe this is the tour we see the 30k TDK emerge once again.

The team is also filled with three pretty solid complementary pieces in Christo, FMG, JAMVAD, and d0nut. Christo is a UU mainer who I've been a massive fan of for a long time; he proved that he was no one-trick pony with an impressive 7-3 run in SPL. I'm still not as sold on his ability to dominate in OU as I am in his ability to dominate lower tiers, so I will temper my expectations a bit here. That being said, as arguably the main conductor of the Christo bandwagon, I think he'll definitely go positive, and has a decent shot of putting up an amazing record. Next up, we have FMG, who broke onto the tour scene with an unblemished 5-0 run in SPL X. South put his faith in him a bit too much last year, though, as he crumbled a bit under the tiebreak pressure and failed to help the team advance to the playoffs. That being said, I still think he's a solid player who should go positive. The real X-factor here, though, is JAMVAD. While the fake jamvad has been making waves lately, getting all the way to the OST finals before being brought down by FV, the original jamvad has been waiting in the shadows, ready to strike. There is definitely some concern with the crust rule here, but he did manage to go 2-1 last year after a long hiatus while employing some pretty unorthodox sets. I've always been a big jamvad believer, and honestly, I think he'll go positive this tour. That might be a risky thing to believe, but I'll trust the innovator to pull through. Speaking of X-factors, d0nut's performance could also go a long way in determining the team's fate. He's been an underrated player for a while now, and is easily better than most of the GSCers who signed up for this year's SPL. Can he transition to OU? Maybe? I think he's definitely a solid battler, and I'd bank on him succeeding more often than not. His season could definitely go either way, but I'd learn towards him performing decently rather than poorly.

The last slot on the team is easily the most questionable. Currently, TPP is the starter. Now, who exactly is TPP you may ask? Well...

He's currently tied for LAST PLACE ON THE SHEET LOOOOOOOL This DEFINITELY cannot be a good sign. Now, I do remember that he got unlucky during a fair amount of his games, but either way, there's no evidence at all that he can succeed on the big stage. The team could turn to HSA, a player whose seemingly lost all of his luster once more after a brief resurgence last year. They could also turn to jacob, who, like TPP, has accomplished pretty much nothing. The real question here is....will the team turn to njnp? No Justice No Peace is definitely a player to be feared at times; he did win OST after all. He definitely has a ridiculously low floor, but honestly, I'd bank on his upside at some point. It's too bad that they don't have a great up-and-comer like Alstone; I wonder why they decided to pick Samqian over such a threat.

Overall, I think this roster's pretty amazing, honestly. They have arguably the best SS OU player on the site (I mean, I personally would still take ABR and John over FV, but yeah), and they have a host of veterans and solid pieces to help them make a run to the top. Their tiebreak is immensely threatening if TDK can get back to form, or if someone like Jamvad or FMG has a great showing. While this tiebreak's not as good as Empo / Tricking / Prinz, I like the rest of the team far more than Italy's roster. Screw it bros LOL South's the second best team. They're players aren't proven enough lately to be in the same tier as Northeast, but I would honestly be pretty shocked if this team didn't have a good run in this tournament. Congratulations, Dave, you finally have a good team for the first time in 3 years.

1. US Northeast
----------------------------
2. US South
3. Italy
4. US West
5. Brazil
-----------------------------
6. France
7. US Midwest
8. Latin America
9. UK
10. Germany
11. Greece
12. China
13. India
 
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