Scuffed shoutouts incoming:
Super happy that we won, I put a lot of effort into this tour building like 100 teams+ (albeit many were scuffed) with more than 20 being used in actual ZUPL games. As the tour dragged on, I was honestly super burnt out so I'm glad it all paid off and now that I can finally rest. I couldn't have done this without my teammates carrying me playing wise as they were consistently popping off in their respective slots and the support I received from my managers.
Drud Firstly, apologies for saying you don't deserve to manage over some of the managers which weren't picked in the original six, woat take from past Jett. Regardless I was pretty surprised you did end up snagging me for the low price of 13k, after my "trolling" in ladder tour and the fact that we barely interacted prior to ZUPL. The team you drafted was beyond broken and with you leading, after the small hiccup in week 2, it felt like we could not be stopped. While I do wish I had a bit more help from you teambuilding wise (mostly because of your focus on other tours which is completely understandable), I think that you more than made up for it with the volume of games you'd test with us regardless of the tier, especially in SS where my motivation to play the Toxic Heal Bell meta went down the drain midway through this tour. Your criticism on my play in particular was always super valuable since I'm pretty awful when it comes to dealing with pressure, especially for the finals.
TWiTT Back to back ZUPL wins. Honestly your support in old gens is straight up unfair for other teams and it was nice having you help me in some of the weeks in the SS slots too, despite it not being something you really play often. You always said you were busy but would still manage to pump out teams all the time for many of our slots. It also helped a lot talking to you when things weren't exactly going right this tournament, SS started off horribly for us, 1-7 record at its worst, but we turned it around into a 15-12 in the end I believe, and you were a large part of that process. Definitely glad that you were the person I knew well on the team before the tournament started.
clean I knew Tuthur passed you a team for LT which was mine and you said you liked it so I knew from the very start this would work out. Early weeks were rough, but then you just started winning, and except for the time that you got cheesed because Eterrain dumb, I think it went super well, so thanks for carrying despite my teams being a bit
at times. So many wack ideas that weren't brought due to our indecision LOL but it was definitely a super fun process.
Herv Unfortunate how things didn't exactly pan out for you to get a win, super close in Week 7 and my bad for the awful mu week 2. You were still supporting us as the tour went on despite being on the bench and posting "im playing now" in general, which I still never figured out for what tour but it always gave me a good laugh.
Mimikyu Stardust rip. Free my mans. Thanks for sticking around and helping us with tests and building despite the fact you were officially off the team, but to me you remained a part the whole way through. Sad you never got the chance to get the win you deserved and I wish you the best of luck when you're freed.
ProDigeZz I don't even know how you went undrafted, it's actually insane. Glad you were happy to play for us when the opportunity arose and you certainly rose up to the occasion. Your 5-0 record was a large reason why we managed to turn around the shaky SS start as we quickly racked up 2-1 wins and even our first 3-0 week in the finals. Thanks for carrying me and my teams.
Finchinator You're a busy guy, got haxed a bunch, 1 week we had issues with the team so the matchup was unwinnable and you still ended up with a solid record and put on a solid performance. I don't exactly know much about SM so we never talked much but very happy that we had your experience on the team and hope your many other tours go just as well for you.
Xayah Honestly, wasn't sure what to think initially when you were the main SM builder since (from my understanding) you weren't exactly the most in touch with SM/mons until recently again but you definitely pulled through despite the fact the tier seems like a bit of a pain to build given there are so many different threats to account for. Also some important wins were picked up by you when it seemed like SM2 was struggling for us so I'm happy you decided to sub back in.
omicorio Pretty funny we ended up in the same team cord again since OMPL and ZUPL were the only two I signed up for this year. Thanks for filling in when needed. Also thanks for supporting us always despite not having to play that often.
Raichy Insane ORAS ZU record, only beaten out by Mr #1c0nfirmed who will perma brag about it but at least you're cooler than him. ORAS ZU pool is usually dominated by like ho3n, 5gen and fruits and considered quite stacked so the fact you manage to compete with them first try and is pretty nutty. Again a massive part of why we won this tournament.
SoulWind Clutched up big time during the early weeks which allowed us to chill more during the later weeks and prepare teams for playoffs. Despite the end of the tour being rougher, you were still an absolute beast for us.
SuperEpicAmpharos Glad you managed to get the win in BW in the end. Thanks for filling in for multiple slots as well as building for our BW slot. Maybe you didn't get to play BW as much as you wanted to so I hope for next time you do get to do so.
Beraldinho I saw you were on a tear in other DPP lower tiers and ZU was not an exception to that rule. Best DPP record in the tour and coulda been better if it weren't for the hax. Super impressed with how you picked up the tier and built for yourself after just the first week. Similar to Raichy and Prodige, having these near auto wins was nice so I could play badly once in a while and get away with it.
BaitWiz Was basically a Butterfree from W1, had a lot of creative ideas and while I'm pretty strict and boring and disapproved a lot of them, some of them were genuinely good and I think there was quite a lot that we could have potentially brought to some of our games and given us more of an edge. Appreciate you stuck around the entire time to help us with building and games, and I hope you had an enjoyable experience. I'm sure you'll get picked up next year.
Tuthur Helped me a ton with teams even before his team was out. Massive thank you the tests and the advice, and for being a good friend as always.
Danny Corthius Thanks for being tester #2 and #3 outside of my team. Corthius should learn from Danny and be more skilled and less lucky when playing me though.
Quagg 5gen S1nn0hC0nfirm3d Mintly Hitmonstars Goblin Helped other tiers which I super appreciate since I only really know SS and BW to an extent lol. Thanks a lot of improving the squads we brought especially during playoffs.
@ZUPL III pekos, it is 2am and I'm tired so no individual pings causs too many but you get a shoutout tho for being some of my best friends on the site and the whole rivarly due to us splitting up onto different teams made the tour more fun. Also someone please find Toto where he gone ;;
And really importantly:
Lalaya Oathkeeper Thanks for hosting this ZUPL, it definitely wasn't easy given the constantly drama between multiple parties but we made it in the end. Super underappreciated role that allowed the rest of us to have so much fun. Honestly, after the initial mess it went fine for the most part but yknow don't know if you wanna do this again next year LOL.
That's it from me
for winning the tour, a spectacular show from start to finish!