Hello Pokémaniacs!! I am completely bedazzled right now after our win but I would like to share my happinness with you all and do BIG and deserved shoutouts to everybody that helped us winning this tour.
First of all, some general thoughts. It has been an awesome tour and I am so glad to share this win with my mates. Many of you know me as a player that loves spamming stall and laddering in different tiers. However, I wanted to participate again in a big tour like this one and my final wish was to finally win something after all these years. This 2021 has been very exciting for me personally, as I am now switching to a new life (after finishing my PhD and going to live with my gf, next step is the same as yours
Rav3 :P) so I wanted to give a good try to big tours and doing so focusing in one tier. I chose ZU due to my experience, as you may know, and because I love you all after coming here like two years ago. I must tell you that, afaik, ZU community (and NFE too) are the healthiest communities in Smogon. Thus, first shoutouts are for all of you reading this, thanks for your direct or indirect help on boosting the importance of this tier in Smogon.
Secondly and most importantly, big thanks to all my Fiery Flamencos mates. This was a tough, but funny tour. We worked a lot, and when I say a lot, is A LOT. As far as I know, some people that came afterwards to help our team mentioned that we were really active in our teamcord, not only in weekends but during all the week. We scoutted, prepared, tested, prepared again, and discussed like there was no tomorrow. I am a team-player and that can explain why I enjoyed this tour much more than individual tours. But part of this was due to the healthy community we created. We created a ton of teams (
kay TWiTT were our main builders, although
daniYSB did a great job too when kay was away). So, big general thanks to all of you and in special to
DurzaOffTopic which I think it was our first time talking 1v1 outside forums and showdown. Thanks for trusting me when nobody did (drafting me) and subbing me during the first weeks. I think that some people believe you are rough sometimes (and you are tbh ahha) but talking 1v1 you are a great person and a great coach. You do what you do to win, but you do it as a person. I always shared your decisions and were right calls. I think you did an amazing draft in general (beyond me) and our win highly demonstrates this. Your moral support was beyond expectations too. I hope I can learn more SM with you and talk as friends from now on.
Now I would like to go from one to another as they highly deserved this:
kay - Amazing builder and a great person. You helped me learning new lines, or at least, improving them. As you know, I am a stall player but with your teams I felt with confidence to play any style you decided because your teams are great and always make sense. I think sometimes you pushed your self quite a bit but I think that this competitive sense helped us winning this tour. Thanks and I hope we can build together again soon.
daniYSB - I think you had some bad luck this tour but you are a consistent tour player and you are growing very fast. I remember when I saw you laddering for the first time in ZU and now you are a main here (and in other tiers). You deserve this win although I know you do not feel as happy as you would like but you worked a lot here all weeks.
Rav3 - It has been great discussing with you SM teams and testing practically every week. I hope your new life now is going great :) I like the way you play and I really appreciate we have had this chance of playing together in a tour bc we have known each other for a while.
TWiTT - Oh man. What a MONSTER. I think you were the savauge pick for this ZUPL. You built a ton in ORAS but also you helped in all tiers just discussing, testing, or sharing teams (like in BW). I know you did not have that much time you wanted, but if you did all this job with only that quantity of time, I do not know what you are capable of with much more. I really enjoyed all of our discussions and testings (because you were my doll for SS every week I played and I was yours for your ORAS teams and we were the only european ones in our team if I am not wrong haha). Now I have to send you my thesis and I hope the best of luck for yours and I would like to meet you in the foreseeable future in Sweden (bc I want to visit it soon). Thanks buddy, with you I gained a good friend.
Procrastinasian - Buddy, you worked quite hard and tried to improve as much as I tried too. You deserved this first tour win (mine too) and I hope the best of luck finding a good job. I think your professional career has so many opportunities out there, you only need to search and wait for the right moment to come (as with wincons haha). I am glad we played together this year :).
avarice - You did an amazing job, coming from nowhere and just bringing wins and cheesing. Thanks for all your help you greedy guy. Cof*grigus for the win!
Heysup - You are the king. Kingsup is reigning rn. Jokes aside, with you in our team we were leading 1-0 each week. That was an amazing feeling and I hope I helped you just a bit testing each week. I did my best :).
roxiee watashi - You were the tour players of this tour which were able to accept teams and adapt in every situation. You did amazingly well, as expected, and I am glad we played together because one always learn from the big tour players. With you roxiee we interacted a bit more because I did some scouting and teams for you. I hope you enjoyed my help.
Greybaum Jett Tuthur Thanks to all of you for your moral support and criticism, it was funny to share with you discussions and moments. Thanks
cleffa for the amazing banner :) I loved it!. Also thanks to everyone from other teams that helped me testing (
Drud czim) and specially to
thebtboy with who I had some trouble but I know he is a great guy who only likes joking. I am glad you didn't get any punishment after all.
Finally, my last thanks to my gf which backed me up during all these weeks and watched some of my games to do moral support. She always tried to help in some way or another and celebrated our win as she was part of the team. I am glad I meet you and that we share our lifes with each other.
I hope all of you enjoyed my winning tape with champagne (champain) as I promised early in this tour that I would do if we won. It has been a great and funny experience, I played the best as I knew and I did so while working and being in holidays in Greece. Unfogettable experience overall.
Love you all,
Jordi.