UUPL VI Recap

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Introduction

Hello, and welcome to Premier League Coverage! Premier Leagues have long been one of the most popular tournament formats on Smogon because they combine the rush of bidding with the collaborative atmosphere of team play. The Smogon Premier League is the largest and most prestigious of these tournaments, but many communities on Smogon have Premier Leagues of their own. Today, we are covering the UnderUsed Premier League.

Introduction to UUPL

The UnderUsed Premier League is an annually held tournament and is one of the biggest in the community. After ex-Tier Leader Hikari hosted it last year, current Tier Leader hogg decided to take it on for its sixth season. Last year, the Mikan Island Monsters, managed by TonyFlygon, managed to edge out the Blackthorn City Battle Girls to seize victory after a relatively smooth season. However, this year he had decided to relinquish his role to Pearl, who was one of the key players that led to the team's victory. With that said, the Monsters would be looking forward to making minced meat out of the competition once again.

As for other managers, the bottom two teams from last year were relegated to new managers, with Tricking and Bushtush taking over to create brand new teams. dodmen also took over the Route 30 Youngsters from ict, while DrReuniclus took over the Black City Burglars from Bouff to form the Driftveil City Doctors. The rest of the teams had their previous managers returning to get another shot at the gold. Just like last year, managers had the choice to retain up to two players from their previous team, as well as their own retention rights to play. Many teams also opened themselves up for tryouts in their respective Discord servers. However, the manager of the Safari Zone Smashers, Shiba, decided that tryouts wouldn't just be about playing Pokémon; it'd be a test of intellect, team chemistry, and the ability to make use of their past experiences. He did this in the only way he knew how: a crossword puzzle.

The biggest change to the tournament by far, though, was the introduction of GSC UU, leading to a format of 4 SM UU, 2 ORAS UU, 1 BW UU, 1 DPP UU, 1 ADV UU, and 1 GSC UU being decided on. This threw a monkey wrench into some managers' early plans, especially with the general lack of signups for older generations of UU compared to last year. Baton Pass was also banned from all generations except GSC UU.

The Auction

Once the managers were chosen and the tiers selected, it was time for the draft. Eventually, the teams were finalized to these rosters:

• Smashers
• Spies
• Doctors
• Delinquents
• Cowgirls
• Battle Girls
• Monsters
• Youngsters

In this auction, BKC was the most expensive player, being bought by the Silph Co. Spies for an exorbitant 25.5k. McMeghan and FLCL did not come far behind, though, going at a hefty 23.5k and 23k to the Dewford Town Delinquents and Mikan Island Monsters, respectively. Looking at it, the nomination for FLCL was somewhat reminiscent of last year, with teams bidding furiously for him until all but the Monsters caved in. It's also worth noting that soulgazer, Amaroq, and SOMALIA were drafted initially but were sold back. In their place, NaCl, Freeroamer, and EviGaro were picked up.

Early Weeks

Despite only four weeks passing, the tournament frontrunners had already cemented themselves firmly. In this case, it would be the Blackthorn City Battle Girls with an impressive streak of wins thus far. The Mikan Island Monsters, Safari Zone Smashers, and Dewford Town Delinquents were not going down without a fight, though, with all of them still having a good shot at securing a spot for playoffs. Unfortunately, the points they earned came at the cost of the Driftveil City Doctors, Silph Co. Spies, and Route 30 Youngers, who would be forced to fight even harder in order to catch up to the rest of the pack. Here's a look at the standings at this point:

The Later Weeks

Ah, who doesn't love the mad scramble in the final week, where multiple teams are vying for those coveted playoff spots? Well, if that's what you were looking to see, you'd be sorely disappointed. In a stark contrast to last year, by the end of week six, the Blackthorn City Battle Girls, Mikan Island Monsters, Dewford Town Delinquents, and Safari Zone Smashers all had their playoff spots secured. The only things the final week affected were the team and individual records as well as the seeding. Here's how the standings looked then:

It's easy to imagine how things went in the final week. Teams did not have much of an incentive to play their games outside of personally wanting to, and the seeding was not a huge deal regardless. This was especially so for the matchup between the Driftveil City Doctors and Moomoo Farm Cowgirls; with both teams out of the tournament, they shot for the most number of unplayed games within them and did so immaculately, completing a grand total of three games. By the end of the week, the Blackthorn City Battle Girls secured the first seed and would face off against the fourth seed Safari Zone Smashers. Last year, the Battle Girls ended the Smashers's run in this exact setting, so it'd be interesting to see if things turned out differently this time. Meanwhile, the Dewford Town Delinquents would have to get past the defending champions, the Mikan Island Monsters. Heading into the playoffs, Poek stood with the top individual record at 6-1, with his streak ended by Feliburn in week 7.

Playoffs

Semifinals

"After seven hard-fought weeks, we're finally here! Who will walk away with the coveted Invisible Trophy and bragging rights for the next year? Will the Smashers serve up a victory over the high-flying Battle Girls? Will the fearsome Monsters be able to hold off the too cool for school Delinquents? Only two more weeks to find out!" - hogg

I couldn't have said it better myself. With three out of the four teams in playoffs returning from last time, the tension was palpable. The Mikan Island Monsters obviously did not want to lose their title, but everyone else, especially those that went out in this stage last year, was raring to dethrone them. The series between the Mikan Island Monsters and Dewford Town Delinquents was pretty neck-and-neck initially, with highlights such as tournament titans in TDK and McMeghan facing off, but neither team gave an inch to the opposition until they were tied 4-4. In the end, following a win by Arii Stella, it would be the Monsters's star player Poek to break through with a nice showing of Magnet Rise Cobalion, landing his team a spot in the finals. In the process, they showed their overall SM UU lineup to be extremely formidable, with TDK, Poek, FLCL, and Empo securing a clean 4-0 sweep in the tier.

Looking at the other series between the Blackthorn City Battle Girls and the Safari Zone Smashers, the Battle Girls unleashed their fighting fury early by obtaining a 5-0 lead, which included Sacri' getting his revenge against HT from SPL. They were even poised to end the series with a golden set (that's a tennis term for you casuals). However, the Smashers proved that they were not a team to be counted out early; despite Wanka's, as Pearl put it, "tree" being slower than the opposing Forretress (see Turn 15), his quick win against Pohjis was just the momentum they needed to pull off a smashing comeback to force the tiebreaker. Below were the matchups for that:

Unfortunately, their run was short lived. After EviGaro pulled off her hat-trick in this tournament against Finchinator, Heysup sealed the Smashers's fate, sending the Battle Girls to the finals once again.

Finals

It's the final countdown...the final countdown! What a ride it was, but after battling it out for the top spot throughout the season, the two teams had arrived in a familiar finals setting. The Mikan Island Monsters's SM UU lineup once again proved scary for the opposition, boasting both TDK and Poek, who had only dropped one game each throughout the tournament thus far. The Blackthorn City Battle Girls were no slouches, though, with players like Rodriblutar, who had only dropped one ORAS game.

The results were pretty much like what you'd expect after the above assessment. The Monsters's pulled off yet another clean SM UU sweep, while Nat got a bad matchup against Rodriblutar; the latter managed to capitalize on this effectively, securing himself the win. Later on, after a couple more games took place, including Eternal Spirit's win over EviGaro, the Monsters seemed set to win for the second year in a row, and Pearl, their manager, would be the one to do it. However, as RNG would have it, his Chesnaught got frozen by the opposing Mega Swampert's Ice Punch, effectively costing him the game. The subsequent games eventually forced yet another tiebreaker. The Battle Girls picked ADV again, while the Monsters picked SM for obvious reasons, much to the chagrin of Rodriblutar, who wanted ORAS for both this and the semifinals tiebreaker.

After a good amount of johning, bro fist played Heysup for the first tiebreaker game. The former has had a pretty lackluster record so far, while the latter came off a previous ADV tiebreaker win during the semifinals. During the game, bro fist got a lucky critical hit against Vileplume with his Kangaskhan, which did not directly give him the win but did make things easier for him. This isn't to take anything from them, though, as despite losing, Heysup himself gave bro fist props on his playing. Seems like good manager Pearl's own brand of motivation paid off! With the deadline extended, Sacri' took on TDK for the second game; Sacri' brought some form of VoltTurn bulky offense with Mantine, whereas TDK came in with Mega Aggron balance. The match was relatively even early on, at least until Sacri' missed an Overheat with Mega Manectric Turn 8, and that was where things started to go downhill for him. Subsequently, TDK managed to catch Sacri's Scizor with an unexpected Hidden Power Fire from Florges. Sacri' tried to find a way to come back from this by pivoting between Celebi and Mantine and pressuring with Choice Specs Kyurem, but breaking through TDK's core of Mega Aggron, Suicune, and Florges proved too difficult at that point, leading to Sacri's eventual forfeit, giving the win to both TDK and the Mikan Island Monsters.

Final Analysis and Shoutouts

At a glance, the usage of Pokémon throughout the tournament was relatively unsurprising, with Latias and Scizor frequently swapping places for the top spot. However, towards the end, Togekiss started to get used a lot more, with the finals featuring half the teams with one. This might also have been a consequence of Hydreigon becoming a lot more used, which itself was partially a result of the ban on Azumarill one week into the tournament and Primarina not yet picking up steam again at the time. Setswise, Choice Scarf Togekiss started to get more usage, with both utility variants with Trick and completely offensive ones being seen. This doesn't come as a huge surprise either, as the combination of Togekiss's typing and movepool makes it suitable for roles like these. As for some uncommon Pokémon, to name a few, Pearl made use of Silvally-Steel and won twice with it, showing how it actually has a useful niche in the tier. Tsareena also got a big boost in recognition by players, especially by the Smashers after Amoonguss left the tier, as a wallbreaker and useful pivot.

In terms of final records, Poek and TDK ended the tournament with the best overall ones at 8-1; very impressive indeed! This dynamic duo definitely proved pivotal to their team's success and tore through the competition. Of course, this isn't to say that there aren't other people who performed well too. A notable one here would be fatty from the Safari Zone Smashers, who went 6-1 throughout the regular season and semifinals.

Finally, shoutouts to OrdA just like last year for helping out with the auction bot and with a lot fewer hiccups this year! Before I close this off, here are the thoughts from the manager of the winning team, Pearl:

Closing Remarks

As Pearl said, a good part of the community had a negative opinion on the quality of and hype behind the games this year. Regardless of how true that holds, however, this tournament undoubtedly paved the way for many new players to gain exposure to team tournaments and the UU community, which will prove valuable for their future endeavors on the site. Let's hope this continues to be fostered in future iterations.

For now, congratulations to the Mikan Island Monsters for their second victory! Will they be able to make it a third? Well, if you want an answer, you're going to have to catch us back next year. Until then.

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