UUPL XI Coverage

« Previous Article

Next Article »

Introduction

UnderUsed Premier League, or UUPL, is UU's biggest team tournament, with eight teams and ten slots showcasing almost every generation of UU, from GSC to SV. The first edition of UUPL since the release of Gen 9, UUPL XI gave players new and old a chance to explore the new generation on the big stage.

Less than half of UUPL X's managers returned to manage again in UUPL XI, but the returning managers included the duos of TDK and Pearl back to manage the Mikan Island Monsters and KM and mncmt back with the Moomoo Farm Mysterious Sisters. Lily and TSR both also returned with their old teams, but with new comanagers in zoe and Pak, respectively. Two UUPL X teams also returned in name only under different management, the Safari Zone Smashers led by rs, back after a year-long managing hiatus, and thisbemyalt and the Friend Safari Pokémon Trainers, now managed by pokemonisfun and Aqua Jet. UUPL XI's manager pairing were rounded out by bb skarm and Cam with the Area Zero Pilots and Bouff and umbry with the Celestial Tower Tycoons.

Auction

robjr and Punny tied for the most expensive purchase at auction, each costing their teams 23k credits. Empo was the next most expensive auction purchase at 21.5k credits, followed by 17k SoulWind and Indigo Plateau. Six of the eight teams had managers self-purchase, with Pak costing 22k credits and umbry the next most expensive at 18.5k.

Early Weeks

In the first four weeks of the tournament, the Smashers and Tycoons were the only teams able to put up more than one win, quickly establishing places within the top four, where they would remain for the rest of the regular season. Conversely, the Monsters and Stars both found themselves winless and needing to claw their way upwards in the latter half of the tournament to have a shot at finals.

shiloh quickly established himself as a player to beat, turning his sub-10k price into a 4-0 start in the Idols' ADV slot, with Thiago Nunes putting up similar results for the Pilots's DPP slot. Strong players like Punny, robjr, and Star also justified their elevated price tags with 3-1 or 4-0 starts each. On the other hand, UU Tier Leader Indigo Plateau started his season 0-4 playing SV for the Pilots, and his teammates BigFatMantis and Scottie also started the season rough, each with a 1-3 record.

Midseason Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Safari Zone Smashers	3	0	1	7
Celestial Tower Tycoons	2	0	2	6
Iki Town Idols	1	0	3	5
Friend Safari Pokémon Trainers	1	1	2	4
Moomoo Farm Mysterious Sisters	1	2	1	3
Cinnabar Arcade Stars	0	1	3	3
Area Zero Pilots	0	2	2	2
Mikan Island Monsters	0	2	2	2

Later Weeks

The back half of the tournament kicked off with the sixth seed Stars pulling off a surprise 8-2 victory over the third seed Idols, who then rode that momentum in the remaining weeks with 7-3 and 7-2 victories over the Trainers and Tycoons, respectively, bringing them from sixth to second seed. The fourth seed Trainers, despite a Week Five victory over first seed Smashers, fell just short of playoffs after their loss to the Stars and a Week Seven tie against the Pilots. The other teams continued to struggle, with the Monsters unable to put up a single win all season and UUPL X's champion team, the Sisters, finishing in seventh place.

Stars manager Pak finished the season with a strong 6-1 regular season record in ORAS, joined by his player Skarph with an equally strong record in SV. Despite the woes of their teams, Garay oak, Heysup, and fatty all also put up 5-2 records in various tiers. On the other hand, players like crying and Fc underperformed expectation, finishing with 1-5 and 2-5 records, respectively.

Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Celestial Tower Tycoons	4	1	2	10
Cinnabar Arcade Stars	3	1	3	9
Safari Zone Smashers	4	2	1	9
Iki Town Idols	2	1	4	8
Friend Safari Pokémon Trainers	2	2	3	7
Area Zero Pilots	1	2	4	6
Moomoo Farm Mysterious Sisters	2	4	1	5
Mikan Island Monsters	0	5	2	2

Semifinals

The semifinals of UUPL had two high octane matchups between the four playoff teams; the VTubers (more formally known as the Tycoons), who were coming off their first loss after a dominant season across the board, squared off against the Idols, who had just squeaked by into the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Smashers, who clutched their playoff spot Week 7 after a solid start to the season followed by a few weeks with hiccups, were facing the Stars, who skyrocketed to the second seed after notching three wins in three weeks.

For the first series, the Idols came out swinging through dominant wins, such as Lily dismantling Lunala's stall through the help of a Grass Knot Espeon, shiloh stalling ArcticBreeze to a pulp, and a last minute sub Beraldinho maneuvering with Zarel's blessings to win against Gondra. The Smashers didn't start off as strong, with Chaitanya of the Stars defeating Feliburn and his KSt3ve-named Talonflame in tribute to an airline crash(????), but they made quick work of half of the Star's roster afterwards.

By Sunday morning, both the VTubers and the Stars had to win every game to force a tiebreak, and the odds were looking dire. However, neither team was willing to give up that easily—both mounted comebacks against all odds to end with a 4-5 series each just a few hours later. Notable performances include Punny taking full advantage of BW's sleep ban not applying to UU against Finchinator, Amukamara positioning a Swords Dance Weavile win through a Spikes + Dragon Tail Slowking combo vs rs in a mirror of the aforementioned King, and Celebiii utilizing his Piloswine to fulfill an Ice Beam freeze that most likely caused a resounding "GSC moment" in the Smashers game discussion channel against Kaori.

With both pairings coming down to a singular SV game, it was up to passion and Spellcaster to force a tiebreak and give their teams a second chance at life. However, neither could pull through for their teams, as passion lost to Askov with a double Protect from Alomomola that stopped passion's Quaquaval from breaking through his team, and the double Moot's Oricorio reverse sweeping at the last moment, perhaps caused by a shift in the powers that be after some #packwatch's in the chat. Thus, the top seeded teams barely missed their shot at a tiebreak, with the Idols and Smashers moving onward to the finals.

Highlight Matches

Lunala vs Lily (SV)

In semifinals came an L matchup—Lunala vs Lily—in a game with the ugliest preview known to man as there was not one but TWO Alomomola. Lunala brought a stall team featuring the ever-terrifying Blissey + Quagsire core that strikes dread into ladder players everywhere, while Lily brought an unorthodox pick in Espeon. On preview, it looked like Lunala had a massive advantage, as nothing on Lily's team could easily break through the bulk of Lunala's team. The UU Discord erupted in anger at the mere thought of a stall win. Anyway, the battle starts out with a double Talonflame lead, which lets Lily freely get a burn on Lunala's Alomomola and a free switch into Sandy Shocks to set up Spikes. Some scouting turns occur, and Lunala is forced to Tera Ghost with their Wo-Chien to escape Alomomola's Whirlpool + Play Rough combination. This lets Grafaiai get in for free, knocking off Quagsire and starting a VoltTurn chain. Eventually, Lunala brings in Blissey on Lily's Espeon before aggressively doubling into Hippowdon and being punished by a just-as-aggressive Psychic; they make an attempt to heal with Slack Off, but the hippo is promptly dispatched by a Grass Knot, taking Stealth Rock out of the equation for Lily and allowing her to freely take a Knock Off with Talonflame. Some more boring turns occur and the Grafaiai + Espeon vortex continues until eventually Sandy Shocks gets a second Spike up and Espeon claims Talonflame on another aggressive Psychic against a double switch. From there it becomes extremely difficult for Lunala to make progress in any way, as Espeon can deny Quagsire's Spiking endlessly, and Grafaiai knocks the Rocky Helmet off Alomomola. Tinkaton even gets up Stealth Rock on its own eventually, meaning Lunala's team is getting worn down significantly by entry hazards. Eventually, Quagsire gets worn down too much by the hazards and Lunala would be unable to stop Grafaiai, so they forfeit.

Finals

After a grueling ten weeks, the Idols and Smashers square off in the finals after upsets against their higher seeds in the semifinals. The Idols start off the series 2-0, with Askov breaking Feliburn's team apart after counteracting a Choice Scarf Pawmot with Tera Electric Cloyster and mael making more use of the occasionally forgotten Dugtrio in one game than basically anyone had for the entire tournament against Micciu. KSt3ve managed to prevent a third straight win in his game vs MichaelDerBeste2, outplaying with a Toxic Cobalion and finishing off with a Reuniclus sweep. robjr was primed to tie up the series against EternalSnowman, thanks to his Waterium Z Togekiss flipping a normally unfavorable matchup against Assault Vest Mamoswine, but then tragically timed out just three turns later. Eden then saves the Smashers from further damage for a moment, 6-0ing shiloh and the very same stall team that he had piloted the week before, finishing the series at 3-2 for the Idols by the end of Saturday.

On the last day of the tournament, Nat starts off by defeating Moutemoute, dismantling his team through the combination of an untimely Ice Beam freeze and a speedy Choice Specs Magnezone eliminating his chances of being able to switch into Glaceon. Lily then won against Star with a crucial prediction against the latter's Tera Ghost Wo-Chien against her Polteageist, clutching both a full SV sweep and a series tie for the Idols. With the season on the line, killintime makes one last push for his already dominant season, winning against Xrn in a war of attrition in a difficult matchup with the help of Protect Wisp Mega Absol and some lesser used threats like Qwilfish, RestTalk Snorlax, and regular Steelix. However, it would be for naught, as rs couldn't break through Finchinator's bulky core of Milotic, Cryogonal, and Umbreon in the decisive game, resulting in Finch clutching the victory for the Idols.

Highlight Matches

Nat vs Moutemoute (SV)

In a finals match between Nat and Moutemoute, we see two unorthodox picks: Nat brings a Glaceon, and Moutemoute brings a Coalossal. Naturally one of those things is good at beating the other, but Nat's Glaceon lands a clutch freeze against Coalossal early on, brute forcing through it easily. Moutemoute tries to make something happen by Swords Dancing with Scizor, but Magnezone comes in hard and drops it with a Thunderbolt. A nice double into Gengar unfortunately results in a Focus Blast miss against Hippowdon, but at this point it was unlikely to matter; every time Nat's Glaceon hits the field, it claims a Pokémon, and it even gets another freeze on Gastrodon for good measure. From there, Dragon Dance Salamence breaks through most of Wo-Chien's HP and Hippowdon KOes Iron Jugulis with a Stone Edge; Salamence eventually heals up and claims Gengar, too, leaving Moutemoute with just a sleeping Wo-Chien. Recognising the game is over, he forfeits, resulting in a win for the Iki Town Idols.

Xrn vs Killintime (ORAS)

The finals ORAS game between Xrn and Killintime was a rollercoaster. Right from the beginning, Xrn's Moltres immediately nails a critical hit Fire Blast into Snorlax which even gets the burn, and does a whopping... 18%. Yeah. This does force Killintime to use Rest early, giving Xrn some room to breathe and Killintime reveals Sleep Talk —presumably showing that he does not have a way to hit Doublade. Xrn sets up Stealth Rock on his own side of the field against an aggressive stay-in with Mega Absol and is able to get a Flame Body burn against Whimsicott, but the fear of clicking Stealth Rock with Seismitoad is definitely real and seems to get to Xrn's head as he continuously Scalds Snorlax. Eventually Gyarados gets in and does some chip damage to Virizion, which is looking like an enormous threat with Whimsicott burned. Killintime plays around it very well, though, and manages to get a Toxic off on it with Steelix. Empoleon KOes Qwilfish, but now that Virizion is burned, Gyarados is a huge threat and KOes Empoleon back. Soon after, Killintime gets a Substitute up with Gyarados, and Xrn has to rely on a Flame Body burn to beat it. He does get that burn, but it's too little too late, as a clutch Encore from Whimsicott ends up locking Doublade into Swords Dance. From there, Mega Absol is able to sweep Xrn's team, resulting in a huge ORAS win for the Safari Zone Smashers.

Finchinator vs rs (BW)

As the BW game begins, the series is almost finished up; it's 5-3 in favor of the Idols, so rs will need to win this game to keep the dreams of the Smashers alive. Finchinator brings the most Finchinator team ever possible to the game, with Gligar, Milotic, and Umbreon all making an appearance; rs's offense team has some potential big threats in Raikou and Togekiss, although Cryogonal is great at keeping entry hazards off against Nidoqueen. Roserade immediately gets a layer of Spikes up, and Togekiss and Cryogonal trade some admittedly pathetic damage against each other before rs makes a great read and gets a ton of damage off on Cryogonal with Nidoqueen. Finch is able to heal it up on Slowbro, but not without taking a Thunder Wave. With a nice double in on Mienshao, Finch's Gligar is able to set up Stealth Rock, but now there's a dilemma: all of Finch's Pokémon are slower than Togekiss other than Mienshao and are thus flinchable. Fortunately, Roserade KOes Slowbro on an overpredict from rs, which means that Finch's Mienshao is an enormous threat. Some scary Air Slashes put Umbreon very low, but it does manage to get a Heal Bell off to save Cryogonal from its yellow fate and even gets a Wish up to heal itself to full. Gligar is able to take down most of Ferroseed's HP and Cryogonal gets a freeze on Togekiss, making the game extremely tough for rs; he gets a KO on Milotic with Raikou, but Mienshao's U-turns are doing too much damage and Finch has too many sacks available. Roserade trades with Nidoqueen, leaving it at 2%—perfect range to KO it with Rapid Spin for free, allowing Finch to rid his side of the field of hazards. Now it's do or die from Raikou, but a surprise Toxic from Cryogonal seals the game; rs is able to KO the snowflake, but from here, the combination of Gligar and Umbreon can't be broken through. With a final KO on Mienshao with Foul Play, Finchinator's Umbreon manages to secure the tournament for the Iki Town Idols.

Final Thoughts

After nine long weeks, the Iki Town Idols finally came out on top despite their seemingly unimpressive 2-1-4 regular season record, likely due to the amount of Clefable memes spammed in the threads each week, and won both glory and one of the cutest team tour custom avatars to date.

As the first edition of the tournament after the release of Scarlet and Violet, UUPL XI succeeded in giving the spotlight to UU veterans and newcomers alike, as well as showcasing the new generation's metagame. To see all of the exciting battles from this tournament, check out the Replays thread, and look forward to UUPL XII!

« Previous Article

Next Article »

All guides and strategy information are © 2004 Smogon.com and its contributors. Pokémon is © 1995 Nintendo. Privacy Policy