Metagame SPL X NU Discussion

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etern

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NU Leader


Hey, with SPLX underway, this thread will be used to discuss NU related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

SPL Schedule



Potential NUers:
Circus Maximus Tigers:
Pohjis, Osh, HarrisisAwesome
Indie Scooters: Realistic Waters
Team Raiders: CasedVictory, Kingler12345, SPACE FORCE Meeps
Ever Grande BIGS: Kushalos, FLCL, Soulgazer
Stark Sharks: Teddeh
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: eternally, rozes, TDK, Santu, Sjneider
Cryonicles: elodin, obii
Dragonspiral Tyrants: rodriblutar, ict
Alpha Ruiners: lax
Congregation of the Classiest: Hootie, Garay Oak, Finchinator

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4:

Week 5:

Week 6:

Week 7:

Week 8:

Week 9:

Semi-Finals:

Finals:




Power Rankings:

Player Standings:


 
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Snou

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Let's start saying that I think I should have been picked and I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get bought after a year of good results in this tier, while some old NUer was still preferred for some reason (and no, don't start with the "they've experience" or "you're just mad you didn't get bought", I think it's just being honest with myself) . I don't want to sound arrogant when I say that me and several other NUers should've been included in this tournament, and some other aren't probably in their best shape right now and shouldn't have been picked. Now, feel free not to grasp the point and start criticizing me the way you think it's the best.

After this small intro, me and my Wigglytuff are going to give you some quick thought about the players that were actually picked and are (probably) going to be placed in the NU slot.

Circus Maximus Tigers: Pohjis, Osh, HarrisisAwesome ---> being Pohjis the winner of both RU and NU circuit, and being the winner of the NU open, there's no need to say this NU core is probably one of the best in the whole tournament. I can see Osh being a starter because of Pohjis more versatility in terms of tiers he can play. HarrisIsAwesome is a decent sub in case Pohjis is playing some other tier and Osh can't play or is just in a bad shape. 8.4/10

Indie Scooters: Realistic Waters ---> RW is the absolute goat of the tournament and I could see him doing really well and end up with a positive record. Only problem is him being kinda undermotivated, and might need some support in terms of testing. This is probably the absolute double-edged sword of the tour and could either go extraordinarily good or just bad. Love RW tho. 7,2/10

Team Raiders: CasedVictory, Kingler12345, SPACE FORCE Meeps ---> Cased back from the underworld kinda left me speechless and I don't really know what to expect from an elder player like him. I feel totally the same about Meeps, which has vanished for some period but now he's back and might be the key of this NU core. Lastly, Kingler is supposedly the main NUer of the team, even tho I never liked the way he plays and woulda splashed him in LC if it was in the tour. Otherwise, I don't really know. 5.9/10

Ever Grande BIGS: Kushalos, FLCL, Soulgazer ---> Kushalos and FLCL in the same squad, are words ever needed? They're both really good NUers and I wonder how the managers will choose to use them in terms of lineup. I think I could see Kush doing RU and FLCL NU, or Kush doing NU and FLCL covering one of the OUs. This depends probably on their RU players, but I don't know the tier that well so I don't really know. Soulgazer is a solid pick but I wouldn't start him, and would keep him a sub. If they plan carefully their buildings this could be a certain win every week. 9/10

Stark Sharks: Teddeh ---> Teddeh is Teddeh and we all know what he's capable of. Probably one of the most solid players NU has ever seen. What I wonder is if being the only NUer of the tier is a problem for him or if he'll be able to carry the whole tier on his shoulders. Would have probably needed some NU supporter, if not in terms of building, maybe in terms of testing. 8.1/10

Wi-Fi Wolfpack: eternally, rozes, TDK, Santu, Sjneider ---> Except eternally, I do think this is probably the weakest NU core. Eternally is good and he'll probably end up playing NU every week. In case he's needed somewhere else, I feel like this will be a shaky one. Ik TDK is good, but he'll probably be placed in some of the OU slots, maybe SM or ORAS so I wouldn't list him as a possible NUer, except if extremely needed. Santu and sjneider working together could possibly fulfill the needings of the team in case Eternally is needed somewhere else. Rozes seems kinda rusty and it would probably take some week if he wants to properly play NU again. 7.6/10

Cryonicles: elodin, obii ---> both experienced players, but I don't think they will be good enough in NU to compete agains the other lineups. This will probably be the weakest lineup of the tour in NU. 5.1/10

Dragonspiral Tyrants: rodriblutar, ict ---> I might be wrong but I kinda remind Rodri saying he would have liked to play another tier and not NU. They're both good players, and could end up doing fine but they both seem kinda rusty and I'm curious to see how far they'll go as a couple. I can def see ict being the main NUer and rodri being placed in ORAS or USM OU. Overall, I'd say 6.7/10

Alpha Ruiners: lax ---> check Teddeh

Congregation of the Classiest: Hootie, Garay Oak, Finchinator ---> Garay and Finch are both kinda solid, but Finch will probably be playing some of the OU gens, even tho he will still give support in terms of team choices and matchup predictions for sure. I would prefer Finch over Garay, but I do think Garay will be playing most of the NU matches. The rest of the matches will probably be fulfilled by Hootie, that is imo the weak link of this NU core. 7.2/10

From me and my Wigglytuff, this was all. GL to all the drafted players!
 
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wolfpack the WEAKEST NU core? hello?

eternally has had some crazy results this year, cementing him as one of the best players in the tier, rozes is clearly in touch with the meta and a more than capable NU (if he stops rping as an OU player), and TDK is pretty much the best builder on the site. idk how that translates to NU, but i'd assume he can handle it. wolves have one of the best NU cores hands down, so i'm just rly confused at what you're saying. wolves and bigs at the top as far as CORES go imo.

will be cool to see ict NU again since i think rodri is out until mids? he had some of the most interesting games last SPL... part of the reason i got interested in the tier. also cool to see garay seemingly starting with hootie + finch support. rly proven himself as a strong player in general lately. if i'm wrong and hootie is starting plz correct me.

i think the NU pool is really REALLY good this time around. there's a lot of competition at the top with players like lax, teddeh, eternally, kush, rw, and elodin, and then you have rly fantastic "outside picks" that can definitely give these guys a run for their money. thinking this is probably the most competitive lower tier pool in the whole tour... rly hard to rank those top guys since they're so close imo.
 

Finchinator

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I didn't rank NU because my team is loaded with amazing NU talent, but I will give my rankings/breakdown of the field.

Top tier: Eternally, Teddeh, LAX, and Kushalos

All four of these players are absolutely fantastic in my eyes and I would not be surprised if any of them put up 6-3 or better records.

While I am certainly quite biased, I do list Eternally first because I feel his grasp on teambuilding is second-to-none currently. In addition to this, he has the support of Rozes and even Santu, so you cannot expect him to come into any game with a match-up disadvantage. He also tends to avoid misplays, especially as of late, which is a pretty big positive in a lower tier field. All things considered, Eternally is somewhere in this top four without a doubt. I rank him higher than most and he will face strong competition from the others, but expect him to put up superb results in some capacity.

Teddeh is probably the conventional #1 pick in the metagame and that should be no surprise to anyone. At this point, Teddeh has scaled up the historic NU ranks to being one of the 5 best all-time NU players, if not one of the 3. He has a growing list of accomplishments, including a recent deep NU Open and Grand Slam run that thoroughly impressed me as a spectator. On top of this, he is the perfect embodiment of team tournament consistency in NU, going positive in just about every tournament he enters. While Teddeh's style sometimes grows a bit predictable, his in-game execution is second-to-none and if he can remain smart with team choices, which he has been excelling at doing in recent months, then you should expect him to put up a top record. Also, I feel his floor is like 5-4 at WORST, so he's a pretty secure and safe bet with all things considered.

LAX is a fireball, a true wildcard in some senses. His gameplay can be insanely high in skill and aggression, but his teams are a bit all over the place. Most of the time, he pilots pretty solid structures with an interesting Pokemon or moveset mixed in there. During Snake, he had a lot of success doing just that and I expect more of that moving forward. There is some risk involved with the firey NU player, however, as he has potential to take it too far or read too much into specific in-game sequences, provoking overpredictions. If LAX can stay focused and make sure that he is playing his game as opposed to his opponent's game, then he has a ceiling higher than anyone in the field and should go positive without doubt. If he does not, then he could end up near the bottom of these four, but I would still expect a decent record nevertheless just given his natural abilities as a player.

Kushalos honestly is too good to be fourth in this pool or really any lower tier pool at this point, but this pool is stacked and each of these guys are super close, so here we have it. Kushalos has a fascinating style; he concentrates on bringing teams that are strong against the opponent while also integrating some of the most interesting synergetic defensive schemes into his teams that oftentimes let him pilot teams how he feels best. While Kushalos, similarly to LAX, has a decent amount of "what just happened" potential on the negative, he, too, has a ridiculously high ceiling and should not be someone to play safe against as there is no safety against this very dangerous man. All things considered, Kushalos is poised to go positive once more and it will be very interesting to see what he comes up with.

Mid tier: Elodin, Realistic Waters, and ict

Elodin is honestly very close to the top tier for me, personally. The main difference between him and those names is simply a smaller sample size. Elodin has done well when in the tier and many expect similar results here despite his lack of tier specific support (obviously dudes like ABR can still be helpful, not trying to discredit that). The fact of the matter is that Elodin is as good a player as most of the top 4, but he just is not as well versed in the metagame. Will this be an issue? Probably not. The metagame is constantly evolving, Elodin knows enough to at least still be considered competent, and Elodin has been successful in the past when being thrown into NU. Therefore, I expect around a 5-4 record for him, which lands him at the top of the mid-tier range for now.

Realistic Waters had a positive SSD2, which was his first performance in a while. He now lacks the support of best friend and ex-manager Teddeh, but he also has more experience under his belt from playing in that tour, so you figure that he is still poised to put up some wins. With this said, his teambuilding tactics feel to me like they lead to some unavoidable inconsistencies, making me less confident in him pulling off consecutive wins, but more confident in him perhaps picking up big, upset wins against top tier players. Overall, this leaves him to settle squarely in the middle of the field and the middle-tier. He is not going to standout and go 7-2, but I would be shocked if he fell-flat and went 2-7. He is a steady pilot when he takes his time and his builds can provide some advantages if timely and called-for.

ict is probably the least easy to place out of all of these. He obviously has a high gameplay ceiling from his dominant Grand Slam victory, but on the other hand he also has never had the same level of success in team tournaments and has been out of the equation for a while due to his ban. He does have some support to assist him if he happens to be competent in Spanish to talk with Rodriblutar, but I would not set the bar too high there. All things considered, ict is a bit below average in this pool given my initial impression, but has potential to dominate moreso than you would expect someone ranked here given how strong a player he can be when in form. Team choices will be of vital importance here, too.

Lower tier: Osh and SPACE FORCE Meeps

Osh honestly strikes me as a fundamentally flawed player and I think his team choices are really questionable, BUT he has found a way to win a ridiculous amount of individual tournament games and you have to honor that. While I do not rate him highly personally, I respect his achievements and expect him to give the entire field a run for their money, especially with the assistance of supposed builder SANJAY. I do not know enough about either of these two to elaborate much more, at least when compared to my depth of knowledge on the remaining players, but I think he could be a flop or a dark horse of the field, having individual success translate into a team tournament showing, if all goes according to plan.

SPACE FORCE Meeps should probably not be in NU, but there isn't much that makes sense among the Raiders RU/NU situations, so despite him explicitly not signing up for the tier and not having touched it for a number of months, here we have it. I do not rank him lowly as a player, but given how stacked this field is and given that he most definitely was not in form as of the draft, I have to rank him low when compared to people who play the tier consistently or just the game overall more often than he has as of late. His style when it comes to building and playing will inevitably lead to a couple wins because he is crafty and not afraid to use just about anything, but I hesitate to assign any level of consistency to my projections surrounding him given all of the different uncertainties surrounding his performance.
 

Blast

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I didn't rank NU because my team is loaded with amazing NU talent, but I will give my rankings/breakdown of the field.

Top tier: Eternally, Teddeh, LAX, and Kushalos

All four of these players are absolutely fantastic in my eyes and I would not be surprised if any of them put up 6-3 or better records.

While I am certainly quite biased, I do list Eternally first because I feel his grasp on teambuilding is second-to-none currently. In addition to this, he has the support of Rozes and even Santu, so you cannot expect him to come into any game with a match-up disadvantage. He also tends to avoid misplays, especially as of late, which is a pretty big positive in a lower tier field. All things considered, Eternally is somewhere in this top four without a doubt. I rank him higher than most and he will face strong competition from the others, but expect him to put up superb results in some capacity.

Teddeh is probably the conventional #1 pick in the metagame and that should be no surprise to anyone. At this point, Teddeh has scaled up the historic NU ranks to being one of the 5 best all-time NU players, if not one of the 3. He has a growing list of accomplishments, including a recent deep NU Open and Grand Slam run that thoroughly impressed me as a spectator. On top of this, he is the perfect embodiment of team tournament consistency in NU, going positive in just about every tournament he enters. While Teddeh's style sometimes grows a bit predictable, his in-game execution is second-to-none and if he can remain smart with team choices, which he has been excelling at doing in recent months, then you should expect him to put up a top record. Also, I feel his floor is like 5-4 at WORST, so he's a pretty secure and safe bet with all things considered.

LAX is a fireball, a true wildcard in some senses. His gameplay can be insanely high in skill and aggression, but his teams are a bit all over the place. Most of the time, he pilots pretty solid structures with an interesting Pokemon or moveset mixed in there. During Snake, he had a lot of success doing just that and I expect more of that moving forward. There is some risk involved with the firey NU player, however, as he has potential to take it too far or read too much into specific in-game sequences, provoking overpredictions. If LAX can stay focused and make sure that he is playing his game as opposed to his opponent's game, then he has a ceiling higher than anyone in the field and should go positive without doubt. If he does not, then he could end up near the bottom of these four, but I would still expect a decent record nevertheless just given his natural abilities as a player.

Kushalos honestly is too good to be fourth in this pool or really any lower tier pool at this point, but this pool is stacked and each of these guys are super close, so here we have it. Kushalos has a fascinating style; he concentrates on bringing teams that are strong against the opponent while also integrating some of the most interesting synergetic defensive schemes into his teams that oftentimes let him pilot teams how he feels best. While Kushalos, similarly to LAX, has a decent amount of "what just happened" potential on the negative, he, too, has a ridiculously high ceiling and should not be someone to play safe against as there is no safety against this very dangerous man. All things considered, Kushalos is poised to go positive once more and it will be very interesting to see what he comes up with.

Mid tier: Elodin, Realistic Waters, and ict

Elodin is honestly very close to the top tier for me, personally. The main difference between him and those names is simply a smaller sample size. Elodin has done well when in the tier and many expect similar results here despite his lack of tier specific support (obviously dudes like ABR can still be helpful, not trying to discredit that). The fact of the matter is that Elodin is as good a player as most of the top 4, but he just is not as well versed in the metagame. Will this be an issue? Probably not. The metagame is constantly evolving, Elodin knows enough to at least still be considered competent, and Elodin has been successful in the past when being thrown into NU. Therefore, I expect around a 5-4 record for him, which lands him at the top of the mid-tier range for now.

Realistic Waters had a positive SSD2, which was his first performance in a while. He now lacks the support of best friend and ex-manager Teddeh, but he also has more experience under his belt from playing in that tour, so you figure that he is still poised to put up some wins. With this said, his teambuilding tactics feel to me like they lead to some unavoidable inconsistencies, making me less confident in him pulling off consecutive wins, but more confident in him perhaps picking up big, upset wins against top tier players. Overall, this leaves him to settle squarely in the middle of the field and the middle-tier. He is not going to standout and go 7-2, but I would be shocked if he fell-flat and went 2-7. He is a steady pilot when he takes his time and his builds can provide some advantages if timely and called-for.

ict is probably the least easy to place out of all of these. He obviously has a high gameplay ceiling from his dominant Grand Slam victory, but on the other hand he also has never had the same level of success in team tournaments and has been out of the equation for a while due to his ban. He does have some support to assist him if he happens to be competent in Spanish to talk with Rodriblutar, but I would not set the bar too high there. All things considered, ict is a bit below average in this pool given my initial impression, but has potential to dominate moreso than you would expect someone ranked here given how strong a player he can be when in form. Team choices will be of vital importance here, too.

Lower tier: Osh and SPACE FORCE Meeps

Osh honestly strikes me as a fundamentally flawed player and I think his team choices are really questionable, BUT he has found a way to win a ridiculous amount of individual tournament games and you have to honor that. While I do not rate him highly personally, I respect his achievements and expect him to give the entire field a run for their money, especially with the assistance of supposed builder SANJAY. I do not know enough about either of these two to elaborate much more, at least when compared to my depth of knowledge on the remaining players, but I think he could be a flop or a dark horse of the field, having individual success translate into a team tournament showing, if all goes according to plan.

SPACE FORCE Meeps should probably not be in NU, but there isn't much that makes sense among the Raiders RU/NU situations, so despite him explicitly not signing up for the tier and not having touched it for a number of months, here we have it. I do not rank him lowly as a player, but given how stacked this field is and given that he most definitely was not in form as of the draft, I have to rank him low when compared to people who play the tier consistently or just the game overall more often than he has as of late. His style when it comes to building and playing will inevitably lead to a couple wins because he is crafty and not afraid to use just about anything, but I hesitate to assign any level of consistency to my projections surrounding him given all of the different uncertainties surrounding his performance.
mfk: lefties ferroseed, oshawott, dragonbreath drampa
 
I don‘t know to what extent my absence has influenced my playing abillity and how much the meta shifted, but NU has always been one of the tiers I‘ve enjoyed playing most and tried to make my games as enjoyable as I could and will definitely do my best to make this repeat. I‘m very grateful for my team, the managers who gave me the chance to participate in this tournament and tier again and my amazing teammates who are also very good friends if not even the best on this site and helped me get on this team. My hermano Rodri and me are more than happy to compete in such a stacked and competitive player pool. Moreso we wish best of luck to anyone, and are looking forward a lot to some games and matchups, especially me.

Have fun my friends.
 
I wasn't gonna do this until I saw how bad Finchinator's NU rankings/breakdown was and decided to set the record straight with an actual breakdown of the field.

Top tier: SPACE FORCE Meeps

Arguably the greatest NU player of all time is back for some more action. He builds the hottest squads, makes the best plays and NEVER lets his teammates down. I'd say his floor is probably somewhere between 7-2 to 8-1 (normally gives 1 or 2 wins to his shitty opponents for charity), but should he decide to go all out in this tournament he will undoubtedly go 9-0. Considering he didn't even sign up for this tier, and has barely played recently, but still got drafted ahead of the many other NU signups in this tournament, just shows just how good and highly regarded this man is. Anyone with an ounce of NU knowledge can expect meeps to wipe the floor with this field. And for the love of god please don't believe anything about Finchinator's terrible shitpost earlier in the thread.

Lower tier: Eternally, Teddeh, LAX, Garay Oak, Kushalos, Elodin, Realistic Waters, ict and Osh

The rest of these guys just aren't on the same level as meeps. It's kind of a lottery who will do well here, and tbh I don't think anyone cares regardless so I shall just end it there.
 

elodin

the burger
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yo honestly fuck all of you pieces of absolute trash who have no fucking clue what the nu meta is and even less ot a clue of how to fucking play pokemon at a mildly decent level. Snou , take your opinions somewhere else because nobody is interested in what your undrafted-ass has to say. Finchinator , how the fuck am i not "well versed in the metagame" when i'm literally in the nu council with you? also who the fuck are you to talk about "being a good player" when you sacked your magearna to excadrill and choked an unlosable game? Eternal Spirit you are no one to talk about me when you have been a fucking anchor to team brazil for years now and your knowledge of the nu tier is completely irrelevant. ict go back to retirement with Star you ghosted piece of trash dogshit player. I sincerely hope all of you benchwarmers go fuck yourselves and just enjoy the formidable pokemon-playing that i and SPACE FORCE meeps are gonna display.
 
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yo honestly fuck all of you pieces of absolute trash who have no fucking clue what the nu meta is and even less ot a clue of how to fucking play pokemon at a mildly decent level. Snou , take your opinions somewhere else because nobody is interested in what your undrafted-ass has to say. Finchinator , how the fuck am i not "well versed in the metagame" when i'm literally in the nu council with you? also who the fuck are you to talk about "being a good player" when you sacked your magearna to excadrill and choked an unlosable game? Eternal Spirit you are no one to talk about me when you have been a fucking anchor to team brazil for years now and your knowledge of the nu tier is completely irrelevant. ict go back to retirement with Star you ghosted piece of trash dogshit player. I sincerely hope all of you benchwarmers go fuck yourselves and just enjoy the formidable pokemon-playing that i and SPACE FORCE meeps are gonna display.
 

lax

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yo honestly fuck all of you pieces of absolute trash who have no fucking clue what the nu meta is and even less ot a clue of how to fucking play pokemon at a mildly decent level. Jarii , take your opinions somewhere else because nobody is interested in what your undrafted-ass has to say. bugzinator , how the fuck am i "lower tier" when i was literally a NUPL starter. also who the fuck are you to talk about "being a good player" when you were benched in NUPL for literally cb aaron judge you washed up piece of shit z0mOG you are no one to talk about me when you have been a fucking anchor to team west for years now and your knowledge of the nu tier is completely irrelevant. rozes go back to retirement with craing ;_; you ghosted piece of trash dogshit player. I sincerely hope all of you benchwarmers go fuck yourselves and just enjoy the formidable pokemon-playing that i and Osh are gonna display.
 
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