Smogon Premier League XIV - Commencement Thread

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Vulpix03

is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
RUPL Champion
The humble BIGs gave everyone a chance to get drafted if they were able to correctly answer 6 questions. Unfortunately none of y'all got them right lol...

Michielleus was the closest at a whopping 5/6, but failed the Nakano question (Miku is the best girl like come on).

I guess to prove I wasn't bull shitting I'll give the answers below:

Which animal does Ox the Fox identify as?
This stumped a lot of y'all but the correct answer was "none of the above" since he identifies as the GOAT.

What is the GOAT Christmas song? (song title and artist)
All I want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey

Who is the most attractive woman Pete Davidson has dated?

I was accepting a few answers for this, Ariana Grande and Kaia Gerber. The 4 people who said Kim Kardashian should be ashamed... you know who you are.

What 5-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read upside down?
Now the answer I had in mind was SWIMS but I realize that I worded the question wrong, so CHOKE and HIKED get points.

Who is the best Nakano? Explain your answer.

Screenshot (20).png

The Calculus Question.
Ngl I lost the answer showing work but it's ~-3.882
 

Goodbye & Thanks

Thrown in a fire?
The humble BIGs gave everyone a chance to get drafted if they were able to correctly answer 6 questions. Unfortunately none of y'all got them right lol...

Michielleus was the closest at a whopping 5/6, but failed the Nakano question (Miku is the best girl like come on).

I guess to prove I wasn't bull shitting I'll give the answers below:

Which animal does Ox the Fox identify as?
This stumped a lot of y'all but the correct answer was "none of the above" since he identifies as the GOAT.

What is the GOAT Christmas song? (song title and artist)
All I want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey

Who is the most attractive woman Pete Davidson has dated?
I was accepting a few answers for this, Ariana Grande and Kaia Gerber. The 4 people who said Kim Kardashian should be ashamed... you know who you are.

What 5-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read upside down?
Now the answer I had in mind was SWIMS but I realize that I worded the question wrong, so CHOKE and HIKED get points.

Who is the best Nakano? Explain your answer.

The Calculus Question.
Ngl I lost the answer showing work but it's ~-3.882
This is the type of diligent player scouting that will ensure the BIGS’ tradition of success continues this SPL. Go BIGS!!!
 
My piece of advice: simply have fun. I had optimal performances when I had no stress and didn't put pressure on myself to live up to someone's expectations. As a first time SPL participant, you're probably looking at this like a life or death scenario where this is your only way to imprint yourself on the tournament scene. Go into each week confident, do your best, learn from your mistakes, and as I said have fun with it.

Will enjoy watching replays as a logged out ghost user. Good luck to all teams and the old timers still keeping the flame lit.
 
Congregation of the Classiest BOUNTY OPPORTUNITY


SPL MANAGERS! Listen up! This is a great opportunity for you to get FREE discord nitro paid for you by me! All you have to do is destroy the Classiest! Details below!


:Weakness Policy: Backstory :Weakness Policy:

0CFB66EE-31F0-4F81-92FE-05D91DCCCFB0.jpeg

On December 24th, 2022, I messaged Classiest managers d0nut and Amaranth for an opportunity. I’m a rising SM OU player playing in BKCPL currently, and I figured I could get some experience seeing firsthand what the SPL scene is like as a supporter. I offered to scout, build, playtest, and hang with the team without them needing to waste a roster spot, as I am tbh not good enough to be even a 3k sub. To me, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable request. However, despite my near 4 years of smogon experience, multiple tournament victories, and 4-digit react score (proving I am not some random), the Classiest managers failed to even dignify my request with a response. !:red card: MID ALERT :red card:!

Despite this heinous action, I was willing to let bygones be bygones. After all, I am just some bad pokemon player reaching out to a random SPL team because the manager has a Danganronpa pfp. However, I look at the commencement thread to see Amaranth parading about how he “loves the newcomer.” This bewildered me, considering he ignored a newcomer who wasn’t even asking for a roster spot. Amaranth made a significant enemy on this day, and I vowed to have my revenge. But how could a smogon bottom-feeder like me do something stupid and petty for attention? I decided to use the only leverage I had. :amulet coin: Money :amulet coin:. After getting approval from Smogon owner and Smogon Tour runner up Finchinator, I knew what I had to do!

:Choice Specs: The Challenge :Choice Specs:
For the remaining 9 sets of SPL managers, your goal is to defeat the Congregation of the Classiest by the biggest margin possible! I’m not just talking about winning, I’m talking about crush them! I want to see 12-0s, 11-1s, and more weeks of that nature! Remind d0nut and Amaranth of what’s important in this world: respecting annoying internet randoms! The managers on the team that defeats the Congregation of the Classiest by the biggest margin at the end of the season will receive 1 month of gifted discord nitro. DM me on discord at Bolivia#8459 to receive your gift! Exciting stuff, right?

:Assault Vest: Bonus Opportunities :Assault Vest:
1) Obliteration
If your team defeats the Congregation of the Classiest 12-0, then in addition to the managers, every starting player of that week will receive 1 month of discord nitro (classic) as well!

2) Estarossa
Smogon user TLTK mentioned how a number of strong GSC players went undrafted. One of them was Estarossa. I’ve never met them, but they have a cool name, so I have more cool news! If a manager picks Estarossa up in a midseason move (cause I think that’s possible, but I’m not sure), and then Estarossa wins a GSC game against the Classiest, I will give that SPL manager 1 year of discord nitro (classic)!

Also, I am willing to buy someone a $5-10 steam game instead if they prefer that!

Good luck, everyone! Make sure to show the Congregation of the Cringest who’s boss!
 

teal6

is a Tournament Directoris a Forum Moderatoris a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SCL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Moderator
Even having a lot of friends in the tournament scene is no guarantee of being drafted. Often people assume that being a cool, handsome, math and chess enthusiast who has played many tournament games will get you drafted, but unfortunately, I was betrayed by every single one of my allies and also did not get picked up. This tournament is a sham from top to bottom.
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Even having a lot of friends in the tournament scene is no guarantee of being drafted. Often people assume that being a cool, handsome, math and chess enthusiast who has played many tournament games will get you drafted, but unfortunately, I was betrayed by every single one of my allies and also did not get picked up. This tournament is a sham from top to bottom.
do you use lichess? wanna play sometime? i didn't want to play in spl anyways.
 
The information I handle allows me to affirm that an organization like Smogon needs social privileges to favor the social cohesion of its collaborators. This means that most players on this forum will suffer arbitrary discrimination at some point, but in return they will be able to more easily enjoy the benefits of the work done by the organization's contributors. Well, if there were no social privileges in Smogon, the motivation of the contributors would be lower and that would reduce the efficiency of the forum. I appreciate the work done by the Smogon contributors because that's how I was able to find a fun hobby in a forum full of options and materials that I can use completely free to hone my skills and play better. I hope Smogon continues to work like this so I can keep using it as much as I want. Smogon has given me some valuable things and I'm sure it will give me many more in the future, let's keep growing together for many more years! SPL is a privileged place and I'm sure there are many other privileges within this forum and that is something that can cause disagreement among people. As an organizational psychologist, my recommendation is that Smogon continue with an elitist line of work but without abandoning the constant dialogue with all its members, since the lack of information sometimes produces prejudices and it is normal for people to generate conflicts when they feel dissatisfied. What Smogon needs is a little more openness to dialogue, and this is a strategy that could certainly strengthen them.
 
The information I handle allows me to affirm that an organization like Smogon needs social privileges to favor the social cohesion of its collaborators. This means that most players on this forum will suffer arbitrary discrimination at some point, but in return they will be able to more easily enjoy the benefits of the work done by the organization's contributors. Well, if there were no social privileges in Smogon, the motivation of the contributors would be lower and that would reduce the efficiency of the forum. I appreciate the work done by the Smogon contributors because that's how I was able to find a fun hobby in a forum full of options and materials that I can use completely free to hone my skills and play better. I hope Smogon continues to work like this so I can keep using it as much as I want. Smogon has given me some valuable things and I'm sure it will give me many more in the future, let's keep growing together for many more years! SPL is a privileged place and I'm sure there are many other privileges within this forum and that is something that can cause disagreement among people. As an organizational psychologist, my recommendation is that Smogon continue with an elitist line of work but without abandoning the constant dialogue with all its members, since the lack of information sometimes produces prejudices and it is normal for people to generate conflicts when they feel dissatisfied. What Smogon needs is a little more openness to dialogue, and this is a strategy that could certainly strengthen them.
Screenshot_20230111-173243-140.png
 
Even having a lot of friends in the tournament scene is no guarantee of being drafted. Often people assume that being a cool, handsome, math and chess enthusiast who has played many tournament games will get you drafted, but unfortunately, I was betrayed by every single one of my allies and also did not get picked up. This tournament is a sham from top to bottom.
But hey are there any small tournaments especially ADV OU that will help you gain credibility to be drafted in a team?
 
here's the opinion of an old man that nobody asked for. i've managed in way too many tournaments and frankly i don't think a getting drafted problem actually exists. while it's true that managers draft socially and within the circles they're familiar with all the time, new people make their spl debut every season, too. the term 'deserving' is obviously subjective and especially in posts like the ones made here it's quite biased as well. it's tough being on the outside looking in and i empathize with the position those players find themselves in. however, if you continue to make a positive impression, whether that's through sheer results or your ability to be a social and active teammate, you eventually become undeniable.

the latter is a big one for me personally and i know for a fact many other managers feel the same way. spl is a team tournament, not an individual tournament. for me it's important to know how someone could interact with others in a group setting and how they could fit in with the starting point of my team. many of the spl managers (and their retains) participate in smaller team tournaments like the sub forum premier leagues, world cups and draft leagues, while also keeping an eye on public discord communities like smogon tournaments or the various subforum servers. you don't need to have several deep tournament runs or even wins to get your foot in the door. spl teams need to be able to work together and gel socially for up to three months, and for that you need a fun and active environment to thrive.

my point is that it's not an exact science, and that's not going to change. nor should it, for that matter. to those of you that weren't drafted this year, keep your chin up and remember that over 25 people that were picked this year are now participating in their first spl. you'll get your chance if you continue to put your name out there. whether that's through winning tournament games, being a great presence socially or perhaps even being a very strong supporting option off the bench through scouting and grinding out test games. the old gradually make way for the new and smogon is no exception. good luck and remember to not only reach out to the classiest manager because he has a danganronpa avatar...
 

Poek

squadala
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnuswon the 3rd Official Ladder Tournamentis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
Even having a lot of friends in the tournament scene is no guarantee of being drafted. Often people assume that being a cool, handsome, math and chess enthusiast who has played many tournament games will get you drafted, but unfortunately, I was betrayed by every single one of my allies and also did not get picked up. This tournament is a sham from top to bottom.
if you feel lonely, i'm willing to marry you
 
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