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Finals Smogon Champions League III - Finals [Won by Studio Gible]
- Thread starter Theia
- Start date
C un truc de psychopathe de parler comme ça de son joueur/mate en public mdrrr ça aurait été l'inverse t'aurais bien bavé partti'm not really one for shoutouts. i didn't make one after winning spl; but 2 trophies in a year, and semifinals in wcop (oceania's best ever finish in the modern era), 2023 has been a good year for me as far as pokemon is concerned. as a result, i have decided (along with shoutouts) to write a bit of a retrospective of my time on smogon so far. if you don't want to read it then feel free to just skip to the team shoutouts or whatever, but when other people have done things similar to this i have always found them to be fascinating reads and so i'm actually somewhat excited by the prospect of writing this out.
i'll start off strong, sure to impress my many detractors. perhaps this is just my ego talking, but i think i deserve more credit than i am often given, considering the trajectory that my tournament life has taken on smogon. i started out in officials before i could reach 1800 on the ou ladder, not as a function of the fact that i was in any way ready to be playing in official tournaments, but because the oceania world cup team was so bad that they just needed a body to be thrown into the ring to be obliterated by Tricking. while it will perhaps not continue to be the case going forward with the influx of new oceania talent (March Fires, Aberforth, and even newer guys like Leavers), i always felt as though, since the reintroduction of current gen world cup, i had a good shout to be one of, if not the single most important world cup players on smogon, relative to their value to their team (in close contention with freezai for india, at least). i feel as though many of the top teams could lose their best player and keep humming along at a very similar level, but in the case of oceania i felt personally responsible for a great deal of the success that we managed to achieve in that time. i was never the best player, i never had the best record. sure, i had improved considerably from my 1-8 beginnings, but that is a catastrophically low bar (which i would continue to routinely fall under for another few years). what i always liked to hang my hat on was the idea that i was the hardest worker. for multiple years straight i would invite more than 100 oceanic players from across the forums, encouraging them to try out, providing them with teams (if necessary), and then would spend time sorting through the hundreds of replays to see who we would invite back, who we needed to see more from, and who to keep an eye out for in future years. i always found it extremely insulting hearing other teams minimise the success of oceania.. saying stuff like 'yeah we scout for players too! i had to check the playoffs of olt, and the top 16 for smogon tour & ost - you're not the only team that does scouting! if you want the success, you just need to work harder' while we were starting a fucking pixelmon player that we found through tryouts, a guy who had never played a smogon tournament before. once the tournament began, i built or prepared almost every single world cup team for all 8 slots, every year oceania making playoffs, or finishing in 9th. despite year after year being ranked as one of the worst teams in the tournament, we consistently outperformed expectations.
outside of world cup, the last 3 years i have been a flex player, lining up in whatever role managers & team would ask of me.. and while i haven't been hitting home runs every week, i have taken a number of decent scalps, and am batting at .500 playing a number of tiers i am usually not particularly experienced in. overall, i think the transformation from categorically smogon's worst player of all time, to a .500 tour player with a trophy both managing and playing shows both how much i've improved from where i started, and also highlights what i believe are some of my best assets. i consider myself to be a hard worker, a good leader, and a team player. coming out with a win in my first ever proper managerial experience is, to me, not a fluke. i think i have put in the work & am deserving of what i have achieved.
i have fundamental limits as a player, i am always working to improve them, but i feel as though, realistically, i will never truly be a top player. while i would consider myself more patient than the average player, a factor that i try to use to my advantage where possible, i am often shortsighted & do not display good game sense. i know i have the capacity to play good games, or even to have a good season, but watching players like roro or tricking string together tournament after tournament of non-stop hits makes me unreasonably jealous. it's a level i wish to reach one day, but i don't have high hopes i'm going to get there.
finally, directing the focus away from mons & more towards me as a person; i am aware that i am somewhat of a contentious figure (though i am also aware some of this stems from people just wanting to belittle me for being bad at the game). i have gotten into my fare share of arguments, or have managed to piss people off for one reason or another. regarding that, i just wanted to say that there is very rarely malice or mal-intent behind anything i say. i'm sure anyone who knows me well, especially the guys from the ferk, would tell you that regardless of how much i can get on people's nerves, i am never trying to be toxic or exclusionary for the sake of it. i know i have a bitter & negative sense of humour. i consider myself to be honest person, but i am fundamentally unserious. i like to treat pokemon, and smogon, by extension, with the amount of gravitas that i think it deserves; very little. i like to say what's on my mind, occasionally to my detriment; i know it can rub people the wrong way. if i have had a negative interaction with you in the past and you think i have treated you unfairly, or you think i hate you, it is almost certainly nothing personal on my end. if you're interested in reaching out (or flaming me publicly, if that's your preference) i'm happy to hear it.
lastly, before i get into the gibles deep dive, i'd like to give some rapid-fire shoutouts to a few people that aren't in the team list, but have made my smogon experience so far an enjoyable one;
Aliss // 39 appreciates how positive & friendly you seemingly always are to me for no reason... a shame you suck at mons, but at least you're the 2-time!
Amaranth // i wouldn't consider us to be friends per se, we definitely don't agree on a lot of things. however, you gave me my first real break in spl, and seemingly always supported my endeavours in tournaments. i don't think i could justifiably say i'd be where i am right now in the timeline if not for your support as a player, a manager, or as a td
damien the genius // compulsive liar. browser discord user. i-kiribati. genius. mocap actor. fortnite pro. bumbling idiot
ez // you were probably my best friend in this community for like 5 years. i find your social climber tendencies extremely annoying & unbecoming, as a result we kinda grew apart and don't really talk too much anymore. fundamentally i think you are a good guy & i don't harbour any ill will towards you. i hope you are finding success as a unite main (?)
McMeghan // i have told you this plenty of times before, but you are my favourite player of all time. your creativity is boundless and you never fail to provide a spectacle when you take to the field. it was an extremely cool experience to team with you, not only because i thought it would never happen, but also because you are an extremely chill and fun guy to be around. i felt as though we meshed and got along very well, you seemed to vibe with my sense of humour too which was cool. relative to a lot of other top players that i have teamed with, you seemed to have a much more carefree & relatable (to me) approach to the game, which i really respected and appreciated. i wish you success in your future smogon endeavours as well as in life. much love
Nat // you have a worryingly unhealthy & tenuous relationship with pokemon, seemingly emblematic of larger issues. the fact that you take pokemon perhaps more seriously than anybody i have ever met, while i do quite the opposite, it seem like miracle that we get along at all. i consider you to be one of my best friends and i love & care about you deeply. i'm sure you know this already but i am here for you whenever you need it
Specs // i hope you are doing well, whatever you're doing now. i miss you buddy
talah // our entire relationship is seemingly founded on talking about kpop & kpop news (and maybe a mention of pokemon once a year). i haven't heard from you in a bit & your discord profile is now blank so i'm thinking perhaps you've decided to head out. if so, it was a pleasure hanging out with you so much, good luck with whatever you have going on
Tom Bus // ... and there he is! and there he is... and that is it! thats the guy!
Tony // i don't know you very well either, but i've had a bare few conversations with you about things perhaps a little too serious to be chatting about with a smogon random. i appreciate your sage advice & wisdom.
vesper // just heard you beat finchinator in some tryout games for central? nice work man!
lastly, to touch once more on the ferk . you guys are definitely the people i interact with the most. i would say the majority of my time not spent working is probably spent in a call, or playing a game with you guys. you are a fundamental part of the reason that i am still on this site; i love & appreciate all of you very much and whole-heartedly consider you guys my real, true friends.
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so... gibles. we definitely didn't have the best team in the tournament, either on paper, or in-game, but you don't need to be the best team in order to win it. we were lucky to have, in my opinion, a relatively strong matchup spread vs both the platoons & the islanders (i think we would've really struggled had we faced the terrors, as we showed during the regular season). but, you can only play the teams that appear in front of you, and so despite a number of shaky performances & plenty of inner season turmoil, i think it's fair to say that when it came time to show what we were worth; we did enough to be called deserving winners.
Cam // hello cammy. i genuinely don't know what you did for the team that was mons related. however, your 3 key abilities (getting in the call, posting gifs of otters, posting pictures of beer) were definitely important factors in creating a cohesive & fun team environment. your clutch lc loss really opened our eyes to the fact that the lc slot was doomed, i appreciate you taking one for the team there. you seem like a fun guy.. i hope you found this season fun and rewarding enough, even if you didn't get in the lineup in the tiers you wanted. enjoy the trophy and be sure to let me know how that 'fuck false' tattoo comes along... i'm sure you could get the rbyers & dppers to pay for it
cleann // THIS 99 OVERALL DEMIGOD INDIAN BUILD DUNKS ON EVERYBODY IN SCL, SAVES 2 WINLESS SLOTS, AND HAS ACCESS TO THE CLUTCH BADGE, ALLOWING IT TO PULL UP TO THE SCL PLAYOFFS AND WIN DO-OR-DIE GAMES TO SAVE YOUR SEASON -- obviously one of my besties.. i had said if i ever managed a tour that i was going to beg you to sign up and somehow the plan paid off. you said it best yourself, you are a chat presence specialist. I was constantly surprised & impressed by your funny gifs and timely emoji reactions. i cannot believe you managed to get a win in 2 different tiers considering you hadn't played mons in like 3 years, even more so considering your clear lack of skill when it comes to handling flying-type moves, but i'd like to think it goes to show that you've still got what it takes. if you can pick up sv lc & sv ru for the first time ever and bring 2 important wins... imagine what you're achieving with a whole season of hustling, grinding, and a heaping helping of kiribati pride. i would definitely consider you to be biyombo-like when it comes to your raw talent & skill for the game. congrats on the trophy. you are a king
Clementine // i found the opening handful of weeks of the season with you very frustrating. you would routinely tag and promise to get scouts done, only to almost never do them. the biggest contribution i remember you having at the start of the season was with our custom avatar (which is fire fwiw). however, your big flex mode before the season about your 'swiss army knife' skillset and how you were going to be an asset in the scout department just left me confused when i would look in the server & there were no scouts to be found. thankfully, once we got to the pointy end of the season you actually started to lock in, utilising your 459 discord servers full of pokemon emojis to provide detailed scouts for basically every single slot. hugely helpful, especially in the no replays era. i've said to you before that i think your playing skill isn't quite at the level for a tournament like this just yet, but your attitude is good & i hope at the very least this experience was enjoyable enough for to drive you to push further. congrats on the trophy
dcae // you started off with prep the way that i expected; creative offensive teams with cool techs & funky synergies. you never managed to do your prep any favours though, inexplicably tossing away your advantage week after week. a disheartening experience. eventually we sort've mutually decided that you needed to be benched, which you seemed fine with, but then your activity absolutely fell off a cliff & you turned into a categorical team cancer. you would go inactive for weeks at a time but would occasionally communicate through ninjadog via text message??? i think the thing which sucked the most was that i think you still have the capacity to be a good player, you evidently still have that creative flair & even though you seem washed at the moment you definitely showed signs of your game sense. ultimately this type of situation happening was always in the back of my mind as a possibility when i was looking to pick you up & the fault is partly on me for being so confident that ninjadog would be able to keep you in check lol. i appreciate you talking with me about your behaviour around the tour's conclusion, so you weren't fully oblivious to the situation, but i am still not thrilled with how the whole thing played out
Dr. Phd. BJ // the initial plan pre-auction was for you to dip your toes into the official scene & bring some good bench vibes; it was never in the plans for you to touch the field, especially not out of nu. however, the ru slot was dire city and so after you put your hand up we decided it'd be fine to give you a shot since things couldn't really get much worse. i think you're still quite a bit too green to be starting in a tour like this, but your chat presence & general attitude towards prep was outstanding and i'm sure everyone on the team would agree that you were a huge boon & contributed greatly to the success of our nu slot. you also had no problem vibing with me making fun of you, and you would even kick back sometimes which i found quite funny. congratulations on your doctorate & your green trophy as well
etern // despite the fact that we are both australian brothers, the 2 of us haven't really spoken a whole lot. you seem quite soft spoken, so beside bonding over making fun of nat, i don't really know you that well. the thing about you that surprised me the most was definitely the difference in your effort regarding prep & testing from wcop to scl; i absolutely did not expect you to be going this hard in prep every week after my 2 previous wcop experiences with you essentially boiled down to me passing you a team for every game (except for that time you cooked up tera water kingambit just completely out of nowhere???). your dedication with prep, alongside your hatred of the fabled avasey core were obviously huge tenets in the success of your season. the fact that you had the audacity to bring an altaria to your finals matchup, essentially playing the game 5v6, speaks to how much of a heater you were on.. nothing was going to stop you. an unexpected carry for sure. congrats on a great season & welcome to the australian new wave
Eternal Spirit // O MAGO -- it's so fun teaming with you bro. i think its the 3rd time we have teamed together (?) and i have thoroughly enjoyed it every time. your positivity is infectious, and you're such a fun & creative builder/player that i think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy watching you play. you stepped into a brand new tier in what i would say was unequivocally the most difficult pool in the tournament & managed to bring home a number of important wins. being so steady & reliable in such a competitive tier was hugely important for the success of our team. going into every game we knew we had a chance to get a win, no matter the opponent, plus we would probably get to see some funny mons and sets too lol. it was super cool to see you back in a new gen after the break, and i hope i get to team with you again in the future
Fc // i know your individual season didn't work out the way you would've liked. a 16k retain, you have set such high expectations for yourself with an establishing collection of strong tournament results (including an utter robbery of me in the wcop playoffs that i will never forget for as long as i live & breathe). for some reason my estimation of how bad your season went is somewhat at odds with your actual performance. i think it speaks to your pedigree & tenure as a player that what would be considered, for all intents & purposes, a completely average 5-6 record was sort've viewed as a failing. regardless, you saved the season with a clutch, series-saving win in the finals. we don't win this tour without that, so i'd say that was pretty neat. nice work & good luck in the future
Fogbound Lake // lossbound fake. you suck. i cannot believe you had the audacity to use a hustle pokemon (guaranteed loss) in an important playoff game. you should spend less focusing on your piss leaderboard time and put a bit more effort into doing this -> l2p
as soon as we picked up mind, you were an obvious next choice. i had teamed with you previously in scl (you played ubers back then & all i remember is you using insane crack like audino, suicune, or the dpp villain froslass) & you seemed to be vibing well in sv ou after a strong showing in wcop. you and mind clearly have great synergy, right down to the avatar choice. your game sense seems particularly strong, and you're definitely a bit of a showman, either that or you're just very good at !pick 1, 2. while your savage robbery of baloor definitely brings your rating down a peg, i still think your record is well deserved & you were instrumental in our success this season; both with the wins you brought in ou as well as your consistent prep help in ubers. thanks for the carry, congrats on a great season, the best ou record & the guarantee of an extremely entertaining game every week
GoldCat // you did almost no prep, waltzed into every game with a wo-chien semi-stall, and would proceed to get smashed because the team had no tools to effectively progress the game. you were completely unreceptive to feedback about your builds, often responding with stark phrases like "it's bad" or just "no" with no elaboration, rather than attempting to actively engage with anyone who was trying to assist you. i understand that you had said you weren't in need of dedicated support, but to avoid working with your teammates to the extent that you did was frustrating to watch. almost the entire team begged you to stop loading wo-chien balance after seeing you try to load it up again for the 3rd time in a row, and proceeded to try and move towards preparing another team. you unfortunately loaded into a mirror match (which you lost because you played less accurately than your opponent) however, the killing blow came next when you decided to drag your teammates in the ru discord, saying you were 'forced' to use a different team right before the game, seemingly insinuating the loss was the fault of the teammates who tried to help you, and not in any part due to the fact that you played worse than your opponent. this attitude was emblematic of your contributions to the team on the whole. you were completely inactive when you weren't in the starting lineup, despite multiple tags asking for your feedback & input, until around the start of the playoffs when you started helping a bare amount in the ru channel; i saw you post a team during the finals, that moment stood out to me as the most positive & helpful action you had performed all season. i don't think your season was completely irredeemable, once you hit the bench for the 2nd time you weren't actively damaging or cancerous to the team, and you even helped a little bit down the stretch. to your credit, your cheerleading during the playoffs was appreciated & i was much more contented with how you acted during the final weeks relative to how you were at the beginning of the season. regardless, you were without a doubt one of the most difficult & frustrating players i have ever shared a team with
justdrew // you are an intriguing character. despite constant reminders that someone with an unorthodox style like gama should be left to build on his own terms (unless he asks otherwise), you would constantly post completed teams & attempt to veto things he had built. all i asked you to do was be there for test games! you have an excitement for the game & desire to help that i think sometimes can be overbearing, but i know your heart is in a good place and that you are always just trying to do what you think is best for the team. i think it was fortunate that the slots you were supporting were both the carefree type of player who didn't really mind your presence in their team channel, because i know there are many other types of players who wouldn't be able to handle how much you were always trying to drive the direction of prep. i know i found it frustrating multiple times watching you try to veto perfectly fine teams that gama had built because they weren't to your liking, although gama was definitely a lot friendlier about it than i was. to your credit, your high activity was definitely a positive when it came to things like playing test games, i don't think gama would've been able to get up to speed as fast as he did if you weren't so reliably there when he was asking for people to spar with, and the same goes for ho3n. i think in general your always-on style of prep & support is going to turn some people away and burn some people out, personally it isn't my style. however, i know there are many others on smogon who prefer & appreciate this kind of style, so that's just my 2 cents. congrats on the trophy & thanks for your help
mind gaming // before the season all i really knew about you was that you won a lot of games and that you were apparently somewhat of an erratic character.. now that the tour is over i can say that i don't know much more about you because you left the server halfway through the tour, but even when you were here you didn't post any prep or use your channel at all LOL. a few people had messaged me before the auction saying that you were a unreliable character to pick up and that the possibility of you doing something like this was high (nat said you were quite similar to them in some ways -- a notion which was quickly dispelled after you proceeded to join the vc more than a dozen times in the first 2 weeks) however, neider and i had decided that risk was worth it given the absolute HEATER you had been on in both tours prior to this. suffice to say that risk paid off. overall i found you to be a lot more sociable and easygoing than what i had been lead to expect, although our first interaction (you jumping in call during the auction and deriding me for spending 36k without notifying you) definitely wasn't the smoothest of openings. i think some of your behaviour is misconstrued to be toxic or negative when it instead seems clear to me that you are extremely competitive & have a great passion for the game. the fact you managed to pump out consistently innovative & solid teams for both yourself and fog over the course of 3 months is something that i think would be very tough to manage if you didn't have a such strong competitive desire. the fact that the 2 of you combined for 18 wins speaks volumes. i'm glad you were able to defeat the tiebreak allegations with 2 massive, clutch victories. you now have a comfortable claim to the winningest individual year in team tour history, you definitely deserve this 1. thanks for the carry & congratulations
ninjadog // the most expensive 3k of all time... thankfully you managed to save a shambolic season with a clutch win right at the death. very glad the lc playoff flex worked out because going winless into a trophy would have been extremely fraudulent.. and your previous role as dcae's translator didn't seem to be pan out very well either... probably a good time for you to pick up a trophy as you seem to be entering the twilight of your career (washed). fortunately, a trophy cements you as a member of the australian new wave, acting as an inspiration & perhaps a talismanic figure for newer players such as damien the genius and drifting. anyway, good luck with the transition to vgc buddy, maybe you'll make like a morpeko and really get rolling over there, huh?
Piyush25 // soon to be just "Piyush" mods - i was impressed by your world cup performance and was very keen to pick you up, so i was relieved when i got back in the call for the last nom of the auction & was able to sneak you in before the buzzer. unfortunately in the tour you barely got to do anything with mind & fog not posting their prep lol. however, i was keen to get you in the starting lineup at some point and it was very cool to see you pick up a win. you probably need to invest a little more time into your general sense for the game.. both of your losses came as a result of some instability in your play, once in the opening & once in the endgame, but i don't think you're miles off the pace, you can definitely get there. sorry this team environment wasn't super conducive to you learning & growing as a player.. but you did get a trophy and a win, so i'd hope that was enough to be worth it
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d // neidy and i both knew we wanted you the instant your name was read off the signup sheet.. call it a soul read but somehow we knew you were going to COOK. perhaps this is revisionist history, but i had always been impressed with the level you had showed in officials, especially last year in scl. having success across multiple tiers (one of which being the om little cup) was very impressive to me and i was confident you'd be the right pick to smoothly handle such a new & volatile metagame. i know some people are put off by your sense of humour & general demeanour, not that it seems to bother you in any way, but i had always found your kinda brash & headstrong attitude quite funny. you would post a win, only to come back to the chat a day later to see we had thrown away what seemed like an insurmountable lead, you would then post a collection of ryan gosling gifs appropriate for the given situation. every week you would come in, win, leave.. and so it was very funny & memorable watching you celebrate after we finally managed to convert one of your advantages in a clutch midseason week after throwing away so many leads. you were reliable, you didn't cause any issues, and fun to team with. a shame you couldn't go for the 12-1 because in the form you're in i'm sure you would've managed to pick it up. congratulations on a brilliant season & thanks for the carry
Sjneider // i believe you said no to me 3 times before you eventually got sick of the begging and decided to give in. i'd hope you don't regret that decision now, even though i know we didn't see eye-to-eye on many things throughout the tour. seems kinda shocking that you didn't have a trophy up to this point considering how prolific you had been in oras & nu, not to mention the fact that i know you were around during the most recent west trophy era. cool to see you get one. the thing i'll probably remember most about our interactions is the multitude of times that we would hop in call and just start malding about how this team, a team we knew was good enough to win the tour, was inventing new ways to toss games at every turn. with the trophy in hand it's definitely funny to look back on, but i know at the time both of us were really struggling LOL. i don't know what the future neider timeline looks like regarding mons. i have always really respected and enjoyed your creativity & flair, i'd be excited to see you line up for another tour in the future. good luck with whatever route you decide to take
z0mOG // i feel as though you are always an undervalued player in team tournaments. found out recently that u apparently won a smogon tour?? you are an interesting teammate & definitely have some diva qualities, however, i think our personalities mesh together relatively well and i was happy to have you on board. you were unlucky in quite a few games & in my estimation deserved to have a considerably better record, although i do remember you being quite lucky during some spl season when you were playing adv so let's call your misfortune here just an evening of the odds.. you won a trophy here anyway (with a clutch tiebreak win (finally) oh my god massive clutch mode performance) so i would hope you are content with that
zee // tough season.. you are a very creative builder but often didn't quite do your builds justice during the in-game. i'm not going to act like i know the ins & outs of doubles overused but i feel confident that you could build on a performance like this if you opted to put more time in; staying solid in the early-midgame seems like it could take you a long way in terms of your progression in this tier. good luck if you decide to go that route & otherwise good luck with your vgc endeavours (?). you were always very zen & easy to get along with.. also congrats on finally getting onto the sheet lol
bage1, eragon11145, Nails, qsns, Schister, Smudge // didn't really interact much with any of you, but i appreciate you coming and helping zommy figure out what to do!
bb skarm // clutch prep & building work when we needed it the most. you put in a ton of work during the playoffs and helped us win an extremely important game with a brand new player; much appreciated
Chloe, damien the genius, Nat // none of you really did anything but you were all in the server. that was a 10 on the ferk-o-meter! :f:
entrocefalo // didn't interact with you very much either, but thanks for helping out (y)
fish anemometer // ho3n continues to rave about you so you must've done something right. your building seems pretty creative & fun which is definitely a big factor in a tier like pu.. thanks for the help
Sirwings // the only time i remember interacting with you was when you tried to veto a helper from being added when you yourself are a helper.. that was quite bizarre to me & definitely rubbed me the wrong way. other than that you seemed fine & i appreciated your assistance with the uu slot
tko // the only lc games we won were with teams made by you.. so basically you cheffed our winless slot into a couple of games - cheers
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hopefully this was illuminating in some way. i am extremely proud of the gibles for a great season, and am personally very happy with the successes i have had on smogon this year. hopefully this upcoming spl will continue the positive trend. i think fundamentally i will always prefer playing to managing. i still have a lot of drive & excitement for the game, i just fucking hated sv ou and had no interest in playing in this iteration of the tournament. i am definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.
thankyou // 39
Thank you Gibles for the great run! I have said it multiple times now in the past few days, but I find it always nice to show how satisfied I am with something when it matters, and you all are fully deserving of the win. Not my first trophy for this tournament (Im the fucking SCL goat), so to be honest I don't reeeally mind the pixels, but seeing you all holding it after this whole season made me very happy and proud of all of you guys and myself. Being ranked last was fucking funny at the start of the season too LOL, do you fucking mainers don't think anyone can learn your common lower tier in more than a week? Anyway, laughed very loud back then, and happily I could deliver as many wins my team needed when it mattered the most in this hot pool. I tried my best for you guys and I don't regret a single bit, even if it made some of my days a mess :cwl: (specially this finals game in which I needed to play in a 15 minutes break between work and a date, also in a backup schedule). Definitely a veeeery fun and constructive experience.
I didnt interact a lot when compared with some others, and will be lying if I said I watched more than half our games, so im not the best person to make individual shoutouts at this point, but I felt like my chat was full of positive people open to help in whatever I needed, between tests, inputs and casual convos, so im nothing but very grateful for the support and the invested time on me. Good luck in the next few tours and enjoy the game!
I didnt interact a lot when compared with some others, and will be lying if I said I watched more than half our games, so im not the best person to make individual shoutouts at this point, but I felt like my chat was full of positive people open to help in whatever I needed, between tests, inputs and casual convos, so im nothing but very grateful for the support and the invested time on me. Good luck in the next few tours and enjoy the game!
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I will never understand what is the point of basically taking shots at half of the people of YOUR own team publicly, whether you win the tour or not. These official tours are always dead long (esp considering we hit the maximum number of weeks this year) and exhausting as hell (i.e., players not being at their best shape throughout the whole journey is the most normal thing in the world and you can never get a 100% perfectly active team, and I think 99% of the people reading this post right now knows this feeling better than I do), and the best way you found to thank them all for winning you one of the most demanding tours on this site is... exposing their shortcomings and how bad of teammates they were with possibly hundreds of people seeing this?
This is so lame. Let's admit that the people you roasted were bad for real, which could happen, do you then think they are really worth being told "ok ngl u suck ass aint no way im teaming up w/ u ever again but mashAllah u seem nice fr grats" in front of dudes who have no idea of what happened inside? At this point it's just about putting oil on the fire for no reason, I really don't think this is the best mindset to have as a manager of this ilk while you could clearly try to fix all these issues by yourself instead of calling people out publicly. Communication always leads to a team environement improvement, while shuting your mouth leads nowhere.
I guess you wanna be fully honest with everyone and that's great, but honesty =/= wickedness. If the purpose of your shoutouts post was being "frank" and telling people everything you didn't have the guts to tell them for all this long, don't worry, the world would've not ended if you posted nothing and just took your trophy like half of the people does when they win a tour on this site. Nobody ever put a Desert Eagle on your head to tell everyone why was X a terrible dude who ain't deserving the green, even if that's the truth (and I'm p sure there were some in that case in your team).
At the end of the day most of us weren't in the team, we don't know much of what was going on, but I'm highkey convinced that what happened inside of your team MUST stay inside. I mean, we are no superheroes, we're not gonna do anything to fix your inside team issues while you are litterally the one in the best spot to do it. If there have been dudes who were terrible, trust me, we don't need anyone to say it publicly, everything's known. I don't mean to be silly by posting this, but I just feel like public team call outs have been something really disturbing this year and that, especially after winning rofl, seeing that being kept going even when the tour ends is the worst addition we could ever get. Put respect on everyone even if they are scumbags, you'll be in huge trouble when the same crap u do to people will be thrown back.
that said congrats to gibles lol, peace be upon y'all we have no enemies
This is so lame. Let's admit that the people you roasted were bad for real, which could happen, do you then think they are really worth being told "ok ngl u suck ass aint no way im teaming up w/ u ever again but mashAllah u seem nice fr grats" in front of dudes who have no idea of what happened inside? At this point it's just about putting oil on the fire for no reason, I really don't think this is the best mindset to have as a manager of this ilk while you could clearly try to fix all these issues by yourself instead of calling people out publicly. Communication always leads to a team environement improvement, while shuting your mouth leads nowhere.
I guess you wanna be fully honest with everyone and that's great, but honesty =/= wickedness. If the purpose of your shoutouts post was being "frank" and telling people everything you didn't have the guts to tell them for all this long, don't worry, the world would've not ended if you posted nothing and just took your trophy like half of the people does when they win a tour on this site. Nobody ever put a Desert Eagle on your head to tell everyone why was X a terrible dude who ain't deserving the green, even if that's the truth (and I'm p sure there were some in that case in your team).
At the end of the day most of us weren't in the team, we don't know much of what was going on, but I'm highkey convinced that what happened inside of your team MUST stay inside. I mean, we are no superheroes, we're not gonna do anything to fix your inside team issues while you are litterally the one in the best spot to do it. If there have been dudes who were terrible, trust me, we don't need anyone to say it publicly, everything's known. I don't mean to be silly by posting this, but I just feel like public team call outs have been something really disturbing this year and that, especially after winning rofl, seeing that being kept going even when the tour ends is the worst addition we could ever get. Put respect on everyone even if they are scumbags, you'll be in huge trouble when the same crap u do to people will be thrown back.
that said congrats to gibles lol, peace be upon y'all we have no enemies
1: dangerous quote considering what false has come out of this year as a manager with.At this point it's just about putting oil on the fire for no reason, I really don't think this is the best mindset to have as a manager
2: constructive criticism doesn't have to be friendly. Just needs to be constructive.
False is passive aggressive, just the way he is. If you don't know him no point digging any deeper than that. He's nice and wanted the best for the team. He didn't say anything unfair, it's made clear when signing up for a tournament you're expected some level of commitment and dedication to it.
Not saying anything about any of our team, we won so whatever happened we made it work, no thanks to me. But noone outside of the team or at least the discord itself should speak out against false for anything related to the tour just because he made a post about his team chat and tour overall that you think is out of touch.
This is the most insane shoutout post I have ever seen. You basically blasted everyone you "shouted out" minus like 3 people. I have "shouted out" one person like this ever (they know who) and I do regret it a lot, now I know that they're very nice and that my comment was not only mean but also unfair due to me being misinformed. Despite whatever greivances you have or desire to "be real", post win shoutouts are just not the time to do this.i'm not really one for shoutouts. i didn't make one after winning spl; but 2 trophies in a year, and semifinals in wcop (oceania's best ever finish in the modern era), 2023 has been a good year for me as far as pokemon is concerned. as a result, i have decided (along with shoutouts) to write a bit of a retrospective of my time on smogon so far. if you don't want to read it then feel free to just skip to the team shoutouts or whatever, but when other people have done things similar to this i have always found them to be fascinating reads and so i'm actually somewhat excited by the prospect of writing this out.
i'll start off strong, sure to impress my many detractors. perhaps this is just my ego talking, but i think i deserve more credit than i am often given, considering the trajectory that my tournament life has taken on smogon. i started out in officials before i could reach 1800 on the ou ladder, not as a function of the fact that i was in any way ready to be playing in official tournaments, but because the oceania world cup team was so bad that they just needed a body to be thrown into the ring to be obliterated by Tricking. while it will perhaps not continue to be the case going forward with the influx of new oceania talent (March Fires, Aberforth, and even newer guys like Leavers), i always felt as though, since the reintroduction of current gen world cup, i had a good shout to be one of, if not the single most important world cup players on smogon, relative to their value to their team (in close contention with freezai for india, at least). i feel as though many of the top teams could lose their best player and keep humming along at a very similar level, but in the case of oceania i felt personally responsible for a great deal of the success that we managed to achieve in that time. i was never the best player, i never had the best record. sure, i had improved considerably from my 1-8 beginnings, but that is a catastrophically low bar (which i would continue to routinely fall under for another few years). what i always liked to hang my hat on was the idea that i was the hardest worker. for multiple years straight i would invite more than 100 oceanic players from across the forums, encouraging them to try out, providing them with teams (if necessary), and then would spend time sorting through the hundreds of replays to see who we would invite back, who we needed to see more from, and who to keep an eye out for in future years. i always found it extremely insulting hearing other teams minimise the success of oceania.. saying stuff like 'yeah we scout for players too! i had to check the playoffs of olt, and the top 16 for smogon tour & ost - you're not the only team that does scouting! if you want the success, you just need to work harder' while we were starting a fucking pixelmon player that we found through tryouts, a guy who had never played a smogon tournament before. once the tournament began, i built or prepared almost every single world cup team for all 8 slots, every year oceania making playoffs, or finishing in 9th. despite year after year being ranked as one of the worst teams in the tournament, we consistently outperformed expectations.
outside of world cup, the last 3 years i have been a flex player, lining up in whatever role managers & team would ask of me.. and while i haven't been hitting home runs every week, i have taken a number of decent scalps, and am batting at .500 playing a number of tiers i am usually not particularly experienced in. overall, i think the transformation from categorically smogon's worst player of all time, to a .500 tour player with a trophy both managing and playing shows both how much i've improved from where i started, and also highlights what i believe are some of my best assets. i consider myself to be a hard worker, a good leader, and a team player. coming out with a win in my first ever proper managerial experience is, to me, not a fluke. i think i have put in the work & am deserving of what i have achieved.
i have fundamental limits as a player, i am always working to improve them, but i feel as though, realistically, i will never truly be a top player. while i would consider myself more patient than the average player, a factor that i try to use to my advantage where possible, i am often shortsighted & do not display good game sense. i know i have the capacity to play good games, or even to have a good season, but watching players like roro or tricking string together tournament after tournament of non-stop hits makes me unreasonably jealous. it's a level i wish to reach one day, but i don't have high hopes i'm going to get there.
finally, directing the focus away from mons & more towards me as a person; i am aware that i am somewhat of a contentious figure (though i am also aware some of this stems from people just wanting to belittle me for being bad at the game). i have gotten into my fare share of arguments, or have managed to piss people off for one reason or another. regarding that, i just wanted to say that there is very rarely malice or mal-intent behind anything i say. i'm sure anyone who knows me well, especially the guys from the ferk, would tell you that regardless of how much i can get on people's nerves, i am never trying to be toxic or exclusionary for the sake of it. i know i have a bitter & negative sense of humour. i consider myself to be honest person, but i am fundamentally unserious. i like to treat pokemon, and smogon, by extension, with the amount of gravitas that i think it deserves; very little. i like to say what's on my mind, occasionally to my detriment; i know it can rub people the wrong way. if i have had a negative interaction with you in the past and you think i have treated you unfairly, or you think i hate you, it is almost certainly nothing personal on my end. if you're interested in reaching out (or flaming me publicly, if that's your preference) i'm happy to hear it.
lastly, before i get into the gibles deep dive, i'd like to give some rapid-fire shoutouts to a few people that aren't in the team list, but have made my smogon experience so far an enjoyable one;
Aliss // 39 appreciates how positive & friendly you seemingly always are to me for no reason... a shame you suck at mons, but at least you're the 2-time!
Amaranth // i wouldn't consider us to be friends per se, we definitely don't agree on a lot of things. however, you gave me my first real break in spl, and seemingly always supported my endeavours in tournaments. i don't think i could justifiably say i'd be where i am right now in the timeline if not for your support as a player, a manager, or as a td
damien the genius // compulsive liar. browser discord user. i-kiribati. genius. mocap actor. fortnite pro. bumbling idiot
ez // you were probably my best friend in this community for like 5 years. i find your social climber tendencies extremely annoying & unbecoming, as a result we kinda grew apart and don't really talk too much anymore. fundamentally i think you are a good guy & i don't harbour any ill will towards you. i hope you are finding success as a unite main (?)
McMeghan // i have told you this plenty of times before, but you are my favourite player of all time. your creativity is boundless and you never fail to provide a spectacle when you take to the field. it was an extremely cool experience to team with you, not only because i thought it would never happen, but also because you are an extremely chill and fun guy to be around. i felt as though we meshed and got along very well, you seemed to vibe with my sense of humour too which was cool. relative to a lot of other top players that i have teamed with, you seemed to have a much more carefree & relatable (to me) approach to the game, which i really respected and appreciated. i wish you success in your future smogon endeavours as well as in life. much love
Nat // you have a worryingly unhealthy & tenuous relationship with pokemon, seemingly emblematic of larger issues. the fact that you take pokemon perhaps more seriously than anybody i have ever met, while i do quite the opposite, it seem like miracle that we get along at all. i consider you to be one of my best friends and i love & care about you deeply. i'm sure you know this already but i am here for you whenever you need it
Specs // i hope you are doing well, whatever you're doing now. i miss you buddy
talah // our entire relationship is seemingly founded on talking about kpop & kpop news (and maybe a mention of pokemon once a year). i haven't heard from you in a bit & your discord profile is now blank so i'm thinking perhaps you've decided to head out. if so, it was a pleasure hanging out with you so much, good luck with whatever you have going on
Tom Bus // ... and there he is! and there he is... and that is it! thats the guy!
Tony // i don't know you very well either, but i've had a bare few conversations with you about things perhaps a little too serious to be chatting about with a smogon random. i appreciate your sage advice & wisdom.
vesper // just heard you beat finchinator in some tryout games for central? nice work man!
lastly, to touch once more on the ferk . you guys are definitely the people i interact with the most. i would say the majority of my time not spent working is probably spent in a call, or playing a game with you guys. you are a fundamental part of the reason that i am still on this site; i love & appreciate all of you very much and whole-heartedly consider you guys my real, true friends.
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so... gibles. we definitely didn't have the best team in the tournament, either on paper, or in-game, but you don't need to be the best team in order to win it. we were lucky to have, in my opinion, a relatively strong matchup spread vs both the platoons & the islanders (i think we would've really struggled had we faced the terrors, as we showed during the regular season). but, you can only play the teams that appear in front of you, and so despite a number of shaky performances & plenty of inner season turmoil, i think it's fair to say that when it came time to show what we were worth; we did enough to be called deserving winners.
Cam // hello cammy. i genuinely don't know what you did for the team that was mons related. however, your 3 key abilities (getting in the call, posting gifs of otters, posting pictures of beer) were definitely important factors in creating a cohesive & fun team environment. your clutch lc loss really opened our eyes to the fact that the lc slot was doomed, i appreciate you taking one for the team there. you seem like a fun guy.. i hope you found this season fun and rewarding enough, even if you didn't get in the lineup in the tiers you wanted. enjoy the trophy and be sure to let me know how that 'fuck false' tattoo comes along... i'm sure you could get the rbyers & dppers to pay for it
cleann // THIS 99 OVERALL DEMIGOD INDIAN BUILD DUNKS ON EVERYBODY IN SCL, SAVES 2 WINLESS SLOTS, AND HAS ACCESS TO THE CLUTCH BADGE, ALLOWING IT TO PULL UP TO THE SCL PLAYOFFS AND WIN DO-OR-DIE GAMES TO SAVE YOUR SEASON -- obviously one of my besties.. i had said if i ever managed a tour that i was going to beg you to sign up and somehow the plan paid off. you said it best yourself, you are a chat presence specialist. I was constantly surprised & impressed by your funny gifs and timely emoji reactions. i cannot believe you managed to get a win in 2 different tiers considering you hadn't played mons in like 3 years, even more so considering your clear lack of skill when it comes to handling flying-type moves, but i'd like to think it goes to show that you've still got what it takes. if you can pick up sv lc & sv ru for the first time ever and bring 2 important wins... imagine what you're achieving with a whole season of hustling, grinding, and a heaping helping of kiribati pride. i would definitely consider you to be biyombo-like when it comes to your raw talent & skill for the game. congrats on the trophy. you are a king
Clementine // i found the opening handful of weeks of the season with you very frustrating. you would routinely tag and promise to get scouts done, only to almost never do them. the biggest contribution i remember you having at the start of the season was with our custom avatar (which is fire fwiw). however, your big flex mode before the season about your 'swiss army knife' skillset and how you were going to be an asset in the scout department just left me confused when i would look in the server & there were no scouts to be found. thankfully, once we got to the pointy end of the season you actually started to lock in, utilising your 459 discord servers full of pokemon emojis to provide detailed scouts for basically every single slot. hugely helpful, especially in the no replays era. i've said to you before that i think your playing skill isn't quite at the level for a tournament like this just yet, but your attitude is good & i hope at the very least this experience was enjoyable enough for to drive you to push further. congrats on the trophy
dcae // you started off with prep the way that i expected; creative offensive teams with cool techs & funky synergies. you never managed to do your prep any favours though, inexplicably tossing away your advantage week after week. a disheartening experience. eventually we sort've mutually decided that you needed to be benched, which you seemed fine with, but then your activity absolutely fell off a cliff & you turned into a categorical team cancer. you would go inactive for weeks at a time but would occasionally communicate through ninjadog via text message??? i think the thing which sucked the most was that i think you still have the capacity to be a good player, you evidently still have that creative flair & even though you seem washed at the moment you definitely showed signs of your game sense. ultimately this type of situation happening was always in the back of my mind as a possibility when i was looking to pick you up & the fault is partly on me for being so confident that ninjadog would be able to keep you in check lol. i appreciate you talking with me about your behaviour around the tour's conclusion, so you weren't fully oblivious to the situation, but i am still not thrilled with how the whole thing played out
Dr. Phd. BJ // the initial plan pre-auction was for you to dip your toes into the official scene & bring some good bench vibes; it was never in the plans for you to touch the field, especially not out of nu. however, the ru slot was dire city and so after you put your hand up we decided it'd be fine to give you a shot since things couldn't really get much worse. i think you're still quite a bit too green to be starting in a tour like this, but your chat presence & general attitude towards prep was outstanding and i'm sure everyone on the team would agree that you were a huge boon & contributed greatly to the success of our nu slot. you also had no problem vibing with me making fun of you, and you would even kick back sometimes which i found quite funny. congratulations on your doctorate & your green trophy as well
etern // despite the fact that we are both australian brothers, the 2 of us haven't really spoken a whole lot. you seem quite soft spoken, so beside bonding over making fun of nat, i don't really know you that well. the thing about you that surprised me the most was definitely the difference in your effort regarding prep & testing from wcop to scl; i absolutely did not expect you to be going this hard in prep every week after my 2 previous wcop experiences with you essentially boiled down to me passing you a team for every game (except for that time you cooked up tera water kingambit just completely out of nowhere???). your dedication with prep, alongside your hatred of the fabled avasey core were obviously huge tenets in the success of your season. the fact that you had the audacity to bring an altaria to your finals matchup, essentially playing the game 5v6, speaks to how much of a heater you were on.. nothing was going to stop you. an unexpected carry for sure. congrats on a great season & welcome to the australian new wave
Eternal Spirit // O MAGO -- it's so fun teaming with you bro. i think its the 3rd time we have teamed together (?) and i have thoroughly enjoyed it every time. your positivity is infectious, and you're such a fun & creative builder/player that i think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy watching you play. you stepped into a brand new tier in what i would say was unequivocally the most difficult pool in the tournament & managed to bring home a number of important wins. being so steady & reliable in such a competitive tier was hugely important for the success of our team. going into every game we knew we had a chance to get a win, no matter the opponent, plus we would probably get to see some funny mons and sets too lol. it was super cool to see you back in a new gen after the break, and i hope i get to team with you again in the future
Fc // i know your individual season didn't work out the way you would've liked. a 16k retain, you have set such high expectations for yourself with an establishing collection of strong tournament results (including an utter robbery of me in the wcop playoffs that i will never forget for as long as i live & breathe). for some reason my estimation of how bad your season went is somewhat at odds with your actual performance. i think it speaks to your pedigree & tenure as a player that what would be considered, for all intents & purposes, a completely average 5-6 record was sort've viewed as a failing. regardless, you saved the season with a clutch, series-saving win in the finals. we don't win this tour without that, so i'd say that was pretty neat. nice work & good luck in the future
Fogbound Lake // lossbound fake. you suck. i cannot believe you had the audacity to use a hustle pokemon (guaranteed loss) in an important playoff game. you should spend less focusing on your piss leaderboard time and put a bit more effort into doing this -> l2p
as soon as we picked up mind, you were an obvious next choice. i had teamed with you previously in scl (you played ubers back then & all i remember is you using insane crack like audino, suicune, or the dpp villain froslass) & you seemed to be vibing well in sv ou after a strong showing in wcop. you and mind clearly have great synergy, right down to the avatar choice. your game sense seems particularly strong, and you're definitely a bit of a showman, either that or you're just very good at !pick 1, 2. while your savage robbery of baloor definitely brings your rating down a peg, i still think your record is well deserved & you were instrumental in our success this season; both with the wins you brought in ou as well as your consistent prep help in ubers. thanks for the carry, congrats on a great season, the best ou record & the guarantee of an extremely entertaining game every week
GoldCat // you did almost no prep, waltzed into every game with a wo-chien semi-stall, and would proceed to get smashed because the team had no tools to effectively progress the game. you were completely unreceptive to feedback about your builds, often responding with stark phrases like "it's bad" or just "no" with no elaboration, rather than attempting to actively engage with anyone who was trying to assist you. i understand that you had said you weren't in need of dedicated support, but to avoid working with your teammates to the extent that you did was frustrating to watch. almost the entire team begged you to stop loading wo-chien balance after seeing you try to load it up again for the 3rd time in a row, and proceeded to try and move towards preparing another team. you unfortunately loaded into a mirror match (which you lost because you played less accurately than your opponent) however, the killing blow came next when you decided to drag your teammates in the ru discord, saying you were 'forced' to use a different team right before the game, seemingly insinuating the loss was the fault of the teammates who tried to help you, and not in any part due to the fact that you played worse than your opponent. this attitude was emblematic of your contributions to the team on the whole. you were completely inactive when you weren't in the starting lineup, despite multiple tags asking for your feedback & input, until around the start of the playoffs when you started helping a bare amount in the ru channel; i saw you post a team during the finals, that moment stood out to me as the most positive & helpful action you had performed all season. i don't think your season was completely irredeemable, once you hit the bench for the 2nd time you weren't actively damaging or cancerous to the team, and you even helped a little bit down the stretch. to your credit, your cheerleading during the playoffs was appreciated & i was much more contented with how you acted during the final weeks relative to how you were at the beginning of the season. regardless, you were without a doubt one of the most difficult & frustrating players i have ever shared a team with
justdrew // you are an intriguing character. despite constant reminders that someone with an unorthodox style like gama should be left to build on his own terms (unless he asks otherwise), you would constantly post completed teams & attempt to veto things he had built. all i asked you to do was be there for test games! you have an excitement for the game & desire to help that i think sometimes can be overbearing, but i know your heart is in a good place and that you are always just trying to do what you think is best for the team. i think it was fortunate that the slots you were supporting were both the carefree type of player who didn't really mind your presence in their team channel, because i know there are many other types of players who wouldn't be able to handle how much you were always trying to drive the direction of prep. i know i found it frustrating multiple times watching you try to veto perfectly fine teams that gama had built because they weren't to your liking, although gama was definitely a lot friendlier about it than i was. to your credit, your high activity was definitely a positive when it came to things like playing test games, i don't think gama would've been able to get up to speed as fast as he did if you weren't so reliably there when he was asking for people to spar with, and the same goes for ho3n. i think in general your always-on style of prep & support is going to turn some people away and burn some people out, personally it isn't my style. however, i know there are many others on smogon who prefer & appreciate this kind of style, so that's just my 2 cents. congrats on the trophy & thanks for your help
mind gaming // before the season all i really knew about you was that you won a lot of games and that you were apparently somewhat of an erratic character.. now that the tour is over i can say that i don't know much more about you because you left the server halfway through the tour, but even when you were here you didn't post any prep or use your channel at all LOL. a few people had messaged me before the auction saying that you were a unreliable character to pick up and that the possibility of you doing something like this was high (nat said you were quite similar to them in some ways -- a notion which was quickly dispelled after you proceeded to join the vc more than a dozen times in the first 2 weeks) however, neider and i had decided that risk was worth it given the absolute HEATER you had been on in both tours prior to this. suffice to say that risk paid off. overall i found you to be a lot more sociable and easygoing than what i had been lead to expect, although our first interaction (you jumping in call during the auction and deriding me for spending 36k without notifying you) definitely wasn't the smoothest of openings. i think some of your behaviour is misconstrued to be toxic or negative when it instead seems clear to me that you are extremely competitive & have a great passion for the game. the fact you managed to pump out consistently innovative & solid teams for both yourself and fog over the course of 3 months is something that i think would be very tough to manage if you didn't have a such strong competitive desire. the fact that the 2 of you combined for 18 wins speaks volumes. i'm glad you were able to defeat the tiebreak allegations with 2 massive, clutch victories. you now have a comfortable claim to the winningest individual year in team tour history, you definitely deserve this 1. thanks for the carry & congratulations
ninjadog // the most expensive 3k of all time... thankfully you managed to save a shambolic season with a clutch win right at the death. very glad the lc playoff flex worked out because going winless into a trophy would have been extremely fraudulent.. and your previous role as dcae's translator didn't seem to be pan out very well either... probably a good time for you to pick up a trophy as you seem to be entering the twilight of your career (washed). fortunately, a trophy cements you as a member of the australian new wave, acting as an inspiration & perhaps a talismanic figure for newer players such as damien the genius and drifting. anyway, good luck with the transition to vgc buddy, maybe you'll make like a morpeko and really get rolling over there, huh?
Piyush25 // soon to be just "Piyush" mods - i was impressed by your world cup performance and was very keen to pick you up, so i was relieved when i got back in the call for the last nom of the auction & was able to sneak you in before the buzzer. unfortunately in the tour you barely got to do anything with mind & fog not posting their prep lol. however, i was keen to get you in the starting lineup at some point and it was very cool to see you pick up a win. you probably need to invest a little more time into your general sense for the game.. both of your losses came as a result of some instability in your play, once in the opening & once in the endgame, but i don't think you're miles off the pace, you can definitely get there. sorry this team environment wasn't super conducive to you learning & growing as a player.. but you did get a trophy and a win, so i'd hope that was enough to be worth it
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d // neidy and i both knew we wanted you the instant your name was read off the signup sheet.. call it a soul read but somehow we knew you were going to COOK. perhaps this is revisionist history, but i had always been impressed with the level you had showed in officials, especially last year in scl. having success across multiple tiers (one of which being the om little cup) was very impressive to me and i was confident you'd be the right pick to smoothly handle such a new & volatile metagame. i know some people are put off by your sense of humour & general demeanour, not that it seems to bother you in any way, but i had always found your kinda brash & headstrong attitude quite funny. you would post a win, only to come back to the chat a day later to see we had thrown away what seemed like an insurmountable lead, you would then post a collection of ryan gosling gifs appropriate for the given situation. every week you would come in, win, leave.. and so it was very funny & memorable watching you celebrate after we finally managed to convert one of your advantages in a clutch midseason week after throwing away so many leads. you were reliable, you didn't cause any issues, and fun to team with. a shame you couldn't go for the 12-1 because in the form you're in i'm sure you would've managed to pick it up. congratulations on a brilliant season & thanks for the carry
Sjneider // i believe you said no to me 3 times before you eventually got sick of the begging and decided to give in. i'd hope you don't regret that decision now, even though i know we didn't see eye-to-eye on many things throughout the tour. seems kinda shocking that you didn't have a trophy up to this point considering how prolific you had been in oras & nu, not to mention the fact that i know you were around during the most recent west trophy era. cool to see you get one. the thing i'll probably remember most about our interactions is the multitude of times that we would hop in call and just start malding about how this team, a team we knew was good enough to win the tour, was inventing new ways to toss games at every turn. with the trophy in hand it's definitely funny to look back on, but i know at the time both of us were really struggling LOL. i don't know what the future neider timeline looks like regarding mons. i have always really respected and enjoyed your creativity & flair, i'd be excited to see you line up for another tour in the future. good luck with whatever route you decide to take
z0mOG // i feel as though you are always an undervalued player in team tournaments. found out recently that u apparently won a smogon tour?? you are an interesting teammate & definitely have some diva qualities, however, i think our personalities mesh together relatively well and i was happy to have you on board. you were unlucky in quite a few games & in my estimation deserved to have a considerably better record, although i do remember you being quite lucky during some spl season when you were playing adv so let's call your misfortune here just an evening of the odds.. you won a trophy here anyway (with a clutch tiebreak win (finally) oh my god massive clutch mode performance) so i would hope you are content with that
zee // tough season.. you are a very creative builder but often didn't quite do your builds justice during the in-game. i'm not going to act like i know the ins & outs of doubles overused but i feel confident that you could build on a performance like this if you opted to put more time in; staying solid in the early-midgame seems like it could take you a long way in terms of your progression in this tier. good luck if you decide to go that route & otherwise good luck with your vgc endeavours (?). you were always very zen & easy to get along with.. also congrats on finally getting onto the sheet lol
bage1, eragon11145, Nails, qsns, Schister, Smudge // didn't really interact much with any of you, but i appreciate you coming and helping zommy figure out what to do!
bb skarm // clutch prep & building work when we needed it the most. you put in a ton of work during the playoffs and helped us win an extremely important game with a brand new player; much appreciated
Chloe, damien the genius, Nat // none of you really did anything but you were all in the server. that was a 10 on the ferk-o-meter! :f:
entrocefalo // didn't interact with you very much either, but thanks for helping out (y)
fish anemometer // ho3n continues to rave about you so you must've done something right. your building seems pretty creative & fun which is definitely a big factor in a tier like pu.. thanks for the help
Sirwings // the only time i remember interacting with you was when you tried to veto a helper from being added when you yourself are a helper.. that was quite bizarre to me & definitely rubbed me the wrong way. other than that you seemed fine & i appreciated your assistance with the uu slot
tko // the only lc games we won were with teams made by you.. so basically you cheffed our winless slot into a couple of games - cheers
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hopefully this was illuminating in some way. i am extremely proud of the gibles for a great season, and am personally very happy with the successes i have had on smogon this year. hopefully this upcoming spl will continue the positive trend. i think fundamentally i will always prefer playing to managing. i still have a lot of drive & excitement for the game, i just fucking hated sv ou and had no interest in playing in this iteration of the tournament. i am definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.
thankyou // 39
You are either too bothered by people's flaws or have too much hatred in your heart. Embrace the christmas spirit and become more jolly.
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Holy shit those shoutouts were so mental it cracked me up well done hahahahaha
Now thats christmas spirit am i right Clementine u useless waste of pixels
(at least it wasnt as schizo as Malekith's ""shoutouts"" to TPP so thats a silver lining?)
Now thats christmas spirit am i right Clementine u useless waste of pixels
(at least it wasnt as schizo as Malekith's ""shoutouts"" to TPP so thats a silver lining?)
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Congratz.
Ololo le long pavé..en plus ya que dla merde dedans. Why are you complaining about teammates in public and not just telling this to them in pm lmao shame on you !i'm not really one for shoutouts. i didn't make one after winning spl; but 2 trophies in a year, and semifinals in wcop (oceania's best ever finish in the modern era), 2023 has been a good year for me as far as pokemon is concerned. as a result, i have decided (along with shoutouts) to write a bit of a retrospective of my time on smogon so far. if you don't want to read it then feel free to just skip to the team shoutouts or whatever, but when other people have done things similar to this i have always found them to be fascinating reads and so i'm actually somewhat excited by the prospect of writing this out.
i'll start off strong, sure to impress my many detractors. perhaps this is just my ego talking, but i think i deserve more credit than i am often given, considering the trajectory that my tournament life has taken on smogon. i started out in officials before i could reach 1800 on the ou ladder, not as a function of the fact that i was in any way ready to be playing in official tournaments, but because the oceania world cup team was so bad that they just needed a body to be thrown into the ring to be obliterated by Tricking. while it will perhaps not continue to be the case going forward with the influx of new oceania talent (March Fires, Aberforth, and even newer guys like Leavers), i always felt as though, since the reintroduction of current gen world cup, i had a good shout to be one of, if not the single most important world cup players on smogon, relative to their value to their team (in close contention with freezai for india, at least). i feel as though many of the top teams could lose their best player and keep humming along at a very similar level, but in the case of oceania i felt personally responsible for a great deal of the success that we managed to achieve in that time. i was never the best player, i never had the best record. sure, i had improved considerably from my 1-8 beginnings, but that is a catastrophically low bar (which i would continue to routinely fall under for another few years). what i always liked to hang my hat on was the idea that i was the hardest worker. for multiple years straight i would invite more than 100 oceanic players from across the forums, encouraging them to try out, providing them with teams (if necessary), and then would spend time sorting through the hundreds of replays to see who we would invite back, who we needed to see more from, and who to keep an eye out for in future years. i always found it extremely insulting hearing other teams minimise the success of oceania.. saying stuff like 'yeah we scout for players too! i had to check the playoffs of olt, and the top 16 for smogon tour & ost - you're not the only team that does scouting! if you want the success, you just need to work harder' while we were starting a fucking pixelmon player that we found through tryouts, a guy who had never played a smogon tournament before. once the tournament began, i built or prepared almost every single world cup team for all 8 slots, every year oceania making playoffs, or finishing in 9th. despite year after year being ranked as one of the worst teams in the tournament, we consistently outperformed expectations.
outside of world cup, the last 3 years i have been a flex player, lining up in whatever role managers & team would ask of me.. and while i haven't been hitting home runs every week, i have taken a number of decent scalps, and am batting at .500 playing a number of tiers i am usually not particularly experienced in. overall, i think the transformation from categorically smogon's worst player of all time, to a .500 tour player with a trophy both managing and playing shows both how much i've improved from where i started, and also highlights what i believe are some of my best assets. i consider myself to be a hard worker, a good leader, and a team player. coming out with a win in my first ever proper managerial experience is, to me, not a fluke. i think i have put in the work & am deserving of what i have achieved.
i have fundamental limits as a player, i am always working to improve them, but i feel as though, realistically, i will never truly be a top player. while i would consider myself more patient than the average player, a factor that i try to use to my advantage where possible, i am often shortsighted & do not display good game sense. i know i have the capacity to play good games, or even to have a good season, but watching players like roro or tricking string together tournament after tournament of non-stop hits makes me unreasonably jealous. it's a level i wish to reach one day, but i don't have high hopes i'm going to get there.
finally, directing the focus away from mons & more towards me as a person; i am aware that i am somewhat of a contentious figure (though i am also aware some of this stems from people just wanting to belittle me for being bad at the game). i have gotten into my fare share of arguments, or have managed to piss people off for one reason or another. regarding that, i just wanted to say that there is very rarely malice or mal-intent behind anything i say. i'm sure anyone who knows me well, especially the guys from the ferk, would tell you that regardless of how much i can get on people's nerves, i am never trying to be toxic or exclusionary for the sake of it. i know i have a bitter & negative sense of humour. i consider myself to be honest person, but i am fundamentally unserious. i like to treat pokemon, and smogon, by extension, with the amount of gravitas that i think it deserves; very little. i like to say what's on my mind, occasionally to my detriment; i know it can rub people the wrong way. if i have had a negative interaction with you in the past and you think i have treated you unfairly, or you think i hate you, it is almost certainly nothing personal on my end. if you're interested in reaching out (or flaming me publicly, if that's your preference) i'm happy to hear it.
lastly, before i get into the gibles deep dive, i'd like to give some rapid-fire shoutouts to a few people that aren't in the team list, but have made my smogon experience so far an enjoyable one;
Aliss // 39 appreciates how positive & friendly you seemingly always are to me for no reason... a shame you suck at mons, but at least you're the 2-time!
Amaranth // i wouldn't consider us to be friends per se, we definitely don't agree on a lot of things. however, you gave me my first real break in spl, and seemingly always supported my endeavours in tournaments. i don't think i could justifiably say i'd be where i am right now in the timeline if not for your support as a player, a manager, or as a td
damien the genius // compulsive liar. browser discord user. i-kiribati. genius. mocap actor. fortnite pro. bumbling idiot
ez // you were probably my best friend in this community for like 5 years. i find your social climber tendencies extremely annoying & unbecoming, as a result we kinda grew apart and don't really talk too much anymore. fundamentally i think you are a good guy & i don't harbour any ill will towards you. i hope you are finding success as a unite main (?)
McMeghan // i have told you this plenty of times before, but you are my favourite player of all time. your creativity is boundless and you never fail to provide a spectacle when you take to the field. it was an extremely cool experience to team with you, not only because i thought it would never happen, but also because you are an extremely chill and fun guy to be around. i felt as though we meshed and got along very well, you seemed to vibe with my sense of humour too which was cool. relative to a lot of other top players that i have teamed with, you seemed to have a much more carefree & relatable (to me) approach to the game, which i really respected and appreciated. i wish you success in your future smogon endeavours as well as in life. much love
Nat // you have a worryingly unhealthy & tenuous relationship with pokemon, seemingly emblematic of larger issues. the fact that you take pokemon perhaps more seriously than anybody i have ever met, while i do quite the opposite, it seem like miracle that we get along at all. i consider you to be one of my best friends and i love & care about you deeply. i'm sure you know this already but i am here for you whenever you need it
Specs // i hope you are doing well, whatever you're doing now. i miss you buddy
talah // our entire relationship is seemingly founded on talking about kpop & kpop news (and maybe a mention of pokemon once a year). i haven't heard from you in a bit & your discord profile is now blank so i'm thinking perhaps you've decided to head out. if so, it was a pleasure hanging out with you so much, good luck with whatever you have going on
Tom Bus // ... and there he is! and there he is... and that is it! thats the guy!
Tony // i don't know you very well either, but i've had a bare few conversations with you about things perhaps a little too serious to be chatting about with a smogon random. i appreciate your sage advice & wisdom.
vesper // just heard you beat finchinator in some tryout games for central? nice work man!
lastly, to touch once more on the ferk . you guys are definitely the people i interact with the most. i would say the majority of my time not spent working is probably spent in a call, or playing a game with you guys. you are a fundamental part of the reason that i am still on this site; i love & appreciate all of you very much and whole-heartedly consider you guys my real, true friends.
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so... gibles. we definitely didn't have the best team in the tournament, either on paper, or in-game, but you don't need to be the best team in order to win it. we were lucky to have, in my opinion, a relatively strong matchup spread vs both the platoons & the islanders (i think we would've really struggled had we faced the terrors, as we showed during the regular season). but, you can only play the teams that appear in front of you, and so despite a number of shaky performances & plenty of inner season turmoil, i think it's fair to say that when it came time to show what we were worth; we did enough to be called deserving winners.
Cam // hello cammy. i genuinely don't know what you did for the team that was mons related. however, your 3 key abilities (getting in the call, posting gifs of otters, posting pictures of beer) were definitely important factors in creating a cohesive & fun team environment. your clutch lc loss really opened our eyes to the fact that the lc slot was doomed, i appreciate you taking one for the team there. you seem like a fun guy.. i hope you found this season fun and rewarding enough, even if you didn't get in the lineup in the tiers you wanted. enjoy the trophy and be sure to let me know how that 'fuck false' tattoo comes along... i'm sure you could get the rbyers & dppers to pay for it
cleann // THIS 99 OVERALL DEMIGOD INDIAN BUILD DUNKS ON EVERYBODY IN SCL, SAVES 2 WINLESS SLOTS, AND HAS ACCESS TO THE CLUTCH BADGE, ALLOWING IT TO PULL UP TO THE SCL PLAYOFFS AND WIN DO-OR-DIE GAMES TO SAVE YOUR SEASON -- obviously one of my besties.. i had said if i ever managed a tour that i was going to beg you to sign up and somehow the plan paid off. you said it best yourself, you are a chat presence specialist. I was constantly surprised & impressed by your funny gifs and timely emoji reactions. i cannot believe you managed to get a win in 2 different tiers considering you hadn't played mons in like 3 years, even more so considering your clear lack of skill when it comes to handling flying-type moves, but i'd like to think it goes to show that you've still got what it takes. if you can pick up sv lc & sv ru for the first time ever and bring 2 important wins... imagine what you're achieving with a whole season of hustling, grinding, and a heaping helping of kiribati pride. i would definitely consider you to be biyombo-like when it comes to your raw talent & skill for the game. congrats on the trophy. you are a king
Clementine // i found the opening handful of weeks of the season with you very frustrating. you would routinely tag and promise to get scouts done, only to almost never do them. the biggest contribution i remember you having at the start of the season was with our custom avatar (which is fire fwiw). however, your big flex mode before the season about your 'swiss army knife' skillset and how you were going to be an asset in the scout department just left me confused when i would look in the server & there were no scouts to be found. thankfully, once we got to the pointy end of the season you actually started to lock in, utilising your 459 discord servers full of pokemon emojis to provide detailed scouts for basically every single slot. hugely helpful, especially in the no replays era. i've said to you before that i think your playing skill isn't quite at the level for a tournament like this just yet, but your attitude is good & i hope at the very least this experience was enjoyable enough for to drive you to push further. congrats on the trophy
dcae // you started off with prep the way that i expected; creative offensive teams with cool techs & funky synergies. you never managed to do your prep any favours though, inexplicably tossing away your advantage week after week. a disheartening experience. eventually we sort've mutually decided that you needed to be benched, which you seemed fine with, but then your activity absolutely fell off a cliff & you turned into a categorical team cancer. you would go inactive for weeks at a time but would occasionally communicate through ninjadog via text message??? i think the thing which sucked the most was that i think you still have the capacity to be a good player, you evidently still have that creative flair & even though you seem washed at the moment you definitely showed signs of your game sense. ultimately this type of situation happening was always in the back of my mind as a possibility when i was looking to pick you up & the fault is partly on me for being so confident that ninjadog would be able to keep you in check lol. i appreciate you talking with me about your behaviour around the tour's conclusion, so you weren't fully oblivious to the situation, but i am still not thrilled with how the whole thing played out
Dr. Phd. BJ // the initial plan pre-auction was for you to dip your toes into the official scene & bring some good bench vibes; it was never in the plans for you to touch the field, especially not out of nu. however, the ru slot was dire city and so after you put your hand up we decided it'd be fine to give you a shot since things couldn't really get much worse. i think you're still quite a bit too green to be starting in a tour like this, but your chat presence & general attitude towards prep was outstanding and i'm sure everyone on the team would agree that you were a huge boon & contributed greatly to the success of our nu slot. you also had no problem vibing with me making fun of you, and you would even kick back sometimes which i found quite funny. congratulations on your doctorate & your green trophy as well
etern // despite the fact that we are both australian brothers, the 2 of us haven't really spoken a whole lot. you seem quite soft spoken, so beside bonding over making fun of nat, i don't really know you that well. the thing about you that surprised me the most was definitely the difference in your effort regarding prep & testing from wcop to scl; i absolutely did not expect you to be going this hard in prep every week after my 2 previous wcop experiences with you essentially boiled down to me passing you a team for every game (except for that time you cooked up tera water kingambit just completely out of nowhere???). your dedication with prep, alongside your hatred of the fabled avasey core were obviously huge tenets in the success of your season. the fact that you had the audacity to bring an altaria to your finals matchup, essentially playing the game 5v6, speaks to how much of a heater you were on.. nothing was going to stop you. an unexpected carry for sure. congrats on a great season & welcome to the australian new wave
Eternal Spirit // O MAGO -- it's so fun teaming with you bro. i think its the 3rd time we have teamed together (?) and i have thoroughly enjoyed it every time. your positivity is infectious, and you're such a fun & creative builder/player that i think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy watching you play. you stepped into a brand new tier in what i would say was unequivocally the most difficult pool in the tournament & managed to bring home a number of important wins. being so steady & reliable in such a competitive tier was hugely important for the success of our team. going into every game we knew we had a chance to get a win, no matter the opponent, plus we would probably get to see some funny mons and sets too lol. it was super cool to see you back in a new gen after the break, and i hope i get to team with you again in the future
Fc // i know your individual season didn't work out the way you would've liked. a 16k retain, you have set such high expectations for yourself with an establishing collection of strong tournament results (including an utter robbery of me in the wcop playoffs that i will never forget for as long as i live & breathe). for some reason my estimation of how bad your season went is somewhat at odds with your actual performance. i think it speaks to your pedigree & tenure as a player that what would be considered, for all intents & purposes, a completely average 5-6 record was sort've viewed as a failing. regardless, you saved the season with a clutch, series-saving win in the finals. we don't win this tour without that, so i'd say that was pretty neat. nice work & good luck in the future
Fogbound Lake // lossbound fake. you suck. i cannot believe you had the audacity to use a hustle pokemon (guaranteed loss) in an important playoff game. you should spend less focusing on your piss leaderboard time and put a bit more effort into doing this -> l2p
as soon as we picked up mind, you were an obvious next choice. i had teamed with you previously in scl (you played ubers back then & all i remember is you using insane crack like audino, suicune, or the dpp villain froslass) & you seemed to be vibing well in sv ou after a strong showing in wcop. you and mind clearly have great synergy, right down to the avatar choice. your game sense seems particularly strong, and you're definitely a bit of a showman, either that or you're just very good at !pick 1, 2. while your savage robbery of baloor definitely brings your rating down a peg, i still think your record is well deserved & you were instrumental in our success this season; both with the wins you brought in ou as well as your consistent prep help in ubers. thanks for the carry, congrats on a great season, the best ou record & the guarantee of an extremely entertaining game every week
GoldCat // you did almost no prep, waltzed into every game with a wo-chien semi-stall, and would proceed to get smashed because the team had no tools to effectively progress the game. you were completely unreceptive to feedback about your builds, often responding with stark phrases like "it's bad" or just "no" with no elaboration, rather than attempting to actively engage with anyone who was trying to assist you. i understand that you had said you weren't in need of dedicated support, but to avoid working with your teammates to the extent that you did was frustrating to watch. almost the entire team begged you to stop loading wo-chien balance after seeing you try to load it up again for the 3rd time in a row, and proceeded to try and move towards preparing another team. you unfortunately loaded into a mirror match (which you lost because you played less accurately than your opponent) however, the killing blow came next when you decided to drag your teammates in the ru discord, saying you were 'forced' to use a different team right before the game, seemingly insinuating the loss was the fault of the teammates who tried to help you, and not in any part due to the fact that you played worse than your opponent. this attitude was emblematic of your contributions to the team on the whole. you were completely inactive when you weren't in the starting lineup, despite multiple tags asking for your feedback & input, until around the start of the playoffs when you started helping a bare amount in the ru channel; i saw you post a team during the finals, that moment stood out to me as the most positive & helpful action you had performed all season. i don't think your season was completely irredeemable, once you hit the bench for the 2nd time you weren't actively damaging or cancerous to the team, and you even helped a little bit down the stretch. to your credit, your cheerleading during the playoffs was appreciated & i was much more contented with how you acted during the final weeks relative to how you were at the beginning of the season. regardless, you were without a doubt one of the most difficult & frustrating players i have ever shared a team with
justdrew // you are an intriguing character. despite constant reminders that someone with an unorthodox style like gama should be left to build on his own terms (unless he asks otherwise), you would constantly post completed teams & attempt to veto things he had built. all i asked you to do was be there for test games! you have an excitement for the game & desire to help that i think sometimes can be overbearing, but i know your heart is in a good place and that you are always just trying to do what you think is best for the team. i think it was fortunate that the slots you were supporting were both the carefree type of player who didn't really mind your presence in their team channel, because i know there are many other types of players who wouldn't be able to handle how much you were always trying to drive the direction of prep. i know i found it frustrating multiple times watching you try to veto perfectly fine teams that gama had built because they weren't to your liking, although gama was definitely a lot friendlier about it than i was. to your credit, your high activity was definitely a positive when it came to things like playing test games, i don't think gama would've been able to get up to speed as fast as he did if you weren't so reliably there when he was asking for people to spar with, and the same goes for ho3n. i think in general your always-on style of prep & support is going to turn some people away and burn some people out, personally it isn't my style. however, i know there are many others on smogon who prefer & appreciate this kind of style, so that's just my 2 cents. congrats on the trophy & thanks for your help
mind gaming // before the season all i really knew about you was that you won a lot of games and that you were apparently somewhat of an erratic character.. now that the tour is over i can say that i don't know much more about you because you left the server halfway through the tour, but even when you were here you didn't post any prep or use your channel at all LOL. a few people had messaged me before the auction saying that you were a unreliable character to pick up and that the possibility of you doing something like this was high (nat said you were quite similar to them in some ways -- a notion which was quickly dispelled after you proceeded to join the vc more than a dozen times in the first 2 weeks) however, neider and i had decided that risk was worth it given the absolute HEATER you had been on in both tours prior to this. suffice to say that risk paid off. overall i found you to be a lot more sociable and easygoing than what i had been lead to expect, although our first interaction (you jumping in call during the auction and deriding me for spending 36k without notifying you) definitely wasn't the smoothest of openings. i think some of your behaviour is misconstrued to be toxic or negative when it instead seems clear to me that you are extremely competitive & have a great passion for the game. the fact you managed to pump out consistently innovative & solid teams for both yourself and fog over the course of 3 months is something that i think would be very tough to manage if you didn't have a such strong competitive desire. the fact that the 2 of you combined for 18 wins speaks volumes. i'm glad you were able to defeat the tiebreak allegations with 2 massive, clutch victories. you now have a comfortable claim to the winningest individual year in team tour history, you definitely deserve this 1. thanks for the carry & congratulations
ninjadog // the most expensive 3k of all time... thankfully you managed to save a shambolic season with a clutch win right at the death. very glad the lc playoff flex worked out because going winless into a trophy would have been extremely fraudulent.. and your previous role as dcae's translator didn't seem to be pan out very well either... probably a good time for you to pick up a trophy as you seem to be entering the twilight of your career (washed). fortunately, a trophy cements you as a member of the australian new wave, acting as an inspiration & perhaps a talismanic figure for newer players such as damien the genius and drifting. anyway, good luck with the transition to vgc buddy, maybe you'll make like a morpeko and really get rolling over there, huh?
Piyush25 // soon to be just "Piyush" mods - i was impressed by your world cup performance and was very keen to pick you up, so i was relieved when i got back in the call for the last nom of the auction & was able to sneak you in before the buzzer. unfortunately in the tour you barely got to do anything with mind & fog not posting their prep lol. however, i was keen to get you in the starting lineup at some point and it was very cool to see you pick up a win. you probably need to invest a little more time into your general sense for the game.. both of your losses came as a result of some instability in your play, once in the opening & once in the endgame, but i don't think you're miles off the pace, you can definitely get there. sorry this team environment wasn't super conducive to you learning & growing as a player.. but you did get a trophy and a win, so i'd hope that was enough to be worth it
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d // neidy and i both knew we wanted you the instant your name was read off the signup sheet.. call it a soul read but somehow we knew you were going to COOK. perhaps this is revisionist history, but i had always been impressed with the level you had showed in officials, especially last year in scl. having success across multiple tiers (one of which being the om little cup) was very impressive to me and i was confident you'd be the right pick to smoothly handle such a new & volatile metagame. i know some people are put off by your sense of humour & general demeanour, not that it seems to bother you in any way, but i had always found your kinda brash & headstrong attitude quite funny. you would post a win, only to come back to the chat a day later to see we had thrown away what seemed like an insurmountable lead, you would then post a collection of ryan gosling gifs appropriate for the given situation. every week you would come in, win, leave.. and so it was very funny & memorable watching you celebrate after we finally managed to convert one of your advantages in a clutch midseason week after throwing away so many leads. you were reliable, you didn't cause any issues, and fun to team with. a shame you couldn't go for the 12-1 because in the form you're in i'm sure you would've managed to pick it up. congratulations on a brilliant season & thanks for the carry
Sjneider // i believe you said no to me 3 times before you eventually got sick of the begging and decided to give in. i'd hope you don't regret that decision now, even though i know we didn't see eye-to-eye on many things throughout the tour. seems kinda shocking that you didn't have a trophy up to this point considering how prolific you had been in oras & nu, not to mention the fact that i know you were around during the most recent west trophy era. cool to see you get one. the thing i'll probably remember most about our interactions is the multitude of times that we would hop in call and just start malding about how this team, a team we knew was good enough to win the tour, was inventing new ways to toss games at every turn. with the trophy in hand it's definitely funny to look back on, but i know at the time both of us were really struggling LOL. i don't know what the future neider timeline looks like regarding mons. i have always really respected and enjoyed your creativity & flair, i'd be excited to see you line up for another tour in the future. good luck with whatever route you decide to take
z0mOG // i feel as though you are always an undervalued player in team tournaments. found out recently that u apparently won a smogon tour?? you are an interesting teammate & definitely have some diva qualities, however, i think our personalities mesh together relatively well and i was happy to have you on board. you were unlucky in quite a few games & in my estimation deserved to have a considerably better record, although i do remember you being quite lucky during some spl season when you were playing adv so let's call your misfortune here just an evening of the odds.. you won a trophy here anyway (with a clutch tiebreak win (finally) oh my god massive clutch mode performance) so i would hope you are content with that
zee // tough season.. you are a very creative builder but often didn't quite do your builds justice during the in-game. i'm not going to act like i know the ins & outs of doubles overused but i feel confident that you could build on a performance like this if you opted to put more time in; staying solid in the early-midgame seems like it could take you a long way in terms of your progression in this tier. good luck if you decide to go that route & otherwise good luck with your vgc endeavours (?). you were always very zen & easy to get along with.. also congrats on finally getting onto the sheet lol
bage1, eragon11145, Nails, qsns, Schister, Smudge // didn't really interact much with any of you, but i appreciate you coming and helping zommy figure out what to do!
bb skarm // clutch prep & building work when we needed it the most. you put in a ton of work during the playoffs and helped us win an extremely important game with a brand new player; much appreciated
Chloe, damien the genius, Nat // none of you really did anything but you were all in the server. that was a 10 on the ferk-o-meter! :f:
entrocefalo // didn't interact with you very much either, but thanks for helping out (y)
fish anemometer // ho3n continues to rave about you so you must've done something right. your building seems pretty creative & fun which is definitely a big factor in a tier like pu.. thanks for the help
Sirwings // the only time i remember interacting with you was when you tried to veto a helper from being added when you yourself are a helper.. that was quite bizarre to me & definitely rubbed me the wrong way. other than that you seemed fine & i appreciated your assistance with the uu slot
tko // the only lc games we won were with teams made by you.. so basically you cheffed our winless slot into a couple of games - cheers
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hopefully this was illuminating in some way. i am extremely proud of the gibles for a great season, and am personally very happy with the successes i have had on smogon this year. hopefully this upcoming spl will continue the positive trend. i think fundamentally i will always prefer playing to managing. i still have a lot of drive & excitement for the game, i just fucking hated sv ou and had no interest in playing in this iteration of the tournament. i am definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.
thankyou // 39
Ok mais qui a demandé ?i'm not really one for shoutouts. i didn't make one after winning spl; but 2 trophies in a year, and semifinals in wcop (oceania's best ever finish in the modern era), 2023 has been a good year for me as far as pokemon is concerned. as a result, i have decided (along with shoutouts) to write a bit of a retrospective of my time on smogon so far. if you don't want to read it then feel free to just skip to the team shoutouts or whatever, but when other people have done things similar to this i have always found them to be fascinating reads and so i'm actually somewhat excited by the prospect of writing this out.
i'll start off strong, sure to impress my many detractors. perhaps this is just my ego talking, but i think i deserve more credit than i am often given, considering the trajectory that my tournament life has taken on smogon. i started out in officials before i could reach 1800 on the ou ladder, not as a function of the fact that i was in any way ready to be playing in official tournaments, but because the oceania world cup team was so bad that they just needed a body to be thrown into the ring to be obliterated by Tricking. while it will perhaps not continue to be the case going forward with the influx of new oceania talent (March Fires, Aberforth, and even newer guys like Leavers), i always felt as though, since the reintroduction of current gen world cup, i had a good shout to be one of, if not the single most important world cup players on smogon, relative to their value to their team (in close contention with freezai for india, at least). i feel as though many of the top teams could lose their best player and keep humming along at a very similar level, but in the case of oceania i felt personally responsible for a great deal of the success that we managed to achieve in that time. i was never the best player, i never had the best record. sure, i had improved considerably from my 1-8 beginnings, but that is a catastrophically low bar (which i would continue to routinely fall under for another few years). what i always liked to hang my hat on was the idea that i was the hardest worker. for multiple years straight i would invite more than 100 oceanic players from across the forums, encouraging them to try out, providing them with teams (if necessary), and then would spend time sorting through the hundreds of replays to see who we would invite back, who we needed to see more from, and who to keep an eye out for in future years. i always found it extremely insulting hearing other teams minimise the success of oceania.. saying stuff like 'yeah we scout for players too! i had to check the playoffs of olt, and the top 16 for smogon tour & ost - you're not the only team that does scouting! if you want the success, you just need to work harder' while we were starting a fucking pixelmon player that we found through tryouts, a guy who had never played a smogon tournament before. once the tournament began, i built or prepared almost every single world cup team for all 8 slots, every year oceania making playoffs, or finishing in 9th. despite year after year being ranked as one of the worst teams in the tournament, we consistently outperformed expectations.
outside of world cup, the last 3 years i have been a flex player, lining up in whatever role managers & team would ask of me.. and while i haven't been hitting home runs every week, i have taken a number of decent scalps, and am batting at .500 playing a number of tiers i am usually not particularly experienced in. overall, i think the transformation from categorically smogon's worst player of all time, to a .500 tour player with a trophy both managing and playing shows both how much i've improved from where i started, and also highlights what i believe are some of my best assets. i consider myself to be a hard worker, a good leader, and a team player. coming out with a win in my first ever proper managerial experience is, to me, not a fluke. i think i have put in the work & am deserving of what i have achieved.
i have fundamental limits as a player, i am always working to improve them, but i feel as though, realistically, i will never truly be a top player. while i would consider myself more patient than the average player, a factor that i try to use to my advantage where possible, i am often shortsighted & do not display good game sense. i know i have the capacity to play good games, or even to have a good season, but watching players like roro or tricking string together tournament after tournament of non-stop hits makes me unreasonably jealous. it's a level i wish to reach one day, but i don't have high hopes i'm going to get there.
finally, directing the focus away from mons & more towards me as a person; i am aware that i am somewhat of a contentious figure (though i am also aware some of this stems from people just wanting to belittle me for being bad at the game). i have gotten into my fare share of arguments, or have managed to piss people off for one reason or another. regarding that, i just wanted to say that there is very rarely malice or mal-intent behind anything i say. i'm sure anyone who knows me well, especially the guys from the ferk, would tell you that regardless of how much i can get on people's nerves, i am never trying to be toxic or exclusionary for the sake of it. i know i have a bitter & negative sense of humour. i consider myself to be honest person, but i am fundamentally unserious. i like to treat pokemon, and smogon, by extension, with the amount of gravitas that i think it deserves; very little. i like to say what's on my mind, occasionally to my detriment; i know it can rub people the wrong way. if i have had a negative interaction with you in the past and you think i have treated you unfairly, or you think i hate you, it is almost certainly nothing personal on my end. if you're interested in reaching out (or flaming me publicly, if that's your preference) i'm happy to hear it.
lastly, before i get into the gibles deep dive, i'd like to give some rapid-fire shoutouts to a few people that aren't in the team list, but have made my smogon experience so far an enjoyable one;
Aliss // 39 appreciates how positive & friendly you seemingly always are to me for no reason... a shame you suck at mons, but at least you're the 2-time!
Amaranth // i wouldn't consider us to be friends per se, we definitely don't agree on a lot of things. however, you gave me my first real break in spl, and seemingly always supported my endeavours in tournaments. i don't think i could justifiably say i'd be where i am right now in the timeline if not for your support as a player, a manager, or as a td
damien the genius // compulsive liar. browser discord user. i-kiribati. genius. mocap actor. fortnite pro. bumbling idiot
ez // you were probably my best friend in this community for like 5 years. i find your social climber tendencies extremely annoying & unbecoming, as a result we kinda grew apart and don't really talk too much anymore. fundamentally i think you are a good guy & i don't harbour any ill will towards you. i hope you are finding success as a unite main (?)
McMeghan // i have told you this plenty of times before, but you are my favourite player of all time. your creativity is boundless and you never fail to provide a spectacle when you take to the field. it was an extremely cool experience to team with you, not only because i thought it would never happen, but also because you are an extremely chill and fun guy to be around. i felt as though we meshed and got along very well, you seemed to vibe with my sense of humour too which was cool. relative to a lot of other top players that i have teamed with, you seemed to have a much more carefree & relatable (to me) approach to the game, which i really respected and appreciated. i wish you success in your future smogon endeavours as well as in life. much love
Nat // you have a worryingly unhealthy & tenuous relationship with pokemon, seemingly emblematic of larger issues. the fact that you take pokemon perhaps more seriously than anybody i have ever met, while i do quite the opposite, it seem like miracle that we get along at all. i consider you to be one of my best friends and i love & care about you deeply. i'm sure you know this already but i am here for you whenever you need it
Specs // i hope you are doing well, whatever you're doing now. i miss you buddy
talah // our entire relationship is seemingly founded on talking about kpop & kpop news (and maybe a mention of pokemon once a year). i haven't heard from you in a bit & your discord profile is now blank so i'm thinking perhaps you've decided to head out. if so, it was a pleasure hanging out with you so much, good luck with whatever you have going on
Tom Bus // ... and there he is! and there he is... and that is it! thats the guy!
Tony // i don't know you very well either, but i've had a bare few conversations with you about things perhaps a little too serious to be chatting about with a smogon random. i appreciate your sage advice & wisdom.
vesper // just heard you beat finchinator in some tryout games for central? nice work man!
lastly, to touch once more on the ferk . you guys are definitely the people i interact with the most. i would say the majority of my time not spent working is probably spent in a call, or playing a game with you guys. you are a fundamental part of the reason that i am still on this site; i love & appreciate all of you very much and whole-heartedly consider you guys my real, true friends.
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so... gibles. we definitely didn't have the best team in the tournament, either on paper, or in-game, but you don't need to be the best team in order to win it. we were lucky to have, in my opinion, a relatively strong matchup spread vs both the platoons & the islanders (i think we would've really struggled had we faced the terrors, as we showed during the regular season). but, you can only play the teams that appear in front of you, and so despite a number of shaky performances & plenty of inner season turmoil, i think it's fair to say that when it came time to show what we were worth; we did enough to be called deserving winners.
Cam // hello cammy. i genuinely don't know what you did for the team that was mons related. however, your 3 key abilities (getting in the call, posting gifs of otters, posting pictures of beer) were definitely important factors in creating a cohesive & fun team environment. your clutch lc loss really opened our eyes to the fact that the lc slot was doomed, i appreciate you taking one for the team there. you seem like a fun guy.. i hope you found this season fun and rewarding enough, even if you didn't get in the lineup in the tiers you wanted. enjoy the trophy and be sure to let me know how that 'fuck false' tattoo comes along... i'm sure you could get the rbyers & dppers to pay for it
cleann // THIS 99 OVERALL DEMIGOD INDIAN BUILD DUNKS ON EVERYBODY IN SCL, SAVES 2 WINLESS SLOTS, AND HAS ACCESS TO THE CLUTCH BADGE, ALLOWING IT TO PULL UP TO THE SCL PLAYOFFS AND WIN DO-OR-DIE GAMES TO SAVE YOUR SEASON -- obviously one of my besties.. i had said if i ever managed a tour that i was going to beg you to sign up and somehow the plan paid off. you said it best yourself, you are a chat presence specialist. I was constantly surprised & impressed by your funny gifs and timely emoji reactions. i cannot believe you managed to get a win in 2 different tiers considering you hadn't played mons in like 3 years, even more so considering your clear lack of skill when it comes to handling flying-type moves, but i'd like to think it goes to show that you've still got what it takes. if you can pick up sv lc & sv ru for the first time ever and bring 2 important wins... imagine what you're achieving with a whole season of hustling, grinding, and a heaping helping of kiribati pride. i would definitely consider you to be biyombo-like when it comes to your raw talent & skill for the game. congrats on the trophy. you are a king
Clementine // i found the opening handful of weeks of the season with you very frustrating. you would routinely tag and promise to get scouts done, only to almost never do them. the biggest contribution i remember you having at the start of the season was with our custom avatar (which is fire fwiw). however, your big flex mode before the season about your 'swiss army knife' skillset and how you were going to be an asset in the scout department just left me confused when i would look in the server & there were no scouts to be found. thankfully, once we got to the pointy end of the season you actually started to lock in, utilising your 459 discord servers full of pokemon emojis to provide detailed scouts for basically every single slot. hugely helpful, especially in the no replays era. i've said to you before that i think your playing skill isn't quite at the level for a tournament like this just yet, but your attitude is good & i hope at the very least this experience was enjoyable enough for to drive you to push further. congrats on the trophy
dcae // you started off with prep the way that i expected; creative offensive teams with cool techs & funky synergies. you never managed to do your prep any favours though, inexplicably tossing away your advantage week after week. a disheartening experience. eventually we sort've mutually decided that you needed to be benched, which you seemed fine with, but then your activity absolutely fell off a cliff & you turned into a categorical team cancer. you would go inactive for weeks at a time but would occasionally communicate through ninjadog via text message??? i think the thing which sucked the most was that i think you still have the capacity to be a good player, you evidently still have that creative flair & even though you seem washed at the moment you definitely showed signs of your game sense. ultimately this type of situation happening was always in the back of my mind as a possibility when i was looking to pick you up & the fault is partly on me for being so confident that ninjadog would be able to keep you in check lol. i appreciate you talking with me about your behaviour around the tour's conclusion, so you weren't fully oblivious to the situation, but i am still not thrilled with how the whole thing played out
Dr. Phd. BJ // the initial plan pre-auction was for you to dip your toes into the official scene & bring some good bench vibes; it was never in the plans for you to touch the field, especially not out of nu. however, the ru slot was dire city and so after you put your hand up we decided it'd be fine to give you a shot since things couldn't really get much worse. i think you're still quite a bit too green to be starting in a tour like this, but your chat presence & general attitude towards prep was outstanding and i'm sure everyone on the team would agree that you were a huge boon & contributed greatly to the success of our nu slot. you also had no problem vibing with me making fun of you, and you would even kick back sometimes which i found quite funny. congratulations on your doctorate & your green trophy as well
etern // despite the fact that we are both australian brothers, the 2 of us haven't really spoken a whole lot. you seem quite soft spoken, so beside bonding over making fun of nat, i don't really know you that well. the thing about you that surprised me the most was definitely the difference in your effort regarding prep & testing from wcop to scl; i absolutely did not expect you to be going this hard in prep every week after my 2 previous wcop experiences with you essentially boiled down to me passing you a team for every game (except for that time you cooked up tera water kingambit just completely out of nowhere???). your dedication with prep, alongside your hatred of the fabled avasey core were obviously huge tenets in the success of your season. the fact that you had the audacity to bring an altaria to your finals matchup, essentially playing the game 5v6, speaks to how much of a heater you were on.. nothing was going to stop you. an unexpected carry for sure. congrats on a great season & welcome to the australian new wave
Eternal Spirit // O MAGO -- it's so fun teaming with you bro. i think its the 3rd time we have teamed together (?) and i have thoroughly enjoyed it every time. your positivity is infectious, and you're such a fun & creative builder/player that i think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy watching you play. you stepped into a brand new tier in what i would say was unequivocally the most difficult pool in the tournament & managed to bring home a number of important wins. being so steady & reliable in such a competitive tier was hugely important for the success of our team. going into every game we knew we had a chance to get a win, no matter the opponent, plus we would probably get to see some funny mons and sets too lol. it was super cool to see you back in a new gen after the break, and i hope i get to team with you again in the future
Fc // i know your individual season didn't work out the way you would've liked. a 16k retain, you have set such high expectations for yourself with an establishing collection of strong tournament results (including an utter robbery of me in the wcop playoffs that i will never forget for as long as i live & breathe). for some reason my estimation of how bad your season went is somewhat at odds with your actual performance. i think it speaks to your pedigree & tenure as a player that what would be considered, for all intents & purposes, a completely average 5-6 record was sort've viewed as a failing. regardless, you saved the season with a clutch, series-saving win in the finals. we don't win this tour without that, so i'd say that was pretty neat. nice work & good luck in the future
Fogbound Lake // lossbound fake. you suck. i cannot believe you had the audacity to use a hustle pokemon (guaranteed loss) in an important playoff game. you should spend less focusing on your piss leaderboard time and put a bit more effort into doing this -> l2p
as soon as we picked up mind, you were an obvious next choice. i had teamed with you previously in scl (you played ubers back then & all i remember is you using insane crack like audino, suicune, or the dpp villain froslass) & you seemed to be vibing well in sv ou after a strong showing in wcop. you and mind clearly have great synergy, right down to the avatar choice. your game sense seems particularly strong, and you're definitely a bit of a showman, either that or you're just very good at !pick 1, 2. while your savage robbery of baloor definitely brings your rating down a peg, i still think your record is well deserved & you were instrumental in our success this season; both with the wins you brought in ou as well as your consistent prep help in ubers. thanks for the carry, congrats on a great season, the best ou record & the guarantee of an extremely entertaining game every week
GoldCat // you did almost no prep, waltzed into every game with a wo-chien semi-stall, and would proceed to get smashed because the team had no tools to effectively progress the game. you were completely unreceptive to feedback about your builds, often responding with stark phrases like "it's bad" or just "no" with no elaboration, rather than attempting to actively engage with anyone who was trying to assist you. i understand that you had said you weren't in need of dedicated support, but to avoid working with your teammates to the extent that you did was frustrating to watch. almost the entire team begged you to stop loading wo-chien balance after seeing you try to load it up again for the 3rd time in a row, and proceeded to try and move towards preparing another team. you unfortunately loaded into a mirror match (which you lost because you played less accurately than your opponent) however, the killing blow came next when you decided to drag your teammates in the ru discord, saying you were 'forced' to use a different team right before the game, seemingly insinuating the loss was the fault of the teammates who tried to help you, and not in any part due to the fact that you played worse than your opponent. this attitude was emblematic of your contributions to the team on the whole. you were completely inactive when you weren't in the starting lineup, despite multiple tags asking for your feedback & input, until around the start of the playoffs when you started helping a bare amount in the ru channel; i saw you post a team during the finals, that moment stood out to me as the most positive & helpful action you had performed all season. i don't think your season was completely irredeemable, once you hit the bench for the 2nd time you weren't actively damaging or cancerous to the team, and you even helped a little bit down the stretch. to your credit, your cheerleading during the playoffs was appreciated & i was much more contented with how you acted during the final weeks relative to how you were at the beginning of the season. regardless, you were without a doubt one of the most difficult & frustrating players i have ever shared a team with
justdrew // you are an intriguing character. despite constant reminders that someone with an unorthodox style like gama should be left to build on his own terms (unless he asks otherwise), you would constantly post completed teams & attempt to veto things he had built. all i asked you to do was be there for test games! you have an excitement for the game & desire to help that i think sometimes can be overbearing, but i know your heart is in a good place and that you are always just trying to do what you think is best for the team. i think it was fortunate that the slots you were supporting were both the carefree type of player who didn't really mind your presence in their team channel, because i know there are many other types of players who wouldn't be able to handle how much you were always trying to drive the direction of prep. i know i found it frustrating multiple times watching you try to veto perfectly fine teams that gama had built because they weren't to your liking, although gama was definitely a lot friendlier about it than i was. to your credit, your high activity was definitely a positive when it came to things like playing test games, i don't think gama would've been able to get up to speed as fast as he did if you weren't so reliably there when he was asking for people to spar with, and the same goes for ho3n. i think in general your always-on style of prep & support is going to turn some people away and burn some people out, personally it isn't my style. however, i know there are many others on smogon who prefer & appreciate this kind of style, so that's just my 2 cents. congrats on the trophy & thanks for your help
mind gaming // before the season all i really knew about you was that you won a lot of games and that you were apparently somewhat of an erratic character.. now that the tour is over i can say that i don't know much more about you because you left the server halfway through the tour, but even when you were here you didn't post any prep or use your channel at all LOL. a few people had messaged me before the auction saying that you were a unreliable character to pick up and that the possibility of you doing something like this was high (nat said you were quite similar to them in some ways -- a notion which was quickly dispelled after you proceeded to join the vc more than a dozen times in the first 2 weeks) however, neider and i had decided that risk was worth it given the absolute HEATER you had been on in both tours prior to this. suffice to say that risk paid off. overall i found you to be a lot more sociable and easygoing than what i had been lead to expect, although our first interaction (you jumping in call during the auction and deriding me for spending 36k without notifying you) definitely wasn't the smoothest of openings. i think some of your behaviour is misconstrued to be toxic or negative when it instead seems clear to me that you are extremely competitive & have a great passion for the game. the fact you managed to pump out consistently innovative & solid teams for both yourself and fog over the course of 3 months is something that i think would be very tough to manage if you didn't have a such strong competitive desire. the fact that the 2 of you combined for 18 wins speaks volumes. i'm glad you were able to defeat the tiebreak allegations with 2 massive, clutch victories. you now have a comfortable claim to the winningest individual year in team tour history, you definitely deserve this 1. thanks for the carry & congratulations
ninjadog // the most expensive 3k of all time... thankfully you managed to save a shambolic season with a clutch win right at the death. very glad the lc playoff flex worked out because going winless into a trophy would have been extremely fraudulent.. and your previous role as dcae's translator didn't seem to be pan out very well either... probably a good time for you to pick up a trophy as you seem to be entering the twilight of your career (washed). fortunately, a trophy cements you as a member of the australian new wave, acting as an inspiration & perhaps a talismanic figure for newer players such as damien the genius and drifting. anyway, good luck with the transition to vgc buddy, maybe you'll make like a morpeko and really get rolling over there, huh?
Piyush25 // soon to be just "Piyush" mods - i was impressed by your world cup performance and was very keen to pick you up, so i was relieved when i got back in the call for the last nom of the auction & was able to sneak you in before the buzzer. unfortunately in the tour you barely got to do anything with mind & fog not posting their prep lol. however, i was keen to get you in the starting lineup at some point and it was very cool to see you pick up a win. you probably need to invest a little more time into your general sense for the game.. both of your losses came as a result of some instability in your play, once in the opening & once in the endgame, but i don't think you're miles off the pace, you can definitely get there. sorry this team environment wasn't super conducive to you learning & growing as a player.. but you did get a trophy and a win, so i'd hope that was enough to be worth it
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d // neidy and i both knew we wanted you the instant your name was read off the signup sheet.. call it a soul read but somehow we knew you were going to COOK. perhaps this is revisionist history, but i had always been impressed with the level you had showed in officials, especially last year in scl. having success across multiple tiers (one of which being the om little cup) was very impressive to me and i was confident you'd be the right pick to smoothly handle such a new & volatile metagame. i know some people are put off by your sense of humour & general demeanour, not that it seems to bother you in any way, but i had always found your kinda brash & headstrong attitude quite funny. you would post a win, only to come back to the chat a day later to see we had thrown away what seemed like an insurmountable lead, you would then post a collection of ryan gosling gifs appropriate for the given situation. every week you would come in, win, leave.. and so it was very funny & memorable watching you celebrate after we finally managed to convert one of your advantages in a clutch midseason week after throwing away so many leads. you were reliable, you didn't cause any issues, and fun to team with. a shame you couldn't go for the 12-1 because in the form you're in i'm sure you would've managed to pick it up. congratulations on a brilliant season & thanks for the carry
Sjneider // i believe you said no to me 3 times before you eventually got sick of the begging and decided to give in. i'd hope you don't regret that decision now, even though i know we didn't see eye-to-eye on many things throughout the tour. seems kinda shocking that you didn't have a trophy up to this point considering how prolific you had been in oras & nu, not to mention the fact that i know you were around during the most recent west trophy era. cool to see you get one. the thing i'll probably remember most about our interactions is the multitude of times that we would hop in call and just start malding about how this team, a team we knew was good enough to win the tour, was inventing new ways to toss games at every turn. with the trophy in hand it's definitely funny to look back on, but i know at the time both of us were really struggling LOL. i don't know what the future neider timeline looks like regarding mons. i have always really respected and enjoyed your creativity & flair, i'd be excited to see you line up for another tour in the future. good luck with whatever route you decide to take
z0mOG // i feel as though you are always an undervalued player in team tournaments. found out recently that u apparently won a smogon tour?? you are an interesting teammate & definitely have some diva qualities, however, i think our personalities mesh together relatively well and i was happy to have you on board. you were unlucky in quite a few games & in my estimation deserved to have a considerably better record, although i do remember you being quite lucky during some spl season when you were playing adv so let's call your misfortune here just an evening of the odds.. you won a trophy here anyway (with a clutch tiebreak win (finally) oh my god massive clutch mode performance) so i would hope you are content with that
zee // tough season.. you are a very creative builder but often didn't quite do your builds justice during the in-game. i'm not going to act like i know the ins & outs of doubles overused but i feel confident that you could build on a performance like this if you opted to put more time in; staying solid in the early-midgame seems like it could take you a long way in terms of your progression in this tier. good luck if you decide to go that route & otherwise good luck with your vgc endeavours (?). you were always very zen & easy to get along with.. also congrats on finally getting onto the sheet lol
bage1, eragon11145, Nails, qsns, Schister, Smudge // didn't really interact much with any of you, but i appreciate you coming and helping zommy figure out what to do!
bb skarm // clutch prep & building work when we needed it the most. you put in a ton of work during the playoffs and helped us win an extremely important game with a brand new player; much appreciated
Chloe, damien the genius, Nat // none of you really did anything but you were all in the server. that was a 10 on the ferk-o-meter! :f:
entrocefalo // didn't interact with you very much either, but thanks for helping out (y)
fish anemometer // ho3n continues to rave about you so you must've done something right. your building seems pretty creative & fun which is definitely a big factor in a tier like pu.. thanks for the help
Sirwings // the only time i remember interacting with you was when you tried to veto a helper from being added when you yourself are a helper.. that was quite bizarre to me & definitely rubbed me the wrong way. other than that you seemed fine & i appreciated your assistance with the uu slot
tko // the only lc games we won were with teams made by you.. so basically you cheffed our winless slot into a couple of games - cheers
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hopefully this was illuminating in some way. i am extremely proud of the gibles for a great season, and am personally very happy with the successes i have had on smogon this year. hopefully this upcoming spl will continue the positive trend. i think fundamentally i will always prefer playing to managing. i still have a lot of drive & excitement for the game, i just fucking hated sv ou and had no interest in playing in this iteration of the tournament. i am definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.
thankyou // 39
Just wanna thank the Gibles for believing in me and supporting me from the very beginning considering I'd been coming off some pretty middling performances since 2022. It was really exciting to be given another chance to play and prove myself and I'm beyond thrilled that I managed to put in another strong record and come away with a trophy. More importantly though this SCL was big for me because it was the first tour in years that I can say I truly enjoyed, no matter what the result was week by week, I was determined to just relish in the experience and take joy out of getting to build and play in this environment. I told myself before signups went up that I'd only sign up on the condition that I take a step back and not put unnecessary pressure on myself or stress out over something that's meant to be fun, and I truly feel like this SCL was a breakthrough for me in terms of shifting my whole attitude about the game for the better.
I'm not great at individual shoutouts but I think the way we all rallied together during playoffs was amazing and pretty much everyone played their part in contributing to the win. I can honestly say that I got along with every single person on the team and each and every one of you were cool. Massive respect to our tiebreak players that clutched it for us and played under what I can only imagine was intensely stressful, especially enjoyed seeing z0mOG go crazy in that final DOU game after getting some really poor RNG for a lot of the tour, you did your big one there goat. I also wanna give a special shoutout to Dr. Phd. BJ for supporting me tirelessly from w1 to finals whether it be through testing, being there to filter through my ideas, or just chat about the meta and keep me company. You made the whole tour super enjoyable and I'm glad to have been given the opportunity to meet you and become friends, and just know that I forgive you for vetoing the Sun and Veluza HO's. Also wanna shoutout Clementine and justdrew for being fantastic support and imo key to keeping the teams morale up, ya'll are great presences, lovely people, and 100% deserve to get picked up again next SCL. Also S/O to S1nn0hC0nfirm3d for suggesting acidpress goodra in the literal first hour of the tour, you're basically 13-1 in my eyes because that set went crazy in both games I brought it, congrats on your ridiculously impressive run too. Finally, s/o to Nat, your physical presence in our teamchat was awe inspiring and you have truly earned your title as the godly goat of Smogon.
Looking forward to building off of this in 2024, long live the Gible gibs.
I'm not great at individual shoutouts but I think the way we all rallied together during playoffs was amazing and pretty much everyone played their part in contributing to the win. I can honestly say that I got along with every single person on the team and each and every one of you were cool. Massive respect to our tiebreak players that clutched it for us and played under what I can only imagine was intensely stressful, especially enjoyed seeing z0mOG go crazy in that final DOU game after getting some really poor RNG for a lot of the tour, you did your big one there goat. I also wanna give a special shoutout to Dr. Phd. BJ for supporting me tirelessly from w1 to finals whether it be through testing, being there to filter through my ideas, or just chat about the meta and keep me company. You made the whole tour super enjoyable and I'm glad to have been given the opportunity to meet you and become friends, and just know that I forgive you for vetoing the Sun and Veluza HO's. Also wanna shoutout Clementine and justdrew for being fantastic support and imo key to keeping the teams morale up, ya'll are great presences, lovely people, and 100% deserve to get picked up again next SCL. Also S/O to S1nn0hC0nfirm3d for suggesting acidpress goodra in the literal first hour of the tour, you're basically 13-1 in my eyes because that set went crazy in both games I brought it, congrats on your ridiculously impressive run too. Finally, s/o to Nat, your physical presence in our teamchat was awe inspiring and you have truly earned your title as the godly goat of Smogon.
Looking forward to building off of this in 2024, long live the Gible gibs.
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Congratz.