SPL XVI Classiest Retrospective

By goldmason, bello figo, Endill, and ego. Released: 2026/01/01.

The context

The Congregation of the Classiest had last won the trophy in SPL VI. That tournament happened in 2015; to put that into perspective, Tesung put up the best record that year, while the Classiest's most important contributions came from Jibaku, Mr.E, bruno, and craing ;_;, all since retired. This put the Classiest in something of SPL's middle class, less privileged than the Ruiners, Wolfpack and Raiders who had all won multiple times since then, but certainly in a better position than the Cryonicles and BIGs.

Entering SPL XVI, however, what was perhaps more relevant for the Classiest was their last-place finish the previous year. With co-manager Luthier departing for the player pool and no obvious retains to speak of, returning manager d0nut had their work cut out for them. This would be d0nut's 6th consecutive year managing the team, with multiple playoff appearances and an SPL XI finals in that span. SPL XIII co-manager FMG was largely retired, however, and SPL XIV co-manager Amaranth would enter the player pool this year. This would be a build from scratch.

In SPL XVI, there would be three managers per team, a change meant to lessen the manager burden over the previous status quo of two per team. d0nut, obviously, would be one of them. The second was Expulso, coming off of an excellent SCL season in which his Technical Machines made the finals, losing only to the Dynamos all year. The third was originally Howkings, Expulso's predecessor on the Machines and a WCOP manager for Italy. The Classiest hit their first snag here, however. Owing to negative feedback from previous tournaments, the Classiest were advised to replace Howkings with another option. They selected instead blank, also known as starry blanket, whose resume notably included managing the underdog US Midwest team to a WCOP trophy. And so the core was set: d0nut, Expulso, blank. This manager core would be ranked 9th out of 10 in the power rankings. While d0nut was a respected veteran manager, the same could be said for more than half the teams this season, and the Classiest's manager group lacked standout players in any of the tiers in this tournament, something that made them unique to their detriment.

The draft

With five drafts under his belt by that point, were there any teambuilding tendencies to be identified from d0nut's tenure? Every year and every auction plays out differently, but it should be noted that d0nut's teams rarely played at the top end of the pricelist. Aside from buying SoulWind for 32.5k in SPL XIII (making him the second-most expensive player that season), the Classiest over the previous five years had never exceeded the 22.5k price they allotted for bruno in SPL XI. Over that span, they had paid at least 10k for their GSC starter every year, something they had only done once for their ORAS starter and once for their SM starter. Notably, d0nut had also shown a willingness to spend at the top of the DPP market at a time when most managers shied away from it, taking august in SPL XII and Tamahome in SPL XI, spending second-most on Pideous in SPL XV as well.

Expulso, meanwhile, took a very different strategy on his SCL IV Machines team. That team did have the most expensive DOU player in the pool in Nails, but that only amounted to the 8th-most expensive player in the draft, a total exceeded by six of the other nine teams. Nor was it a team loaded with mid-priced players; only Nails and myjava cost more than 10k and only two other players even reached 10k. Rather, the defining strategy of that team was depth, with that Machines team having a whopping 10 subs, a strategy that works well when you get positive records out of six different players who cost under 10k. SPL is different from SCL, of course; you need to fill 12 slots per week, and each tier is much deeper with proven veterans.

Did the SPL XVI draft end up reflecting these tendencies? Aside from investing 20k in their GSC starter, largely not. For one, blank's influence was obvious in the US Midwest-heavy strategy, with dice, Tace, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, and Groudon all selected from blank's championship team. The Classiest paid over 10k for both their ORAS and SM starters, which d0nut had only done once prior for each tier. And of course, the Classiest paid the second-most they had for any player during d0nut's tenure, devoting 30k towards McMeghan.

Nonetheless, the team still wasn't particularly top-heavy. The SPL XVI Classiest still had 6 different players drafted for at least 10k, a total only exceeded by the Tigers and Wolfpack. In two specific regards, though, this Classiest team reflected influence from the most recent champions, the SPL XV Tyrants. Like that team, the Classiest spent big money towards an all-time great at the top of the price table, in the hopes of reaping a guaranteed positive slot, a dependable tiebreak option, and high-end support across several tiers. And also like that team, the Classiest elected to make up their savings in current-gen OU. Their preseason SV core consisted of 13.5k DAHLI, 8k leng loi, 3.5k LpZ, and 3k S1nn0hC0nfirm3d. It was a bet on the depth of the SV OU field, a bet on their ability to select undervalued talent, and a bet on their ability to support the talent they did have to make the most of the individual parts.

It was an SV plan that the field seemed skeptical of. The Classiest's roster placed 6th on the power rankings; aside from SV, they landed in the middle of the pack in basically every tier besides ADV and DPP, the former being the first-place projection for McMeghan and the latter being their budget purchase of Groudon. If not conventional wisdom, splurging in ADV and saving in DPP was at least a common enough strategy. But their SV core ranked 9th, ahead of only the Raiders. There are obviously several ways that any team's season can go, but for the Classiest, their path to the playoffs seemed obvious enough. Between McMeghan and BIHI, they were well-stocked for a potential playoff run if they made it that far, and their balanced lineup gave them a respectable floor. If their SV core outperformed expectations, this was a playoff contender, if not a championship contender. If it didn't, then this looked like a middle-of-the-pack team.

The regular season

The Classiest's first matchup was against the Tigers, who were defending finalists and, though they didn't know it yet, the Classiest's future finals opponent. On its face, a single win, even against a good team, shouldn't mean too much. However, both Expulso and blank highlighted this week as a major turning point for the team, solidifying their contender credentials. The half of the lineup that cost over 10k credits went 2-4 this week, with McMeghan notably taking his first loss to baddummy, but the inexpensive options that constituted the other half went 5-1, just enough to win the week. Most critically, this week offered an answer to those most pressing questions about the Classiest's lineup, regarding how their SV core would perform and whether any of them could step up to be a tiebreak-caliber option. The former remained inconclusive after the team split their SV games, but regarding the latter, blank offered this:

When ho3n beat Storm Zone while skiing week 1 in an amazingly well played game. I thought our draft was great, but a big hole was the lack of a true SV 1 for TB. We were sorta banking on someone to pop off. After that game I remember roro PMing me “this ho3n guy is playing at TB level” and in that moment I knew the tournament was ours.”

One week only means so much. Two players this season won week 1 and then went 1-7 the rest of the way. Five different players lost week 1 and went 7-1 after that. With that said, Storm Zone ranked 5th in the SV pool, one of only three SV starters with an individual trophy, and S1nn0hC0nfirm3d beat him decisively. Whether he could sustain that level remained to be seen, but if he could, then the most glaring roadblock limiting the Classiest's upside would be gone.

The Classiest would first take first place in the standings after a week 4 win over the BIGs, pulling ahead of the Ruiners with 7 points and a 3-0-1 record. McMeghan had not lost since week 1, sitting at a very respectable 3-1 record. Joining him there was half the starting lineup. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d had made it there, alongside fellow SV competitors leng loi and LpZ. pj was there too, having picked up a big Santu win against the BIGs. Finally, the last and most unexpected member of the Classiest to find themselves at 3-1 here was Groudon, the budget option the team chose for DPP in part because they “thought it would be funny to put [their] friend in a fairly weak DPP pool.” Nonetheless, their belief, Expulso's in particular, had been validated in the early going.

damien the genius, Tace, and dice all had solid 2-2 records by this point, leaving the team with three question marks. The least pressing of those was Kaz in RBY; yes, he had started 1-3 without having yet faced the top players in the pool, but such stretches can't be too shocking for a 3k player. Of greater worry was BIHI, starting out 1-3 in the GSC pool. This issue was magnified because of BIHI's 20k price point, but at the same, BIHI's real value was as a tiebreak flex option, and losses to Don Eduardo and Conflict are very forgivable. Lastly, their final SV slot going 1-3 to this point would have been a much greater issue going into the season, especially given that it involved their highest-paid SV player, DAHLI, starting out 0-3 into hitting the bench. For a team that had on paper a precarious SV situation, this would have seemed disastrous. In actuality, however, the rest of the core going 9-3 by this point made DAHLI's start much more tolerable. Furthermore, though DAHLI would not play again this season, their replacement, Kate, had been thrown into the week 4 fire against lax and had come out victorious. Six positive slots, three even slots, and three negative slots that were each manageable in their own ways. That's a pretty good formula for the number one team.

The Classiest would not relinquish control of the top seed in the playoffs for the rest of the season, and would not lose until a meaningless week 9 game in which they rested all their top starters after clinching the top seed. 8 of their anticipated playoff starters finished the regular season positive, while a 9th went even. McMeghan finished 6-2 after sitting out the final week, and S1nn0hC0nfirm3d was at 7-1 before dropping their zero-stakes week 9 game. The only question marks were the veterans, with 2-6 Kaz and 3-5 BIHI joined by 3-5 dice, but they certainly believed in the latter two enough to drop substantial credits on them in the auction. Entering the playoffs with belief in their tiebreak core of McMeghan and S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, while also only really having one weak tier in RBY, that certainly seems like a viable formula.

Playoffs

The opponents for the semifinals are the Dragonspiral Tyrants, reigning defending SPL champions led by reyscarface, hungrier than ever to achieve an incredible two-peat, like only two franchises did before.

Saturday opened with cautious optimism. Damien delivered a statement win by upsetting Luthier, giving the Classiest breathing room. BIHI followed by steadying the ship against Rubyblood, briefly giving the sense that the team would have an easier time.

That hope was checked just as quickly. pj fell in an even matchup against Poek, and McMeghan, even after a dominant season, lost yet again to Fruhdazi/shitrock enjoyer just like in the regular season. After this first day of matches, the score was at 2–2, but the outlook was grim: on paper, the Classiest were underdogs in five or six of the remaining matchups.

Sunday only deepened the crisis. Tace lost in an upset. Myjava, one of the best SV OU players in the last two SPLs, won against leng loi. Then came the moment that felt fatal: Luispeikou took down Sinnoh. Suddenly, the Classiest trailed 2–5, with most of their headline players already off the board.

From there, the season became a test of nerve, where only the best performers under pressure could excel.

Kate struck back with a win over vk. Groudon fell to BKC, pushing the team to the brink. Down 3–6, the Classiest needed three straight wins just to stay alive.

Kaz started the climb, beating spies in RBY, but not without some controversy. LpZ followed, taking down Mada, one of the Tyrants' retains from the previous winning season. Everything then came down to dice versus SoulWind (arguably the greatest BW OU player of all time) - a matchup few would envy with the season on the line. Two SPL veterans facing each other in their main tier, an epic moment was about to unfold. After a very close match, dice was able to deliver and complete the comeback for his team.

At 6–6, the series went to tiebreaks. The Tyrants called DPP for BKC; the Classiest answered with ADV for McMeghan. Flex slots followed - BIHI for the Classiest in DPP, SoulWind for the Tyrants in ADV - and both teams held serve. It all came down to one final game, in SV OU. Sinnoh versus myjava. Sinnoh won. Against most odds, the Classiest advanced to the finals.

The franchise that awaited the Classiest in the finals were the Tigers, on the chase for their first ring after coming up short in the finals in 2024.

The Tigers struck first, as standout SS player Ox the Fox beat damien. Both leng loi and LpZ were defeated in SV OU by DugZa and JJ respectively. Down 0–3, the Classiest again found themselves with their back against the wall and in need of another epic comeback.

pj beat Ruffles in ORAS, while Tace took down c0mp in SM. Kaz overcame shiloh. Just like that, the score was even at 3–3. Later, in a surprising game 3d upset Sinnoh. Groudon answered by beating Christos, leveraging the shaky DPP slot of the Tigers, restoring balance. But McMeghan fell to baddummy for the second time, pushing the Tigers ahead 5–4. dice was favored to win his matchup against Sergio Aguero, who was having a hard season. After he won, either BIHI or Kate would need to pull off an upset to force a tiebreak, and Kate did, allowing the team to live for another day.

The choices for the tiebreaker were like a chess match.

Everyone knew Sinnoh was going into SV, but the Tigers had four SV players with seven wins. Storm Zone was their strongest on paper, but he was also coming off a loss. Instead, they chose 3d.

McMeghan was always playing, but the question was where? ADV was his tier of choice, even though he was 0–2 against baddummy. The safer play might have been elsewhere, but the Classiest management stayed true to their identity, trusting their best player.

The Tigers countered by sending in Ox, red-hot at 5–1 in his last six, forcing the Classiest to respond in SS. BIHI was chosen over damien.

SPL XVI came down to a decisive rematch, after McMeghan and Ox won their matches. Sinnoh versus 3d. And once again, Sinnoh delivered. The Congregation of the Classiest were SPL champions.

Where are they now?

This tournament was BIHI's retirement tour; he has not played in an official tournament since then. Likewise, d0nut has not participated in an official tournament since the SPL win, although they're back this year to attempt a repeat with blank and Gingy. The story is similar with blank, pj, Kate, and Abyssal Ruins, all of whom had different degrees of success over the year, but who we could very well see in SPL again this year.

Making that repeat tougher, however, is the fact that three different members of the championship Classiest team picked up tourbans in SCL. Would they have all been retained? There's a case for leng loi, although one that's probably less likely after their 2-5 record across WCOP and SCL. McMeghan would certainly be an expensive retain, but if you believed in him enough to pay him 30k last year I have to think the extra 3k wouldn't change that, especially after an 8-4 season. And of course, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d would have been a no-brainer. The manager core has their work cut out for them, but then again, they had no retains in their championship year either.

Expulso, their final manager, had a respectable OST placement in the round of 64, returning as well to manage the Machines in SCL, though admittedly that tournament went less than ideally. Joining Expulso on the Machines were LpZ and leng loi, and while leng loi only went 0-3 before being sold back, LpZ ended up as one of the few bright spots on the team, finishing a solid 5-4. Though LpZ's individual tournament success in 2025 didn't quite match their Grand Slam-winning 2024, they did a 3-1 record from WCOP, making them one of eight players to finish positive in all three official teamtours this year (alongside Santu, zS, oldspicemike, Ewin, JustFranco, Separation, and Metallica126). Meanwhile, leng loi had a respectable year on the official circuit, making it to the round of 32 at OST and Swiss stage at OLT.

Tace had a solid year for himself, making it to OLT playoffs and qualifying for OU circuit playoffs. He was one of two members of this Classiest team to make a circuit playoffs this year for an SPL tier, the other being Kaz, who is currently in the finals of RBY circuit. Despite Kaz's difficult SPL season, he actually followed it up with an immensely successful 2025, finishing as one of the top qualifiers for Smogon Classic, making it to the finals of RBY Invitational, and winning RBY Circuit Championships. While we're on the topic of players on this team to make another playoffs in 2025, we can mention DAHLI's bounceback in SCL, putting up a fantastic 6-3 record for the Spartans as they made it all the way to the finals tiebreak.

A few other alumni from this team deserve recognition. Groudon finished just a point away from making the Smogon Classic tiebreak, while dice was only two points away. damien the genius was a little further away in Smogon Tour, but I would argue that racking up 26 points is noteworthy when playing in Oceania; after all, damien finished third among all players from the APC region in Smogon Tour qualifying. And while we're at it, I'll mention Arc, who not only went 3-0 in WCOP, but made it to the 10th round of the OSDT Swiss stage, coming just two wins away from playoffs.

All of this is to highlight the depth of talent that goes into every SPL team, but especially the championship teams. Teams are full of established veterans, and the players who don't meet that criteria keep grinding all year to improve and get better and better placements. The bottom of the player records charts are full of accomplished players in their own right, and the same could be said for the benches. Yes, the Classiest will need to rebuild their team largely from scratch if they are to win again this year, but they did it once, and it will be exciting to see what lessons they take from this year, what changes they make, which new targets they identify.

As part of this article, we asked Expulso and blank a set of interview questions. Their answers were used to write this article, and the full interviews are included below. Thank you to both of them for taking the time!


Read their interviews here!

What's the most unpopular decision you took during the season that turned out perfectly (vetoing a team, deciding on using a certain mon, buying a certain player, trusting a player/helper)?

Picking ADV for McMeghan in the finals TB. He had lost to Rick twice over the season, so on paper it made a lot more sense to pick BW since it was their most poorly performing slot. Roro was down to ADV, and I was confident that he is the better player regardless of two losses. I got a lot of PMs and there was a lot of discussion criticizing the pick, but obviously it worked out. In hindsight it's funny that picking McMeghan for ADV OU tiebreaker was a controversial decision at the time, but Rick really was on a tear last year and definitely a worthy opponent, so shoutout to him.

What is an aspect of your management, that even after an spl win, you think it can still improve?

Trusting my cos. I'm too bossy. I'm even more intense in private than i am in public believe it or not.

In which moment did you realize you could win it all? was it after the auction ended or during the season?

What's a critical moment that happened during the season? how did you manage to avoid a fracture in the team's atmosphere to keep pushing forward?

I'm not gonna air out our business so let's just say I feel that we worked leng a little too hard at some points in the tournament. That's my GOAT. FREE LENG.

Which player surprised you the most? Which player had the greatest growth?

The player that surprised me the most was Groudon. Honestly we bought him because we thought it would be funny to put our friend in a fairly weak DPP pool, and he ended up doing very well. His showings prior to this SPL were sorta middling, and he was really just a vibe pick LMAO. The player with the most growth was BIHI, as his heart grew 100 sizes over the course of our wonderful SPL together.

If you could send a message to “yourself from five years ago,” what would you tell him about this SPL win?

SPL 16 marked 5 year anniversary of my first and only other SPL, where I got traded at mid season for 0.5k for being a bad teammate. I'd tell myself to trust the process with captaining Midwest and that I'd end up managing SPL at the most unexpected time LOL.

What's a sentence / an episode that you feel like it turned the tides of your season and shifted the energy?

After McMeghan's game vs violet river in week 3, a bunch of members of our team started talking about Pokemon cards - both TCG Pocket and physical card collecting. Our team had already meshed well those first few weeks with tons of activity and in-jokes, but I think that extensive convo (crazy late at night for Roro LOL) helped to find commonality among the different factions of our team and brought us all way closer together.

What did the last SPL season teach you about yourself? as managers and as individuals.

It taught me about perseverance, as stupid as that might sound to say over a Pokemon tournament. It's not secret I've had a rollercoaster of a time on Smogon, and like I said above, I kinda got to manage SPL at a pretty unexpected time. This tournament is also very long and very intense for a hobby if you are as committed to it as we are. Pokemon is also a very imperfect game, so there's a ton of emotions there. All of this to say, I stuck around, got rewarded for it, and then learned how to maintain mental composure and a positive team environment across many weeks and ups and downs.

What's your invisible trophy of last season, something people might not know about but that it has as much meaning as the spl trophy for you?

As corny as it sounds, it's the friends we made along the way. I came to SPL from managing US Midwest, a (previously) very active environment with tons of jokes and fun times during the off season and the tournament itself. Coming into SPL, I wondered how we would top that. After finishing last SPL, I wonder how we can possibly top this tournament. We had such an interesting group of characters that meshed so well and there were a ton of unlikely friendships made along the way. The chat is still active as I write, which is truly amazing to me.

Do you have any shoutouts you want to make?

I posted shoutouts in the SPL thread and those still stand true today so I suggest people read them to get a better insight into how fun of a tournament this was. In addition to the SPL 16 Classiest, I also want to shoutout Dave for believing in me and giving me a shot at managing when it would've probably been way easier to just reject us LOL.

What's the most unpopular decision you took during the season that turned out perfectly (vetoing a team, deciding on using a certain mon, buying a certain player, trusting a player/helper)?

Hard to say anything was that unpopular, we were generally in agreement about most of what we did. I guess I'll say vouching for us to get Groudon LOL, starry was kinda joking about him a lot because they're best friends but I was always pretty serious about getting Groudon for DPP which worked out well.

What is an aspect of your management, that even after an spl win, you think it can still improve?

Honestly, I think I just need to be more consistent with what I did in SPL. i tried changing my managerial style in scl to get over the hump after losing finals there and it went a lot worse. Personally though, i think i can improve in auction. d0nut has been around a long time, so he was our lead bidder in auction as starry and i gave input in vc which worked great. it's really hard to do by yourself, especially when you have to adapt to how the auction goes ("wow, people in X tier are really expensive"). I think it's extremely hard to keep a dynasty going, i did much worse this scl and am not managing this spl. i have a lot of respect for the franchises that have done this.

In which moment did you realize you could win it all? was it after the auction ended or during the season? Additionally, What's a critical moment that happened during the season? how did you manage to avoid a fracture in the team's atmosphere to keep pushing forward?

Yeah I think we knew we could win it all right away, and beating the Tigers week 1 (foreshadowing!) only solidified that.

Week 5 or 6, we had another foreshadowing moment against ruiners where ho3n and mcmeghan were our last two games and won to take us from 5-5 to 7-5 after the week was like 4-1 them in the start... it showed our ability to comeback, which was huge all season as we were down 6-3 in semis and 3-0 in finals.

Those moments where we were down were critical of course, but i think the team held together because of how much everyone trusted & respected each other rather than active intervention on my part. legends like mcm dice and bihi respected each other & obviously had the respect of the whole team, and newer players like kate lpz damien ho3n all had trophies and had proven they know what it takes to win. whenever we were in trouble ho3n or kate would also relieve the pressure by being really funny & making fun of starry or me.

Which player surprised you the most? Which player had the greatest growth?

Surprised me the most - damien, he was kinda a last minute pickup bc we thought the whole ss pool was pretty similar. his record was like 6-5 but he played much better than that, had incredible clicking many times (memorably vs luthier in semis and spookyz week 7ish).

Improved the most - kaz, he rallied to go 2-0 in playoffs after a poor regular season which was exactly what the team needed.

Interviews conducted with blank and Expulso | HTML by Lumari | Script by Toast++.

« Previous Article