ScarfWynaut thanks for all the work you put in this year, which people mostly ignored. I know you were frustrated not to be able to play much of a role in prep for the first few weeks because of the technical issues, but you served as an excellent counterbalance to my overserious, neurotic managing style throughout. I also greatly admire the healthy cynicism you bring to this community in general, as weird as that sounds. You'll get the win you deserve eventually.
Pigeons I know it was frustrating for you to be away from the team for a while as we competed for playoff position. Not gonna lie, I really did not check people's inactivity at all before the auction, which may have been obvious to anyone watching. In spite of the impediments to your participation, you were an excellent presence in the team chat and deserve a lot of credit for how well we did in AG in the early going. And you almost pulled things back in this final week, but
alas.
Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) What a revelation! You managed to pull off the best BH record in the tour in an extremely tough player field. I (somewhat flippantly) was telling people at the beginning of the tour, before I even drafted you, that you would win some games on matchup and lose some games on matchup and one would just have to hope for more of the former. Then you came out with that amazing performance vs. Halliday and just kept on winning and suddenly no one knew what to expect. I think you've proven yourself part of the top tier (and honestly, your frustration about not being picked last time around was probably justified, too, even though you've improved considerably since then). Just make sure to keep your composure after early-game setbacks, hax-related or otherwise, and soon you'll be knocking out even
GL Volkner-backed opponents.
PurpleGatorade You were so reliable for so long during this tour, to a greater degree than I think anyone anticipated. The series against Skarph in Week 1 is still one of the highlights of the entire season for me. Building immaculate teams for one opponent after another, and supporting your teammates in the process given the weird 2 ag slot thing, is no small feat. Really sorry about all the totally unforeseen crap that prevented you from being with us in the finals.
itsKimbo such a bummer that all the cool sets, all the effort put into (largely successful) testing, simply didn't translate to most of the real games. I think you have immense potential as a player and while throwing you into the fire midway through had mixed results, I am glad you got the experience and picked up a key win against the Blisseys (even though replays were down, smh Zarel).
sugarhigh you were criminally underused this year. The sheer efficiency with which you teambuilt for and then straight-up demolished arguably the metagame's top player in a crucial week cannot be overstated. Even though we didn't find a place for you most of the time you consistently helped test and enthusiastically supported SL42 (except for when his zany teambuilding strayed a little too far from the light). It's no wonder you've been so successful on smogon in the past and one of these days someone needs to let you start more.
MultiAmmiratore your season shows that there's no justice in the game of pokemon. Plagued by unexpected, uncontrollable inactivity and hax (especially hax!), you weren't really ever able to get into a rhythm. SW and I believed in your abilities throughout and had you as one of our primary targets in the auction, and I don't regret the purchase. You're still worthy of consideration as a high-level player in your metagame and I believe everyone in the community understands that. All the best.
Osra I had been telling everyone who would listen before the auction that the entire 1v1 player pool was pretty much indistinguishable and that there was no reason to spend extra money on an alleged "top" player. Then as people waited...and waited...and waited to nominate you I realized I was wrong and jumped in because I recognized from "that one 1v1 tour" that people were severely underrating your capacity to outthink the opposition in teambuilding. And not only did you excel, with your only loss in 5 games in a week we had already won, you provided an excellent, often dissenting voice in building for other metas such as AAA, too. In spite of all our past 1v1 thread bickering it was a pleasure to have you on the team.
ihhca to the public it must seem like a pretty quiet year for you on the whole, but you certainly weren't quiet in the team chat, particularly in the early weeks, when you were overflowing with aaa, mnm, and even bh ideas. We missed you a little bit later on, and I'm sorry your game against lax didn't go amazingly well, but you acknowledged and understood your role and performed it excellently. One day, that double diancie team will see the light.
Alpha Rabbit in a shocking turn of events I was actually really impressed by the replays you sent me and was thrilled to pick you up as a sub. Obviously it took a while before you got to play, and unfortunately your experience was mostly defined by luck, good and bad (live by the OHKO moves, die by the OHKO moves), but like Osra you were a great dissenting voice in teambuilding and I especially appreciate your flexibility in later weeks when we needed to sub.
Iron Crusher a silent killer of sorts, you filled in excellently in the weeks where osra's ridiculous teambuilding regimen had worn her down too much, including defeating a top player in Joker in a pretty ridiculous series. You're a really nice guy and I hope you play in world cup of 1v1, too.
byronthewellwell rough games that didn't put your excellent play on display, unfortunately. SW had targeted you from the beginning and we were really happy to have you throughout. Thanks for subbing in on short notice week 7, too. You also played an integral role in that you recommended solo! (And Alkione, but rip. Another time.)
Bushtush man, you started out so strong. I have no idea why you had to suddenly antagonize everyone and get banned. It was quite the setback and I would have liked to see you test your skills against some of the upper-tier AAA players we encountered later on.
Emperor2
In all seriousness though, you're a high-quality, reliable player and we missed having you around, not so much for 1v1 but for the additional support you could have provided in stuff like mnm and aaa later in the year. Best of luck cheering Asia on.
skysolo14 I had gotten in the habit of taking someone unexpected in the mock drafts and so people probably assumed that I was just carrying on that (extremely foolish) practice in the actual auction when I took you. Of course, in reality, byron had recommended you, and your signup lined up with some metagames of need, so I decided to pull the trigger! And honestly, you exceeded my wildest expectations. I wasn't even sure how you were going to play at all but then you just kept on proving your worth and polished off someone who had won 15 ompl games in a row, no big deal. Today's series was an unfortunate blow but you really did all you could to help out, through testing and whatnot, even though you had such tenuous connections at the start of the year. Thanks for all the hard work.
SectoniaServant Really sorry we didn't get a chance to play you. I tried to make a point of getting everyone involved, but unfortunately I failed on that front. I firmly believe your knowledge was what we needed after we lost bush partway through and you applied it well. I hope someone will give you a chance to display your true worth in future tours.
I am really running out of steam here (shades of my AG open predictions) but as far as people who aren't on our team are concerned, I want to thank
Chazm for doing his best to salvage our mnm in the finals and being available for tests for both kimbo and solo, a few of my fellow managers like
Ransei Chloe The Immortal DEG for supporting us in the finals — sorry we couldn't deliver, and other people who expressed their support like
Rumplestiltskin and
Joker 1v1.
Oh and also
Pohjis. We have never interacted but if this roster is any indication we clearly have very similar taste in drafting, since I selected a whopping
4 of the same players as you had on the Durians this past year. You guys went undefeated and won the finals. For a while it seemed like we might do the same, but we failed on both fronts. Oh well. That's the way it goes sometimes and I'm delighted to have made it this far in the first place.