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Welcome to the first playoffs round of PUWC, and congratulations to the 6 teams that made it this far! The top 2 teams, ROW and Europe, get a bye, while the other 4 teams battle it out for a chance to make it to semifinals.
Schedule via Smogon VMs. It's easier for us to make decisions for activity calls when we can actually see what went down with scheduling.
If you are unable to schedule with your opponent, please let your captains know ASAP so they can communicate that to the hosts or the other team's captains for a potential substitute.
Substitutions may be made after a week has started. When making a substitution, please tag the hosts, the captains of the opposing team, and all of the players affected by the substitute to ensure that everyone is made aware. Players who have already played in the week or were subbed out in the same week cannot be subbed back in.
If a match remains incomplete by the time of the deadline, it will be subject to an activity call.
Post replays. Not only are they useful for confirming wins, they contribute to usage stats and allow the people who couldn't watch the games live to watch them later. Your win won't be counted without a replay
Managers: Please send me your lineups in the same format that I used to post pairings. It makes it much easier to post future rounds more quickly.
India (0) vs. (0) US South
SV1: RaJ.Shoot vs. The Strap
SV2: myjava vs. Taka
SV3: Piyush25 vs. pdt
SV4: Tanish vs. MZ
SV5: skimmythegod vs. Floss
SV6: TGA vs. Xrn
SV7: sapphiree vs. Danny
SV8: Faaagamer vs. ManOfMany
Benelux (0) vs. (0) US Midwest
SV1: Blue YM vs. passion
SV2: OranBerryBlissey10 vs. avarice
SV3: Wanony vs. sasha
SV4: ojr vs. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SV5: Kipkluif vs. Bouff
SV6: Michielleus vs. zioziotrip
SV7: Fant'sy Beast vs. Expulso
SV8: Quinn vs. justdrew
I know this is normally not the place to put thank you posts, but im not sure where else to put it and i wanted to thank the team so here we go.
I wanna thank team US West for a wonderful tour! I know we didnt get the result we wanted, but remember that we tried our blast and had a blast doing it. You all are great people and i really want to work with you all again next year. Im going to give some shoutouts to a few people :
velvet - Thank you so much for being my co after i asked you out of the blue after dicussing w you how i needed a co in smogcord lol. You were great and took the load off of managing heavily for me.
waterfals - You are going to win a PU tour one day. The way you offered yourself to help everyone, worked on our teamdumps and scouts, and just stayed a positive presense was incredible. If you ever need someone to put a good word for you in a tour, hmu.
skierdude101LustfulLicePokesliceLettuceLeaf07 - You 4 were great and helped out tremendously. For a bunch of not mainers and new tour players, you guys did incredible and im proud of you all. hope to see you all again o7
And to the rest of my team and its helpers, maroonskierdude101SumbbleTheblobfishman9BigFatMantisskrimps and so many others, thanks all so much for joining the team and the ride. It was great working with you all and i wish everyone the best of luck on whatever tour future you all will see. See you all in 2024, we will get the bag next time.
India (2) vs. (6)US South
India brough fairly standard HO teams in most of their games in the first round. I think in terms of talent South is a little more stacked and I expect them to have some strong teams ready to be deployed in the quarter finals. I think there are a few matchups that could go either way but there's a few more where South is heavily favored in my opinion.
SV1: RaJ.Shoot vs. The Strap 25/75
The Strap makes up for their limited tier knowledge with confidence and solid play. Raj.Shoot did okay during the first round but I think Mr. Strap is heavily favored here.
SV2: myjava vs. Taka 30/70
myjava had a strong last game, so if they can continue that success in round 2 this could be a fun game. However, Taka was really strong in round 1 going 3-0 in a fairly stacked group. I expect this one to go to Taka.
SV3: Piyush25 vs. pdt 40/60
Piyush is a good player but as far as I know pdt has better tier knowledge. I think if there's no significant advantage for Piyush on team preview pdt has a good chance to take this one.
SV4: Tanish vs. MZ 50/50
Tanish and MZ both had good showings on the circuit this year, but Tanish signed up for more SV events. That being said MZ had a better first round going 3-0 in a decently strong group. This could go either way but I'm a Tanish fanboy so i'm bolding him here.
SV5: skimmythegod vs. Floss 50/50
skimmy the GOD
SV6: TGA vs. Xrn 40/60
xrn is the better 3 letter name
SV7: sapphiree vs. Danny 35/65
Danny is a solid player and I expect a good performance here. I think sapphiree got a name change recently so maybe they'll get a buff from that.
SV8: Faaagamer vs. ManOfMany 25/75
ManOfMany has good tier knowledge and Faaagamer didn't show me enough during the first round to convince me that they'll be able to close the knowledge gap with their gameplay. On the other hand, Faaagamer didn't get a shot until the end of the round so with more time to prepare maybe they can pull out the W.
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Benelux (3) vs. (5)US Midwest
Benelux started off strong but I think they're a top heavy team with a mix of solid well known players and less experienced players. Midwest is strong across the board with some of their weaker round 1 performances coming from very strong SV players like justdrew and S1nn0hC0nfirm3d. This predict comes down to the fact that Benelux probably has to play out of their minds to keep up with Midwest's insane roster.
SV1: Blue YM vs. passion 65/35
Blue YM seems to be one of the stronger players on Benelux and passion had an iffy first round so I think Blue YM takes this one.
SV2: OranBerryBlissey10 vs. avarice 40/60
OBB didn't have a great showing in the first round, but the group was fairly stacked and I know historically OBB is a strong player so I think this could go the other way very easily. Avarice has been on a tear lately, and though i'm not super familiar with the community yet i've seen their name around quite a bit so I expect a solid game here.
SV3: Wanony vs. sasha 35/65
Wanony struggled in the first round, and although sasha didn't end up playing a single game, I think no showing is slightly better than a poor showing. Hope wanony can prove me wrong though.
SV4: ojr vs. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d 25/75
ojr had a decent first round while ho3 underperformed. I know ho3 is busy with scl finals so there's a chance that this game gets less attention, but now that we're in playoffs I expect ho3 to try a little harder here.
SV5: Kipkluif vs. Bouff 60/40
I know Bouff is a strong player, but I think Kipkluif showed some very patient play in round 1 and my gut tells me they take this game. I expect this one to be very competitive.
SV6: Michielleus vs. zioziotrip 50/50
Probably most even game in this series. Both players went 3-0 in their groups, and although neither group was necessarily stacked I think both of these players showed very dominant performances. I'm just going with my gut on this one but I feel like Michielleus has had some very strong showings here and I expect that to continue.
SV7: Fant'sy Beast vs. Expulso 45/55
Fant'sy Beast was the other benelux player that had an insanely strong first round, and unlike Michielleus Fant'sy had some beasts in their group. Despite that I think i'm a little more convinced that Expulso can continue to perform well into the playoffs. This is also a pretty 50/50 matchup but I expect Expulso to bring a better team.
SV8: Quinn vs justdrew 35/65
justdrew had a rough first round but I have full confidence that they'll bring a creative team to this game. Quinn did okay but I think this one is favored for midwest imo.
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I want to add a short shoutout (edit - ended up being kind of long so I put it in a spoiler for whoever wants to read them) to my US West teammates, this was my first team tournament and everyone has been saying nice things to me so I just want to say how thankful I am for getting the chance to not only get picked but be a starter.
Bella and velvet were awesome first captains, playing good cop(Bella) and bad cop(velvet) to try and motivate us even after we had a rough start.
Bella - I specifically want to give a shout to bella for not just being a good captain but also being very welcoming in general. I came into the community pretty recently and Bella has only had nice things to say, so I really appreciate all the kind words.
skierdude101 and Pokeslice gave me a lot of helpful tips about keeping a good mindset even after a loss and improving as a player so I really appreciate that. Ski also helped me refine my builds and let me bounce ideas off of him. I hope I can team with both of you in the future.
BigFatMantis showed me that being a good Pokemon player isn't about tier knowledge or tireless preparation, it's about showing up and outplaying your opponent.
LustfulLice helped me test and was willing to help me build and even used parts of some of my teams which was a big confidence booster for me.
LettuceLeaf07 was probably the person who helped me test the most, and was kind of my equal since this the first real team tour for both of us. I hope we get to team again in the future, and I can already tell you're going to be a really strong player if you keep your head up and stick around for awhile.
skrimps and Theblobfishman9 - both helped me and a lot of other players test, blob was posting cool off-meta sets in chat and kind of introducing the team to lesser used mons. skrimps was almost always up for tests before our games and was always positive, I know both of you are good players in your own right and neither one of you ever complained about coming off the bench which was really cool. I wouldn't have blinked if I had to give up my starting slot to either one of you.
Sumbble - you were a last minute replacement for sasha, but you earned that spot by sticking around and chatting even after you got cut from the original team, and you have potential as a player. I hope you stick around the community and come back stronger for future tournaments.
Sorry this was a long winded post, but my US West teammates know that once I get on a roll I like to type A LOT. I know I didn't give my best performance in this tournament, and I won't forget the feeling of a choking away a game that in the end would have netted us a playoffs spot, but I plan on learning from it and coming back even better in the future.
India (5) vs. (3) US South 
Benelux (5) vs. (3) US Midwest 
