PU Premier League XI Power Rankings

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Welcome to the eleventh iteration of the PU Premier League. This year, we decided to continue what we initiated two years ago and do Power Rankings in a more official article format. We asked knowledgeable players from each new and old generation to rank all the starters and then averaged said rankings in an attempt to get what we hope is an unbiased ranking. That said, with all the possible variables, it is nigh impossible to get an accurate ranking, as some teams and individuals are bound to perform better than what their rankings indicate and exceed expectations. Therefore, please do not take these rankings to heart; at the end of the day, this is all to bring hype and enjoyment for the tournament while giving everyone a fun read.

All that said, some lingering questions remain. After finishing as first seed in back-to-back years but losing in the semi-finals, will the third time be the charm for the Haunters? Will hex stay on course and lose another final? Can the Magmortars recover from last year's dumpster fire with pdt back as manager? Will the Goodras get the back-to-back repeat? We'll have the answer to all of these and much more at the end of the 11-week tournament!

Before we get into the actual rankings, I want to thank everyone for their contributions in making this article possible within such a short period. Thank you to all the rankers: Accel, ara, asa, Aurist, avarice, Bouff, Charmriah, Dj Breloominati♬, Django, Drud, Estarossa, feen, Floss, frankjosh, gum, gulch, Hacker, hex, ishtar, killintime, Lambovino, lighthouses, Lily, LpZ, Mielke, Metallica126, MZ, Neomon, OranBerryBlissey10, Parpar, Piyu, Plague, plznostep, Ruffles, sensei axew, Seraphz, sleid, sugar ovens, Suzuya, Tack, The Strap, Tizio potente ao, TJ, tom holland, Tuthur, TyCarter, SFG, violet river, and zS.

Massive thank you to everyone involved in creating this article behind the scenes: the writers asa, Bella, DugZa, gulch, hex, ishtar, MZ, Safierre, SergioRules, and tom holland; Ampha for handling the sheet used for the rankings; Lumari, autumn, adorluigi, and sunny004 for GP checks; skrimps and Kalalokki for the graphics. Last but certainly not least, I am very grateful to Lumari for making this possible, from approving the article to handling the GP and HTML, and helping the article reach completion promptly on such short notice. Thank you!

We hope everyone enjoys the article as much as we enjoyed creating it, and we look forward to an amazing PUPL XI!

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1. fish anemometer
2. Metallica126
3. S1nn0hc0nfirm3d
4. Bouff
5. etern
6. pdt
7. kyuss
8. Suzukaaa
9. Piyu
10. Xiri
11. Hiko
12. Floss
13. Vulpix03
14. sufys
15. Stories
16. Skarpherim
17. DripLegend
18. 691
19. dunoks
20. Ampha
21. big tony 2004
22. LOOR
23. SEA
24. Kev

If there’s one thing about the Magmortars, it’s that they never miss when it comes to having a strong SV core. Skarpherim being here and not in ADV might raise a few eyebrows, especially because they admit they “don’t know how to play PU.” They can’t fool this writer, though; not when they’re crushing it in the PU Open. Plus, they have a number of SV-savvy teammates they can lean on, so surely they put something together here. Next up is kyuss, formerly known as nada e ninguem. kyuss is by no means flashy, but he’s been silently building up stellar results in PU and regularly sits at the top end of the PU ladder. Provided he doesn’t overcook in the builder, he should be a valuable asset for the Magmortars. Last is pdt, an amazing player who already has plenty of experience with SV PU by now. He regularly performs well in the Bo3 slot, so only needing to win one game a week should be a cinch for him. When your weakest SV slot has three (3) ribbons, you know your core is not to be trifled with. All three players here are very impressive and proven, once again giving the Magmortars the title of best SV core.

The Goodras have drafted well for their SV core, focusing on players that have had successful results in PU tours over the past few months, specifically with Hiko winning the PU Love Tour and etern making the finals of the most recent PU Seasonal. Hiko is more known for his OU prowess since last year, but obviously he has recent experience in PU that coupled with solid teams should cruise him to a good record. etern is a similar story with a lot of hype riding behind him—despite his disclaimer of being inactive for a good chunk of the season, his dominance in lower tiers this generation is reason enough to believe that this won’t hold him back. Finally, sufys is a yapper through and through, and he’ll have the positive feedback needed to succeed if he doesn’t get in his own head. Managing to get players of this caliber for SV without having to kneecap your draft by shelling out way too much money is a rare occurrence; their hopes might be tied the prowess of their managers as supports, but asa is one of the few people you can really trust in that regard, so there should be no worries in terms of the Goodras living up to expectations.

The Lakers have an interesting cast of characters here—none of these players are particularly considered PU “mainers,” but they’re well-regarded players regardless. Piyu’s growth as a player has had an interesting trajectory, as he’s been putting up solid results in lower tier team tours after throwing OU players in the trash last SCL. He didn’t do very well in his last PUPL, but that was in Bo3, and he should feel much more at home within the same generation he’s been playing in other tournaments. Xiri is honestly ranked a little low in comparison to his actual results; he’s had campaigns PUing in official tours here and there over the years, is well versed in a few oldgens, and, most importantly, took home the ribbon for last year’s circuit championship. There’s little doubt to his abilities as a tenured player, but the competition above him is stiff and sometimes his teams can be a little too wacky. Stories is a household name in NU but actually has quite a few achievements in PU as well—she went undefeated in SV last PUPL, came second in her first PULT, and went 5-1 in PUWC. I was going to spend some time digging to find these results, but thankfully she said this herself word for word in the PU Discord after searching her own name. Thank you for saving me a lot of time. This core has a pretty high skill ceiling, so they should succeed this year given enough effort and viable teams.

The Snatchers chose to go on the pricier side for their SV buys this year with a trio of pretty experienced lower tier players. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d needs pretty much no introduction—he wins and he talks his shit. That draws the ire of many, but in spite of that he’s been one of the best players of the generation between his exploits in OU and PU as of late. Expect him to make flashy plays and some battle chat trolling afterwards. Floss is the follow-up here, who is surprisingly separated from DugZa after their time together last year. He’s not reliant on his former co-manager’s expertise by any means, and he has strong fundamentals that’ll allow him to succeed. Finally, Ampha is ranked way lower than what you’d want out of a manager who’s self-buying. He hasn’t put up absolutely stellar performances in the past, and his teams can leave a lot to be desired in execution sometimes. This is obviously quite worrisome, but at the same time, having that kind of confidence is key in a leadership role and may be enough to give him a tour to be proud of. There’s a lot of confidence in the Snatchers here, though mostly attributed to the ho3, who is probably as good of a clutch factor as you could ask for in this tournament. That, coupled with two players who at least know what they’re doing, makes this a core to watch out for.

The Haunters land around the middle here for picking up both the highest- and lowest-ranked SV playersin fish anemometer and Kev, respectively. fish anemometer might have you think he’s just some noob, but that’s only true some of the time, which is exactly why he’s #1 in the pool. He recently made finals of SCL IV while duking it out with some of the best PU has to offer, and he’s cleverly been using smaller side tours like Smogon Grand Slam to warm up for the main event—PUPL XI. Up next is former council and lower tier powerhouse Vulpix03. So far his run in the PU Open has only consisted of calling activity, so it’s a little hard to tell where his SV PU knowledge is, but his skill and proclivity for off-meta building should suit him well here. DugZa figured Monotype mains needed more representation but had Floss “snatched” away from him, so he decided to round out his SV core with Kev instead. Kev has no PU team tour results and will likely need constant support from DugZa, MZ, and co. to make his debut one to remember, but the potential and skill are both there for Kev. There are real factors that might spell trouble for the Haunters in SV, mainly if fish anemometer remains motivated and if Kev gets off to a good start. If DugZa can help his team overcome these challenges, though, then the Haunters’ SV core may prove their ranking to be spookily inaccurate.

Right below the Haunters is the Infernal Pride Par—sorry, the Pokéstar Pranksters. Their SV core starts off great with council member Bouff, who’s coming off an undefeated 6-0 run in PUBD II. Only time will tell if they can recreate or even top that in PUPL, but they’re surely motivated to try and make it happen. Past Bouff, though, it gets a bit shaky for the Pranksters’ SV core. Drip “Tera Steel Hariyama” Legend is a solid overall tournament player but lacks standout showings in SV PU. SEA is in a similar boat, being great at the game in general but not having much of any experience with SV PU. What does save this core some is that Bouff and manager hex will almost definitely help the others extensively when they need it. There’s plenty of synergy between each of the players here, too, which should make figuring things out easier. That said, the Pranksters don’t really have great sub options if they can’t translate that synergy into success here.

The KINGPIN’s SV core consists of some familiar faces as far as PU goes, and all of them are noteworthy players in their own right. Metallica126 has been on a massive hot streak lately thanks to a solid 10-5 campaign for the winning teams of the recent PUWC and PUBD, which doesn’t make his massive price tag surprising. big tony 2014, who also happens to have won PUBD with Metallica, is a beloved community member and aficionado of various SV lower tiers. His eagerness both as a tryhard and as a creative teambuilder makes him a valuable presence on any team. Finally, LOOR has returned to the scene after somewhat of a hiatus—as a manager, he saw his team miss out on playoffs last year, but he’s generally known as a tryhard similar to tony, priding himself on his teambuilding. With all that being said, being a good builder doesn’t always translate into results by themselves, and it seems that LOOR’s placement may reflect that sentiment. Unfortunately, not many seem to have faith in this trio of players—aside from Metallica, there’s little starpower to speak of from this roster, and while all have the capability to notch some games, there isn’t much reason to believe they’ll shine relative to the rest of the playerbase.

The Delphoxes’ SV core is a lot like the Haunters’, starting off strong and then ending with some slots that leave a bit of room for doubt. Suzukaaa has been a rising star in PU as of late, winning the tier’s latest Seasonal on top of doing well in PU in BLT XII, making it to quarterfinals in the PU Ladder Tour, and winning PUWC V with Team China. dunoks made it quite far in PU Winter Seasonal too and excelled in the tier during FCL. That said, his negative record in PU team tours leaves a lot to be desired, and he’s a bit more known for oldgen low tiers than SV. 691 has one PU win from this past SCL and went 4-3 on the winning PUWC V team, but that’s where his experience with the tier ends. 691 should have more than enough support with Suzukaaa, managers tom holland and DDJoe, and subs like bloshh, and the same goes for dunoks. It’ll be up to 691 and dunoks to make good use of all the help they have, and it'll be up to Suzukaaa to keep a solid streak going in case things don't work out for the other SV slots.

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Coming in on a hot streak with a 6-2 record in the previous PUPL and RUPL win very recently, it's no surprise that gum tops the pool. However, after his self-proclamation that he's done everything there is to do in the tier and following potential burn-out after RUPL, some may question his dedication to this tournament. Though, the Pranksters seem to see the sparks blazing within him and wasted no time taking the retain at a bargain price. If the Pranksters can handle gum's relentless addiction to the SS PU tier—demanding 200 test games a week—and provide the space for him to stay internally motivated, they’ve got a serious asset. His near-flawless building and pristine grasp of the metagame should give everyone in this pool a run for their money.

To no one's surprise, Breloominati is placed just short of rank 1, as he was the only person in this pool to take a game off gum last year. Despite that, coming off of a barely positive PUPL, he finds himself at an astounding 26k. He's the most expensive player in the auction due in part to some mischievous upbidding from the Delphoxes; they honorably punished the greedy Magmortars for thinking they could get away with a cheaper auction price than his retain price. Despite having fellow franchise mainstays in pdt and Drud to help him every week, he may feel some pressure to perform in what seems to be one of the more competitive pools this year to justify this mishap. However, no one is questioning his ability to pilot and win games. He has had consistent showings across his recent dealings in tournaments and has proven himself to be a top dog in SS PU. Only time will tell if this move was worth it for the Magmortars.

Rounding out the same big 3 of SS PU from the previous PR, we have OBB. Despite having a better record than Breloominati and also beating him last PUPL, OBB finds himself somehow tied with him. Perhaps the voters are not as convinced in his gameplay yet. OBB has repeatedly shown that he knows what he's doing in SS PU after his previous poor showings, but perhaps his recent unripe gameplay in RUPL has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. That being said, our resident ZU mainer has found himself back in the territory of shitmons, which he is able to wield excellently. The Goodras were able to pick him up for only 3k more than his previous price, leaving them with a purchase that is more than worth it. He may consider himself slightly stranded, however, as the only teammates around him who can viably prep SS tend to dismiss the tier as boring. If his self-sufficiency doesn't meet the demands of the Goodras, he could fall from grace just as quickly as he rose.

Disappearing into the shadows and making a return to the PU scene, we have PUBD farmer Lambovino. Bolstering a nearly undefeated record in said tournament and seemingly reigniting his addiction for Pokémon, he opted to self-buy this PUPL. Forming a legacy in bringing "heat" and less viable Pokémon to tournament games, he is no stranger to the inner workings of the tier. As both manager and starter, it seems the Sinnoh Lakers duo did not find it worth their time to draft any SS PU support, which leaves Lambo to his own devices this tournament. If the other Lakers don't immediately mute his channel after seeing him post a team with Carbink, he should be well-rounded against most of this pool with a testing buddy. If he underperforms, however, his team may be in for a rude awakening.

The Strap finds himself not only with a horrible name change after all these years but also at a cheap price on a team with relatively successful managers. Similarly to the Lakers, the Snatchers seem to have Strap as their only knowledgeable SS brain, so he will have to rely on the prep of both gulch and Ampha to win his games, as he seems to be a plug-and-play user who recycles teams. If their prep seems to be underwhelming, he can easily reach out to outside support. Not to mention, he has decent experience across pretty much all of the SS low tiers and is a fine pilot. However, The Strap's success will be contingent on consistently outplaying his opponents this tournament and raw playing potential, which has yet to be totally proven within the realm of PU.

Finding himself probably higher than even he expected on this power ranking, Hacker leads the bottom 3 of this pool with pride (during June even)! After two PU tours of playing SM, newbie managers in ddjoe and tom holland mysteriously elected to slot him in SS in what we can only assume was poor bidding choices during the auction. Being the third most expensive player on his team and slotted in a tier he doesn't really care about not only points to this theory but may put some pressure on his managers to help him find a reason to put in some work this tour. He's not totally alone though, as if TJ is willing to assist Hacker, he'll be in good hands. Hacker is no slouch either, being one of the more "versatile" pilots in this pool. However, one can only attribute his status at almost the bottom of this list to lack of experience. The main question here is if he's willing to play a game that lasts longer than 30 turns in a tier where Mienfoo and Vullaby won't be on his screen. If he stops pretending to be an anime character and larping on discord and locks in for this tournament, he can very well put up a fight against the more experienced users in this pool.

At seventh, we bring in one of the more competent yappers on Smogon, heat ran himself. He won SS PU Cup, defeating good opponents such as LpZ, Danny, and asa, so he's not totally clueless as to what he's doing with GigaSlash teams. As a player, however, Ming is a step below his peers in the pool. Regardless of this, he has great support pretty much all across the Haunters. There's no question that he will be motivated, and he'll be supplied with great teams and ideas, but the Haunters took a gamble relying on mostly their prep to carry Ming in a generation that requires more finesse than what he may be used to. However, if he can awaken his inner clutch, we may witness one of the best steals in the tournament.

Last and maybe least, we have Suzuya. After realizing he wasn't built for the Bo3 pool last PUPL, he learned from his mistakes and finds himself in a Bo1 setting in a tier he's likely more familiar with. Unluckily for him, the higher end of this pool is full of sharks looking for blood. The main thing he's got going for him is decent tour results—notably qualifying for Grand Slam playoffs a year ago. This glimpse of brilliance may shrine through this season, but his inconsistency may have led voters to have very little faith in him. Picking off a few wins from the lower half of the pool with some domineering prep and play is not impossible for him, but that is entirely depending on if he did proper training in the mountains for the past year given that no one on the Kingpins seems to know SS at all.

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As usual, the SM pool this year looks stacked, but that does not change the fact that MZ was gonna be ranked at the top of it. MZ has a history of success in PU that goes past even SM when it was the current generation. The experience and knowledge alone goes a long way, but he is also on a hot streak as of late. In PUBD, MZ went 5-1 in a very stacked pool, only losing to robjr. He is also ranked second overall on the PU tour sheet, with the big 50 wins overall. The Haunters retained MZ for 22.5k this season, and for that price tag, DugZa probably expects consistency and SM PU dominance from MZ, which reflects his ranking in this PR.

With so many strong contenders in the SM pool as usual, it is impressive for sugar ovens to claim the 2nd spot but not terribly surprising. sugar ovens also has a long history with SM PU in team tours and has shown a level of consistency just like MZ. Despite a very challenging pool in PUBD, sugar ovens pulled off a 3-4 record through the season, proving they can put up an average or better record in the toughest of pools. Prior to this, sugar ovens sported an incredible 6-2 record in PUPL, proving to be a veteran in these tough pools. sugar ovens also tends to be more creative in the builder than most, bringing unorthodox structures that can claim wins against the toughest of opponents. These qualities along with their positive winrate on the PU tour sheet after 47 games is what most likely placed sugar ovens up here.

The trend continues with household SM PU names leading the pool in PRs, with robjr being no exception to this trend. robjr has a wealth of experience in this tier, showcasing a very impressive 47 wins and 29 losses on the overall PU tour sheet. robjr is always a major threat in SM PU team tours and seems to always pull off an average or better record. Last PUPL, robjr nearly matched sugar ovens with an impressive 5-2 record, which explains why they would be ranked close together as they are both consistent, household SM PU names. The KINGPINS invested in robjr for the consistency and skill he offers this slot, so it makes sense for him to be placed up here.

Estarossa is ranked 4th this season in PRs with an average rating of 3.429, just a hair worse than robjr’s 3.286 average. This should show how many threats there are in the SM pool as usual because many players in the middle of this pool are about equal in threat level, and they are very great players. Estarossa is another veteran player with a unique style he brings to his teams, a solid 51% winrate across 43 games overall, and a wellspring of SM PU knowledge. He frequently appears alongside the big names above such as robjr, sugar ovens, and MZ, so he is bundled with these names in the upper echelon of the SM PU pool. Estarossa being drafted for the Sinnoh Lakers is also nice because his teammate Xiri can provide valuable teambuilding insight and tests. This slot is another one that's expected to pull off at least an average record, if not a stellar one.

Gondra last participated in PU team tours during PUPL IX, but despite this, people respect him for his veteran clicking and universal presence currently in team tours. Something to note is that Gondra has an average rating of 3.571, just barely shy of overtaking Estarossa and robjr’s average ratings. Again, this clustering of ratings shows how up in the air the middle pack of this pool is due to the power level of players in SM. Gondra has a healthy 50% winrate on the PU team tours sheet after 18 games, and I think people believe in him for his motivation in team tours right now and his excellent clicking. The Pokéstar Pranksters seemed to want to draft a player that has potential to keep up with the top half of this pool despite not necessarily having as much experience in the tier. If Gondra can bring solid structures to his games and stay in good form, there could potentially be a great PUPL record here.

PTF is another common SM PU contender in team tours and rightfully so. PTF is sitting at a comfortable 54% winrate after 24 games on the overall PU sheet, with most of those being in SM PU. In PUPL X, PTF ended with a solid 3-2 record against many of the players ranked above, though it does appear he took a break from PUBD. He brings consistent structures in SM PU and has deep meta knowledge like the names above, and I would say the biggest thing that landed him in 6th is simply lack of any recent SM visibility since PUPL X. The other factor is that there has to be a bottom half to all PRs, and this pool is powerful enough to where any of these players could pull off a great record. The Magmortars believe PTF to be a self-sufficient SM PU player who can compete with the big dogs, and we will see if he can deliver.

tom holland is not a weak SM PU player at all, but the tier usually has a very competitive pool, and his long-awaited return to it in both PUPL X and PUBD II showed that he’s got some catching up to do. To his credit, tom is an incredibly creative player, and that’s an important trait to have in a world ruled by Mudsdale and Jellicent. He also put up a win against PTF last year, proving that he’s by no means washed up. He’s absolutely among the more motivated players here, but he just needs to channel that motivation to avoid getting snapped by some of the more proven names.

Every PR has to have someone at the bottom, but that certainly does not mean they will perform the worst. btboy is only here because someone has to be here, and all the names above either have deep meta knowledge, amazing clicking with team support, or both. btboy is definitely not a bad clicker, and he is passionate about SM. The biggest concern seems to be that this is btboy’s first PUPL, with only really ishtar to lean on for fresh SM builds. This creates a small amount of uncertainty for this player, uncertainty that barely exists for the majority of the players in this pool. This is most likely why btboy ended here. Despite this, the Goodras are taking a chance on btboy because they believe he can be successful with the team’s support and his passion for SM.

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In an otherwise extremely contentious pool, watashi snags the number one slot largely by virtue of nobody doubting their prowess. With a PU team tour record going back to 2015 and a stellar resume in basically every other format on the website, watashi seems like the surest bet in a pool of potential question marks. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve also been performing well in ORAS NU for NUPL nor that they have access to support from former ORAS PU starter Blue YM. While their forays into the tier have been sporadic at best, everything else seems set up for watashi. It seems that our rankers expect that watashi could scrape a positive record just by reusing Pearl teams from over half a decade ago, and I see no reason to fault that assumption.

ORAS PU is an incredibly straightforward tier. No generational mechanics, no massive retroactive tiering changes, straightforward top-tiers like the CB wallbreaker dog and the hard-to-wall but inaccurate fridge. How such a straightforward tier can hate a player, I have no idea. But ORAS PU clearly hates TSR. Famously unlucky, TSR has seen multiple ORAS PU team tournament performances shattered due to game after game of backbreaking hax. That he keeps getting bought and ranked highly is a testament to how people still believe in him despite the big red -7 on the sheet. Assuming neutral luck, TSR has equal or greater experience in this meta than anyone else in the field and finds himself supported by multiple players who’ve started in this meta in the past. If the Haunters cross their fingers and don’t break any mirrors, he seems about as prepared for success as possible.

lighthouses is a decent player, and this pool is confusing so sure, why not, 3rd seems appropriate. At least, this is what I imagine went through the heads of the people who made sure he ended up here. lighthouses has played in five PU team tours to varying success, but none more recent than 2021. He’s certainly played ORAS PU before, but nobody would call it a main focus of this RU main. Support from players like avarice and Skrimps isn’t nothing, but it’s hard to know exactly how much they’re going to be factoring in here either. But hey, they went 6-2 five years ago and just had a good SPL so that’s something.

What a perfect candidate to have an exact 4.0 ranking. In a pool of newcomers, people who haven’t played for a while, and a general vibe of “idk let’s put that person there”, feen is the only player where everyone said “yep they’re about halfway up/down this pool” and that was that. Having played in all three PU team tours last year to a resounding 3-7 record, being drafted on the largest team but with no obvious ORAS support, and sporting decent recent records in completely unrelated tiers like a 6-1 in RUPL, feen’s resume seems perfectly average for a confusing pool such as this. That being said, after being completely shut down trying to upend another completely settled ORAS low tier, we’ll have to see if he gets bored and tries to wiggle his way into the SV lineup instead.

Considering both Eternal Spirit and lighthouses have one good 6-2 record in a PU team tour from several years ago, and then a bunch of mediocre to poor ones otherwise with no recent outings, it seems like the only reason Eternal Spirit finds himself a few spots lower is that half of the rankers seem to have forgotten who he is. I say half because that mode ranking of 2 really stands out compared to his peers; at least a few old heads remember this guy as someone with three different team tour trophies and a Sheet™ ranking of 11th. Could he have even named three top tier ORAS PU Pokémon before getting told he needed to relearn this meta? I don't know, probably not. But with a little support from what will almost certainly be an active and willing team, albeit one without the most ORAS-centric support, it seems more than possible that Eternal Spirit’s record will hew closer to their official team tour outings and not their prior PU records.

Oh my god just make up your mind already, none of this “oh I’m going to step down but still get the asas to pick me up again while posting in my signup that I’m washed and semi-retired”. Either retire or don’t retire, but this sort of low ranking is to be expected when there’s so much tepid waffling from what should be the slam dunk of one of last year’s PUPL champions and a recent PUTL returning to a similar team that clinched last year’s tournament. I guess slotting into ORAS, a tier ishtar isn’t particularly known for, doesn’t especially help. Will ishtar perform here? I don't know, maybe; there’s certainly support and an active team if she’s around enough to use it to her advantage. Will she put in the prep and make the plays to take down some of the more expected performers in the pool? That really depends on how accurate her constant self-deprecations of “washed” truly are.

Despite having never played in a PU team tour before, Ruffles finds himself nearly outranking a recent PUTL and with a mean rank of 5th as opposed to the 7th that he ended up with. I’m not sure if that’s more praise for his performances in other tiers that have built decent expectations for such a PU newcomer or me continuing to bash ishtar despite her section being over, but either way, it sets the stage for a potentially very interesting debut. Potentially. I would personally argue ORAS PU is the easiest generation for a brand new player to get into (unless you’re already a DPPhead), but there’s still plenty of other players in this pool whose whole thing is “I’m generally good at the game and can probably perform here”. Ruffles has the recent performances in plenty of other low tiers to suggest that they can keep doing the same thing here to decent results, but if his opponents start finding him to be frito beat and the Snatchers can’t get him making lays-ups, they might find themselves taki-ng him out of the tournament. Pringles.

Repeat mostly everything I said about Ruffles except older. Despite having killed time on this website for nearly a decade now, killintime also finds himself in his first ever PU team tour trying to figure out what the heck a Vibrava is and why this tier managed to ban Machoke but won’t even rank Swalot. Will he be motivated to play for the Magmortars? Probably, they’re usually pretty good at juicing performances out of people even if there isn’t any obvious ORAS-head to provide support on their roster. Is he a decent enough player to constitute a reasonable threat? Yeah probably, he just went positive in RUPL and was at least a solid ORAS UU player when that was the current generation. Enough people rated him higher than other starters to give him a mean, median, and mode ranking of around 6 rather than the 8th he finds himself in. Whether or not he can outshine either of those rankings though is a big fat question mark.

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As one of the very few people who are in love with the tier, if his constant spam of "BW PU" in the PU discord is anything to go by, LpZ once again finds himself as the strongest player in the BW pool and the only unanimously ranked #1 player in the entire power rankings this year. With a near endless amount of accolades and experience within the tier, he should easily be able to hold his own and do well this year. In what many would describe as a mostly one-dimensional tier, LpZ is consistently concocting new teams week in and week out and pushing the boundaries of the tier every tour.

Tack finds themselves at a respectable second-place slot this year. They have done well in the past, such as the strong 5-3 showing last PUPL. They also have years of experience with BW and are self-sufficient in their teambuilding. However, they are known to fixate on certain building tendencies, which can easily be taken advantage of as witnessed in the most recent PUBD. That said, Tack is still expected to be a frontrunner in this pool and have a good showing this year, especially if she can switch things up and not fall back on the same building patterns from the past.

Former UU mod Accel finds himself at the number 3 slot this year. Although not known for his BW PU knowledge in particular, Accel has years of experience playing BW UU (yes, sadly he's a masochist and likes that tier). Not to mention, Accel also dabbled in BW RU this year and had a very promising run, so it should go without saying that he is very familiar with BW lower-tier intricacies; yes, the intricacies in question are to hazard stack as fast as possible and pray. Jokes aside, despite the lack of BW PU experience, he easily has the most seasoned tournament experience in this pool and his general knowledge with battling should keep him competitive. With the proper support behind him, he is expected to thrive, as evident by his third-place ranking in his debut PUPL.

Tizio Potente Ao slots in the middle of the pack at the number 4 spot. He comes off a strong 4-2 record in BW PU in PUBD in a very competitive pool, which is extremely impressive. He doesn't build for himself but finds himself teaming up with a fellow Italian and familiar face in terracotta, who should be able to help out and keep things going. Outside of this, though, very little is known about him, although I've heard that he is extremely funny at times! Although a one-tour sample size is not the most promising, that is all we've got on him, so hopefully he can build on his PUBD successes. In a pool full of wild cards, he can make a surprise splash.

Cow, formerly known as Triple Axel Blaze, sees a boost from their previous ranking in the last PUPL at the number 5 position. As one of the new-gen BW lovers, if you were to open any random tour featuring BW, you're almost guaranteed to see Cow playing in it. He's also had great success in said tiers, such as his recent BW OU seasonal win not too long ago. All that said, he put up a lackluster 0-5 record playing the tier in PUBD, so there are many question marks about his motivation and overall ability to bounce back this tour. He is also extremely tilt-prone, and whether anyone on his team can provide the support he needs is also unclear; however, he is not a stranger to BW, and if provided with proper support, he should be able to make a mockery out of the low ranking.

Following a slight dropoff, as a cheap 4.5k pickup, Tycarter is coming off a solid PU win in BW Grand Slam and finds himself on the Haunters for a second year in a row. While his deep knowledge of various metagames and ability to do good no matter what will help him in BW PU, his otherwise unknown potential in BW PU and his inconsistent performances in PUPL finds him sitting only at the number 6 slot. Nevertheless, he is surrounded by great support from both Lily and MZ on the Haunters, so if he can quickly get up to speed with the tier, then things will look bright for the Haunters BW slot. Otherwise, this could very well be a repeat of his dreaded 0-6 run from two years ago.

Avarice finds himself at number 7 this year in this tough BW PU pool. The issue with avarice is not that he is a bad player: he has proven himself time and time again to be a strong player in PU across generations and across tiers. The hurdle Avarice finds himself facing is that he is relatively inexperienced in BW PU compared to other players in the pool. He is by no means known for his expertise of BW PU or BW in general, so it is confusing to many to see him in the BW slot. He is still a competent player and proven across different tiers, so he should be able to pick up the tier and have a respectable showing. However, BW as a generation does not go hand in hand with his extremely tilt-prone nature, so it is more than likely that we see snarky comments in true avarice fashion at the end of all of his games!

Last but not least, Neomon is a solid all-around tours player in his own right. However, he finds himself in dead last due to not seemingly having any experience in BW PU, or PU for that matter either. That said, he has tons of experience playing BW as a gen, especially in NU. He is a fond builder of the tier, so it is not unlikely to see him incorporating his own creative touch on the tier to build new teams every week. He also has his manager drud by his side for support. He should be able to hold his own in BW PU with some help from the rest of the teams; at the same time, in an extremely competitive pool such as this one, it will certainly be an uphill battle to muster out wins.

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This time one year ago, BeatsBlack found himself near the bottom of the pack despite a wealth of DPP knowledge and extremely strong support from manager Drud. Fast forward to the present day, and he still has those qualities but has since proven the haters wrong with a top cut record in a difficult pool that could warrant a namechange to BeatsEveryone. Not only is he a standout in a tier known for being hard to truly shine in, but many of his stiffest competitors have decided to bow out this year, with Heysup declaring that he would likely accrue a grand total of zero games this season and other heavyweights like JabbaTheGriffin and HSOWA neglecting to even sign up. The consensus is clear: the stars seem to have aligned for BeatsBlack to have yet another incredible season.

TJ is a player who could likely occupy this range in almost any tier, being a capable pilot with a deep history and knowledge of several generations of PU. This time, however, his talents have been put to use in DPP, likely due in no small part to his impressive showing in the most recent DPPPL playing PU. Furthermore, he has competent support through two teammates who also possess some level of knowledge on the tier, dunoks and Leni, although whether or not they'll actually be active enough to be of any help is another question. Still, TJ is more than capable enough on his own, and structures in the tier are similar enough that even if he has to resort to reusing teams, he may go unpunished. All that's left is just avoiding prompting a post in the admin thread due to getting his title changed to "Banned deucer."

Although lacking the same history with the tier as some of his peers, Django, much like TJ above him, managed to turn heads with a handy record in DPPPL, all the more impressive coming from a total first-timer in the tier. He seems to have taken to the Purugly-ruled wastes like a fish in water as well, even going so far as to be a vocal proponent of dusting off the ancient tomes that are the DPP PU resources and giving them a much-needed sprucing up. Manager skrimps is also sure to provide excellent support, and zS may even remember a thing or two from his time playing in tournaments of days past. A winning record is certainly in the cards; it's just up to Django to prove that he can replicate his recent successes.

frankjosh returns to the fray, ranked similarly to his placement last year. However, after skipping out on PUBD and not playing the tier in DPPPL, he may have a bit more rust to shake off than some of his counterparts. Thankfully, his last record in the tier was a positive one, and many of the opponents he lost to are playing other tiers or are simply nowhere to be found. He also finds himself without support once again, but this didn't seem to slow him down in previous outings, with his grip on the builder handily keeping him afloat. All in all, rankers seem to believe that it'll take a bit more than a hiatus to throw off his groove.

Leading the bottom half is SFG, a DPP OU main that the Lakers are hoping can slide down the ladder. He should have the hard part down with his knowledge of generational mechanics, and he isn't entirely starved for support either, as Xiri and Estarossa have played a game or two of DPP themselves. However, DPP experience aside, SFG is like many others in the pool: a very large question mark. Only time will tell if he has what it takes to keep his head above water.

No, you didn't accidentally skip down a section: Charmriah is starting in DPP this season. He and Heysup, a would-be ADV UU power couple for the ages, will take to yet another tier where Golduck is viable in hopes of fame and glory. Some of the best support one could ask for is on the table here—some may argue that access to Heysup's teambuilder alone is a steal for his auction price. TyCarter is also fairly knowledgeable on DPP as a whole and should be perfectly fine to fill in the gaps left by Heysup's self-admittedly spotty activity. This low of a ranking is certainly not due to Charmriah's ability as a player, either, as he has rather consistently racked up performances in other old-gen metagames. The ball's in his hands, but a lack of experience may lead to a fumble against top contenders.

Laurel has been in the Smogon scene for years and has established himself as a solid DPP player, with results in tournaments such as SPL to boot. However, most of these results are in DPP OU, and he has had little to no experience playing DPP PU. The only DPP PU experience I could find for Laurel was from last DPPPL in which he played one game and lost; while the gen-specific dynamics may remain consistent, DPP PU is vastly different from DPP OU, so whether Laurel will be able to pick up PU at a top level remains to be seen. He is a proven player, however, so not all hope is lost. Moreover, the manager, gulch, is particularly well-versed in DPP, evidenced by him slotting himself into the recent PUBD tiebreaker despite being almost winless! Jokes aside, gulch should be able to provide the necessary support for Laurel to pick up the tier early on and give anyone in the pool a run for their money, but if things don't work out, Micciu might come off the bench sooner than expected.

Ara's played DPP PU once before. It did not go well. After sitting last year's tournament cycle out, they've returned, picked up by the Goodras for a paltry 3k. Ara is no stranger to other DPP low tiers, which could lead to success if that knowledge ends up being more transitive than that of their OU mainstay peers. Despite this, DPP PU has changed a lot in the past few years, and the Goodras roster lacks anyone with the knowledge to truly get their teammate up to speed on meta developments, something that did not go unnoticed by rankers. Combined with rather archaic resources... it doesn't seem to be a stretch that while it's anyone's game, Ara may find themselves struggling to hit the ground running.

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Anyone at all familiar with ADV PU won't be surprised by Lily's ranking at the top. She is by far the most prominent player in the tier. With an astounding 8-2 record in ADVPL IV and a 5-4 record in last year's PUPL, she definitely has the experience to show in sheer number of games. In this year's ADVPL V, she had a slightly lower showing of 4-3, but a net positive in over a year of tournaments is nothing to gawk at. She is also an avid builder of the tier, which goes a long way in a tier such as ADV PU. If she can keep the positive consistency going through this tour, she'll no doubt perform great.

As the current leader of ADV PU, plznostep holds a lot of knowledge about the metagame. With a nice 5-3 record in last year's PUPL, he's out to repeat that success. His teams are usually quite innovative for such a limited tier, and he could catch other players off guard with some new unexpected Pokémon or tech moves on some of the tier's mainstays. He did have a middling 2-2 record in PUBD, which is still respectable but hints at some level of inconsistency. Nonetheless, hopes are high for the ADV PU TL, and many expect a repeat of his successful run from last year.

Plague has a lot less PU tournament success to go off of than the aforementioned players. Plague is no stranger to ADV; he dabbles with a lot of different ADV tiers, but his experience in ADV PU in particular pales in comparison to his experience in some other ADV tiers. Moreover, they had a tough season last PUPL, only managing to grab one win. However, that one win was against Slowbroth, a very accomplished ADV player. They've had quite a bit more positive results in NU, currently sitting at 3-2 in NUPL, and that could potentially transfer to PU. Their team managers must have a lot of faith in them however, as they went for a pretty penny in the auction.

Aurist is a player most people would know if they've interacted with the tier recently. They are mostly known as a current gen mainer but have been dipping their toes into old gens as well. This year, they built teams for feen during ADVPL and led them to a 5-2 run. While they have a lot of potential and clearly are an adept builder, Aurist has very limited experience as a player in team tournaments, so we'll have to see if those skills can translate from the builder to playing the games themselves.

Parpar is a relatively recent player to PU but has managed to do quite a bit in that time. Last PUPL, they managed to lead a nice 5-2 record. This year, they have the same building support as last year's, being paired up with former ADV PU tier manager, SergioRules, so he is off to a great start. In another competitive pool, only time will tell if Parpar can repeat his successes of yesteryear or not, but the potential is definitely there.

violet river is another player like Plague who is more known for performance in other ADV tiers, and like Plague, they are currently in a positive run in NUPL. As far as her support goes however, the team doesn't have anyone necessarily known for their ADV performance. SEA, Bouff, and gum all have played the tier before, but when it comes to building, none are particularly known for it. She could be an underdog in this tour, and other teams should watch out just in case.

Another player new to the PU scene, Mielke sneaks in with the Magmortars as another player of other ADV tiers. Despite some decent games in ADV OU tournaments and a respectable 5-4 record playing OU on the ADVPL-winning team, Mielke doesn't seem to have a ton of experience with the PU tier in general, if at all. The team also has very limited support to offer in this slot, so hopefully Drud and BeatsBlack can step up to the plate and help him learn the tier. His OU successes are still nothing to scoff at, so if he can get up to speed with the tier, good things can be expected here.

sleid finds himself as a full-time starter this PUPL after years of being a great support option in the PU scene. In a slight surprise, though, sleid is slotted into ADV for the Snatchers. While in most other team tours, sleid plays DPP, this time, he had some competition in that slot from Laurel. sleid doesn't have a great record in PU tours, and the team lacks any notable builders for ADV, so it's not too shocking to see him down at the bottom of the rankings, but ADV could be his breakout tier, and he will be out for blood aiming to prove the doubters wrong.

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At #1 (shockingly) we have DugZa, who barely played games last PUPL, and didn't get a win against anyone who was viable in that pool. Despite that, after an impressive showing in tournaments like SPL and a multitude of premier leagues, the voters seem to have held him in high regard when voting and expect him to bounce back. If he's not too busy having to rally his non-PU mainer troops and genuinely preps, he is probably one of the best players in this pool despite his flop last year. As the Haunters are relying on his win every week to make up for weaker slots, he'll definitely have to lock in every week if he wants to go positive. By this point however, he is no stranger to playing high pressure games. Assuming he'll be self sufficient, he's ahead of most other slots in the Bo3 pool in the builder, and will just have to make sure his playing ability isn't rusty this tour.

In typical Axew fashion, he seems to find himself coming after the top of the pool despite being a very dominant player during his tenure as a competitor. The elephant in the room is probably being ignored by the Pranksters—will he even play more than 3 games this season? Having a history of going inactive when he gets too busy, if that ends up being a reality for this team, they're in trouble. Aside from that though, it's no surprise that he's ranked at #2. Having insane records across a plethora of tournaments, he is no stranger at all to farming low-tier leagues and is arguably one of the greatest PU players of all time. Assuming he's got a full season ahead of him with reasonable prep from his managers, he'll put up a positive record no doubt. Though, if he's too busy enjoying his brat summer, the Pranksters season may end before it even begins.

Council member zS rounds off the podium in the Bo3 slot power rankings this year. Coming off a strong a 5-2 showing in Bo3 last year, one could argue that zS deserves to be placed higher; however, zS has taken a step back from lower tiers as a whole in recent times and has been more focused on OU between SPL and the ongoing WCoP, so he is slightly out-of-touch with PU. Nonetheless, he is a creative builder and a competent player and is poised to do well assuming his creativity in the builder doesn't quickly turn into overcooking that could backfire, such as the Combusken obsession he refuses to let go of. He is also surrounded with respectable support options across all three gens, which should only benefit his odds. As long as he treads the line of creativity with caution and does not try to be too outlandish, it is highly likely that he will replicate his dominant performance from last year yet again.

Despite not traditionally known as a PU player, lax is widely regarded as an all time great on smogon and is easily the most seasoned player on this list thanks to his success in the official tournament scene. The only thing he *lacks* compared to some other player on this list is the metagame knowledge but easily makes up for it with skill and years worth of experience. All that said, lax is known to be tilt prone; so if the early weeks don't go as intended then things could quickly turn sour for the Snatcher's Bo3 slot and might scramble to find a replacement. Moreover, outside of SM, the team might also struggle to provide him with good teams on a weekly basis but if the managers are able to step up to the plate and ensure that good teams are passed week in week out, there is very little that can stop lax from putting up another strong performance.

Seeing Drud maneuvering the Magmortars Bo3 slot as opposed to pdt comes as a surprise to many; widely regarded as the best DPP PU player of all time, you'd normally expect to see him in DPP or BW, or heck, even SV before Bo3, but here we are... Drud recently won PU Classic, which also featured SM PU in it, one of the three tiers that are featured in the Bo3 slot. So he clearly knows what he's doing there, but as for the other two tiers, very little is known about Drud's experience in them. He tried his hand as an SV starter last PUPL but quickly realized it was doing more harm than good to the team and moved to BW by the mid point of the tour. As for SS, I'm not sure if Drud even knows what an Eldegoss is, so it will certainly be interesting to see how this decision will pan out for the Magmortars or if we'll see pdt here within a few weeks. This is not to dismiss Drud as a player—he is easily regarded as one of the best players in the PU classic generations, but the limited experience in SV and SS leaves a lot of question marks; however, his team has great support in these tiers, so if his DPP skills can translate into fairy gens, then we can expect a respectable performance from Drud in his debut Bo3 performance.

At first glance, Larry is not a name you would typically expect to see in a Bo3 slot in PU but as a regular face in the PU scene, he has had great success in SV PU and SS PU including in SCL as well as some dabbling in SM PU including winning an SM PU Cup in the past, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to see him in the Bo3 slot. He has consistently put up strong performances in SV PU in most, if not all, recent PU team tours. However, he is highly reliant on team support, as he does not build for himself, and as a tour player, he can be prone to being caught off guard by random techs and sets. He is still a solid player and is backed by great players on the Sinnoh Lakers, so if the team is able to get him up to speed on the different tiers, then he can give anyone in the pool a run for their money.

Ah Leni... Leni... long gone are the days when Leni was considered to be one of the best builders and up-and-coming players in PU. Nowadays he's more known for his infamous "girl" log and rightfully so. All that aside though, Leni used to be a trendsetter in the builder during the SM PU days, and some of his teams are fondly used many years later, even today; this carried over to early SS as well when some of his builds defined the meta. However, his influence gradually faded over time, and he wasn't as active towards the latter part of SS and SV. He has been involved with SV PU to an extent, as he was Xiri's main building partner in Xiri's circuit ribbon-winning campaign. With all that said, most of his successes have been limited to support roles, as he hasn't played in many tours himself, so it is hard to say if he is in top form going into this PUPL. If he can work his magic in the builder again, then perhaps he can overcome the pool and get some strong wins, but otherwise, this might prove to be a tough leap for the Delphoxes Bo3 slot.

Seraphz is traditionally not someone you expect to see in Bo3 at all, but the Goodras have decided to take the gamble and let the manager man the Bo3 slot this year. While the unanimous last place ranking might be harsh, it is also hard to justify ranking Seraphz above anyone else in the pool due to his lack of experience in Bo3 or PU old gens in general. He has had some success in SV PU, having decent showing in individuals but is yet to have a stellar team tour showing that he hopes to have this PUPL and prove the haters wrong. There are some things that are working very much in his favor though—he is backed by some of the best support cast he could ask for in asa, OranBerryBlissey10, and ishtar among others. Moreover, he is an extremely motivated player himself, so it is expected that he will go above beyond to make this gamble worth, so only time will tell if things will actually pan out as intended for the Goodras or if they'll be scattered looking for substitutes to take over the Bo3 duties in weeks to come.

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