Hello, I figured I would share and write about my NU rankings to give everyone an entertaining/informative before PRs are released and build hype for SCL. Woo yeah go SCL!!
1.
TDK [Showdown Shoguns]
You wouldn't pay 38K for #2, would you? After an absolutely dominant 7-0 showing in NUPL, TDK looks to take on many of the same opponents in an official. His massive amount of experience gives him an additional edge over a pool he already dominated to a great extent. However, it's very possible that things go downhill. The Shoguns drafted absolutely 0 NU support, and tko/ninjadog are really not builders; TDK's most recent lower tier showing was an absolute beatdown by Punny in the Grand Slam round of 16; and he just went negative in his most recent tour, WCOP. Sounds like a lot of flaws for a #1 rank, so I should reiterate that his NUPL was truly incredible -- with a similarly low amount of support, he was able to thrive, and the Shoguns will surely be praying that this formula works again.
2.
Kushalos [Indigo Platoon, meri berry + 100%GXE support]
Kushalos returns to NU in his typical fashion, coming back for an official after a very long hiatus. Despite his appearance of being totally dormant, he's a very dedicated player during the official tours; I remember him challenging me to test games quite often last Snake. He's one of the only proven NUers here, and meri berry's support is an excellent asset -- though she may be busy supporting PU too, 100%GXE has been trying out NU some lately and can cook up some very solid defensive teams. Kushalos feels like an extremely reliable pick here, too; the only imaginable weakness is that his long time away from the tier may cause him to be caught off-guard by some techs. However, I could easily see him taking the top spot.
[VERY large gap]
3.
Sensei Axew [Uncharted Terrors, lax + shiloh support]
I'm probably biased with this ranking because Sensei's a close friend of mine. However, my justification for it is that he has more experience than most of the other NU mainers due to being in last Snake (and, to a lesser extent, getting to play against the strong Bo3 NUPL pool where he went 6-2) while not being as 'crust'/inactive as the more experienced people on this list. I think he has a lot of motivation, enough experience to do well, and lax + shiloh's advice (though probably more about the mental game than in the builder) can help him perform really well.
4.
OnArceus [Orange Islanders, pdt support]
OnArceus has been extremely impressive to me -- his creativity is second to none, he is far more consistent and reliable than most new players, and his individual results are fantastic across multiple tiers. He won an RU Seasonal without even trying!! However, he does have a tendency to use fairly jank teams/mons that may shoot him in the foot. He also hasn't proven himself against top players yet; 7-2 is an extremely impressive NUPL record, but the 2 losses came against the only 2 players in this pool that he fought, TDK and Sabella. His potential is sky-high but there's also room to underperform this ranking if he struggles in-game against all of the pool rather than just the formidable top 2.
5.
Davon [Technical Machines, confide support]
Davon is Mr. .500 in my eyes; a very consistent player with a high floor but (relatively) low ceiling, he's almost always able to put up records around the .500 mark. He's had flashes of outperforming that, such as his Open win last year (well, not a team tour, but certainly an above-average performance rofl); he's also underperformed that, such as his 0-3/4(?) record last NUPL and the one time he should've lost to Finch in r1 of circuit playoffs but then inexplicably didn't. However, I think it's very likely he'll end up with a respectable debut record here; 4-5 is both my expectation and the probably floor for what he could put up in this tour.
6.
Rodriblutar [Studio Gible, Garay Oak support]
(full disclosure -- I had flipped Rodri and Sabella's placements in the rankings I submitted. However, after thinking about it a bit more I think being with his Spaniard friends should boost his motivation enough to warrant a higher ranking).
Rodri has been v inactive and cancered on a number of recent tours, and he also needs Garay Oak to build for him, which I don't think Garay has done in a while. Shouldn't be too hard to pick up after a week or two, though I can see that becoming taxing as Garay has to do a lot of other managerial stuff to support the other slots. If everything goes right, though, Rodriblutar is more experienced than nearly all of the newcomers in this pool and could absolutely achieve a top 3 finish based off of that; the question, of course, is how things will work out in practice. I'm definitely interested to see what this duo cooks up in the builder, since absolutely any outcome is possible here.
7.
S1nn0h C0nfirm3d [Power Plant Dynamos]
The most recent NU Open winner might seem a bit low in these rankings, particularly since he'd tell you that he also proved himself in team tours through a 5-2 NUPL campaign. However, after finishing 2-5 in SSD IV big questions remain about his ability to diversify team choices, execute well in-game, and whether he'll actually care or fall back on memeing in the team chat as he deals with the busy-ness of law school. His potential is definitely there, since in NU Open he cared more than anyone and executed very well to win against tough opponents like Punny, Charmflash, SoulWind, and myself. (edit: LOL im not comparing myself to the rest of the list! I just remembered playing ho3n in the tour… yall get what i mean) However, last Snake raised a lot of doubts he'll have to disprove.
8.
Sabella [Arena Spartans, Ren-chon and Sjneider support]
While this ranking would look way out of place 2 years ago, Sabella has struggled a lot in recent team tours, going negative in the past two SPLs and starting last Snake 0-5. He did go 4-1 in NUPL, taking down his fellow SCL competitors Davon, OnArceus, and S1nn0h in the process, so there's definitely potential -- but there's only so much that NUPL can do to counteract the recent trend in officials. Bafflingly, he also found himself in the 1-4 bracket in NU Swiss, which certainly causes doubt about whether he's on top of the meta at this moment. Ren-chon can be a big asset in the builder, and neider possibly can too (though his motivation for doing so is probably low given his sign-up post). These two might be able to get him to his past level of success, but Sabella will need to become a lot better in the current meta and reverse a trend of underwhelming performances in officials, which all appears to make this an uphill battle.
9.
TeamCharm [Arena Spartans, snaga support]
TeamCharm is a very baffling player that often uses completely wild sets and teams; in that sense, he fits well with his manager snaga, who quite often uses off-meta techs in subforum PLs and in RU last Snake (though not to the same extent as TeamCharm has). Making Slam playoffs and finals of NU Open are both very impressive achievements for a player new to the tournament scene, though these performances have come with embarassing collapses such as completely mishandling stall against CBU in the playoffs and losing to his teammate Highways clicking SD + Bullet Punch 6 times in UU Open. Snaga put up a good NUPL record for the winning NUPL team, so it's very possible that he'll be able to build quality squads to give TeamCharm an edge; TeamCharm's own building also has the potential for success, since he recently went 4-2 with it in PUPL (along with the aforementioned NU Open/Slam success). However, while an impressive performance from the newcomer is definitely possible, I think there's a very significant potential for collapse in this slot which is what compels me to give them the last place in these PRs. They are just PRs, though, so good luck; hopefully you can outperform this.
Good luck to everyone playing in SCL. Go Foxes & Xiri