UU Premier League XII Power Rankings

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Hello and welcome! We're back again with the much-awaited power rankings for the twelfth installment of the UnderUsed Premier League! We asked knowledgeable players of each tier to rate the starting players for it, averaged the rankings, and ended up with an attempt at an unbiased list. There will always be inherent biases, of course; Pokémon is a game with a lot of variables that aren't always in your control, so even the best will have bad seasons, but this is the best we could do! From there, we gathered all of the rankings and assigned points accordingly. It is, of course, impossible to have perfect rankings, and I don't want to insult or slight anyone here; if you, the reader, find yourself ranked low on any of these lists, then please know it isn't supposed to be offensive. Someone's gotta be there! If the rankings can at least be a fun read for the community, then I'd say they're a success.

A special thanks to the following rankers for contributing in the creation of this article: Akalli, Amukamara, Attribute, Attribute, Beraldo, Chaos23333, ChrisPBacon, Estarossa, Expulso, Fakee, Feliburn, Highlord, Highways, Hyogafodex, Indigo Plateau, Killintime, Lialiabeast, Lily, Lycans, MAHOH, Melt Gibson, Micciu, Monai, Pak, Parpar, Punny, QWILY, Queen of Bean, Rasche, Real FV13, SANKE CARP, The Strap, TyCarter, Xiri, Xrn, avarice, col49, d0nut, dawnbuster, dingbat, hariyana grande, hs, kumiko, odr, passion, pp's splash town, rs, shiloh, spell, tko, umbry, vivalospride.

And a double triple mega ultra thank you to the following people for helping with writing, HTMLing, grammar checking, quality checking and more: Bouff, Expulso, Lily, Lumari, dawnbuster, pp's splash town, spell, and vivalospride!

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1. Punny
2. Star
3. mncmt
4. passion
5. Askov
6. JustFranco
7. Separation
8. avarice
9. vivalospride
10. Welli0u
11. MAHOH
12. Meru
13. DugZa
14. Feliburn
15. Mimilucha
16. Beraldo
17. fade
18. hellom
19. Mossy Sandwich
20. Rasche
21. Akalli
22. tier
23. Dr. Phd. BJ
24. spell

• Team: 3-4 UUPL XI, 11-12 all-time UUPL, 3-4 all-time SV and 21-19 overall

With an extremely convincing first-place position, the Moomoo Farm Mysterious Sisters take the stage with a core featuring star player… uhh… Star, alongside mncmt and avarice not far behind him. Star is one of the most renowned, consistent players on the site, contrasting mncmt, who is anything but consistent. While Star is basically guaranteed a great record, few players will ever put up records as excellent as mncmt's; he is known for going either 7-1 or 1-7, and recently it's been much more of the former. These two are joined by cheeselord avarice, who finds himself in the upper echelons of the pool as well, aiming to put together another strong campaign. If these three have good teams, it'd be really surprising to see them flop; they are basically guaranteed to do well and will help guide the yacht that the Sisters are sailing.

• Team: 2-2 UUPL XI, 27-14 all-time UUPL, 2-2 all-time SV and 37-18 overall

Not too far behind the Sisters come the Friends, with all of their players in the top half of the SV pool. Punny takes the #1 overall spot, and it's not at all hard to see why. With a successful SCL campaign, a strong UUWC, and an overall absurd 65% winrate in UU team tournament games, Punny is one of the strongest players on the site right now and has more than earned this ranking. Flanking him is vivalospride at #9, with the 9 representing the number of days I delayed the release of this power ranking for because of viv annoying me about it. He and tertiary SV slot Meru have historically had excellent synergy and typically do quite well when working with each other. While viv's records have historically been middling, he has found more success than before ever since the transition to the Gen 9 Metagame; Meru has kept trucking on as usual, consistently going for 4k for whatever reason despite an excellent overall 27-14 record. These players are strong, know how to build, and have all had success in SV; it's really easy to see them performing well.

• Team: 1-1 UUPL XI, 1-1 all-time UUPL, 7-4 all-time SV and 7-4 overall

Camphrier Town Ladies sing their song, though rankers don't necessarily sing their praises. Askov finds himself ranked very high at 5th place, but the other two players in this core, DugZa and Mossy Sandwich, are in the lower half of the pool. Askov's SV success has been very noteworthy, with an excellent showing in the tier last UUPL and consistent activity in it since; Mossy Sandwich has had similar levels of activity and a sprinkle of success himself but not quite the same amount. DugZa is a competent and capable player that typically does quite well with a decent supporting cast, which he certainly has here. On top of the core themselves, the Ladies have employed active zoomer builders Melt Gibson and ThatOneApple, while managers Estarossa and Monky25 are both capable of plenty of SV support as well. This core will rely on a little bit of overperformance from DugZa and Mossy Sandwich to reach the upper echelons, but they have both proven capable of it in the past; a third place tie feels very reasonable for this trio.

• Team: 3-5 UUPL XI, 9-10 all-time UUPL, 5-9 all-time SV and 21-24 overall

The Smashers SV find themselves all ranked within just four positions of each other, which is quite an impressive feat in its own right. With this in mind it does feel wrong to say that one player is leading the pack, but MAHOH takes the stage as the star of the SV show this year. MAHOH had an excellent performance last year before their untimely disappearance; the same cannot quite be said for the other two, unfortunately. Mimilucha's record last UUPL was a middling 2-3, and Feliburn's 3-5. They will need to pick it up this year and figure the tier out just a little more to bring this core to victory. It's not immediately obvious who will be building for this team, though. They have a few SV players with experience like Moutemoute and justdrew, so it's certainly not dire, but they'll need to work hard to get their team's ship in shape. If they can do that, they'll probably put up a fine performance. Being middle of the pack isn't a bad thing if you can make up for it in other ways, and the Smashers do have pretty solid oldgens, so it's just a matter of making sure SV doesn't crumble, and with three overall solid players in the slot they should be just fine.

• Team: 8-3 all-time SV and 8-3 overall

The Tycoons find themselves with perhaps the most VTubers core of all time; a player they're friends with, a zoomer for umbry to feed teams to, and passion. The latter is ranked at a striking #4, a ranking that is far from undeserved; passion has been on a tear in UUPL over the last few years and does not show any signs of stopping. Beraldo contrasts as someone whose UUPL record is, well, terrible; it does not reflect his potential as a player at all, though. Beraldo has shown plenty of skills on the biggest stage before and can manage SV UU just fine if he puts his mind to it, and so can Rasche, the newest addition to the VTubers crew. Rasche has been a UU mainstay ever since the generation began and has seen some pretty decent successes since then, including a highly impressive 6-2 record with the same managers he has right now. It's clear that they mesh well together, and it would not be surprising to see this core overperform relative to this fifth place ranking; however, Beraldo's overall negative record and Rasche's rookie status do hold them back from what their potential highs may be.

• Team: N/A

The Iki Town Idols decided that UU mains are a social construct and instead opted to draft an SV core that would not be out of place on an SPL team. Headlining this core is Welli0u, a well-known OU player who has played a solid amount of UU in the past, albeit not much of it in SV. He ranks in at 10th and should be able to pilot teams he's given excellently, as he frequently does. Behind him is hellom, a highly creative player with a penchant for off-beat Pokemon that most certainly should not be showing up in the tiers he brings them to. hellom's creativity could bring him far, particularly with support from manager Lily, who is known for being a shitmon connoisseur in her own right. Finally we have Akalli, an up-and-coming OU player who has been playing a fair amount of SV UU; with support from fellow Frenchmen, Akalli has plenty of potential to overcome his underwhelming ranking. While none of these players will be doing a ton of building, they do have support from manager Lily and substitutes Nikebeamz, Corporate Donkey, Trogba Trogba, and DPP starter Micciu, who all have solid SV UU experience and will be happy to help out in the builder department. It's going to come down to whether or not the Idols' gambit pays off; they could overperform if the team can acclimate themselves to a UU environment, or they could get washed if they don't. Only time will tell what really happens.

• Team: 1-1 UUPL XI, 1-1 all-time UUPL, 3-4 all-time SV and 4-5 overall

To quote justdrew: "The Monsters have not changed their draft plan since the Cold War". Their kiddie pool of players is as shallow as they are successful. Separation starts this core off at #7. Despite having played zero UU team tournaments before, he finds himself in a great position to perform following a successful SCL UU campaign where he cleaved through a number of UU's best. fade also has no UU team tour experience and did not play UU in SCL, but he does have experience in plenty of tournaments as a whole with the success to match. If the plan is to simply feed him teams and have him play, well, he's a great player to choose for that role. The final player is spell, who is the lowest-ranked player in the pool. spell's overall 4-5 record isn't too bad, and she has shown flashes of strong player before, but someone has to be last, and spell just doesn't have the results to back up much. With that said, she is an active builder when she is motivated, which will be quite important given this team's only other SV building comes in the form of Queen of Bean and termi; both can certainly provide decent support but will need some help from spell to not become overworked. This core can certainly do well, so don't count them out at all, but they'll have a few hurdles to overcome first.

• Team: N/A

The Sinjoh Ruin Strikers started off their SV core with JustFranco, who seems to exclusively win these days despite a fairly limited team repertoire. His 6th place ranking is well earned, and he'll be instrumental in leading this core to success. Unfortunately for the Strikers, that's where the positives end; their next two players, tier and Dr. Phd. BJ, find themselves in the #22 and #23 spots, respectively. They have seen success in other tournaments and tiers; tier's Ubers records are strong, and so are Dr. Phd. BJ's in NU, but they'll need to cross the gap to UU if they want to overcome their poor rankings. As stated before, JustFranco is not known for his limitless building, and the other two players here frankly don't build UU at all. This can be helped by pdt and Taka, who are quite active in building themselves, but it doesn't inspire a ton of hope. It's not impossible that the Strikers will do better than last, but it's understandable why they find themselves so low with all these factors in mind.

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• Team: 4-3 UUPL XI, 11-9 all-time UUPL, 22-13 all-time SS and 22-13 overall

Back for yet another bout in SS UU, Luthier finds himself ranked in the #1 spot in his most commonly played UU tier. Luth is not a metagame innovator. Luthier is, in fact, not a builder at all. Instead, Luthier is a pilot, and a dangerous one at that; sporting a 22-13 all-time SS UU record, Luthier is one of the most consistent players out there and is all but guaranteed to end this season with a strong record. It really is quite simple—give Luthier teams, and he will win. The only knock on him at all is that he doesn't create his own teams and the Moomoos don't have an obvious SS support slot, but between players like KM and avarice that played it when it was the current generation, they should be able to do just fine. Expect a very strong performance from Luthier this year.

• Team: 3-1 UUPL XI, 3-1 all-time UUPL, 15-2 all-time SS and 15-2 overall

Let's just take a moment to admire that record. 15-2 all-time is frankly absurd for any player in any tier; Attribute's record in SS UU can't be described as anything other than exceptional and stellar. Being someone that both actively builds and plays in the tier, Attribute frequently finds himself at an advantage over the competition in various SS pools that are less well supported or are just recycling teams from when SS was the current generation. This building advantage would be enough on its own, but Attribute's play is airtight, and he consistently finds himself at the top of the rankings list. The only negative that can be said about Attribute is that he has less playing experience in SS relative to some others in the pool, but really that's just nitpicking; the records don't lie, and the Ladies will be just fine in SS this year with Attribute.

• Team: 5-4 UUPL XI, 14-15 all-time UUPL, 11-15 all-time SS and 33-30 overall

The Idols SS slot is dedicated to beloved tier leader and perennial third place representative Lily, who very much has an experience advantage over the competition. There are very few SS UU players who have explored the depths of the tier in the way Lily has, and this can be seen in the teams she opts to bring; it is far more common to see multiple Pokemon that aren't even UU by usage than it probably should be. Despite this, Lily generally finds decent enough success; her overall SS record is less than stellar, but her recent form has been much stronger than before, and this is an overall less experienced pool than when SS was the current generation. It's not the most likely thing in the world that Lily blows the competition away and pulls out with a 7-0 record, as her UUPLs are typically middling, but it would be very reasonable to expect a decent record here.

• Team: 3-4 UUPL XI, 20-15 all-time UUPL, 5-0 all-time SS and 29-25 overall

lax is representing the Monsters and finds himself decisively ranked in 4th place. Lax's SS record is actually quite exceptional, boasting an impressive 5-0 within the tier on top of an overall great 20-15 UUPL record. His characteristic impulsive need to play his opponents the second the week goes up may also give him an advantage if he can successfully persuade them, as they will not have adequate time to prepare for whatever he decides to load on a given day. All jokes aside, lax is an extremely competent player and has a decent amount of SS UU experience; expect a solid record from him if he doesn't get lost in the sauce.

• Team: 1-5 all-time SS and 1-5 overall

QWILY is ranked in 5th and coincidentally also has five total losses in SS UU. Unfortunately this is marred by only having one win, which leads to less confidence overall. Nonetheless, QWILY has been in great form recently. His success in other tournaments has been noteworthy and he has the ever-vaunted support of managers umbry and Lyssa to help him out with grabbing some wins. Should QWILY find himself piloting the builds successfully, he could very well outperform this power ranking without a ton of trouble. We will see how things shake out for the VTubers.

• Team: 6-2 UUPL XI, 15-8 all-time UUPL, 18-14 all-time SS and 21-16 overall

KSt3ve has a great all-time UUPL and a solid all-time SS record, so his low ranking might surprise you. Indeed, it surprises me too. However, I do not believe this is an error; KSt3ve is a great SS mind and has had strong showings in the past, but that's the key issue—the past is in the past, and KSt3ve has not been playing the game a whole lot lately. It's going to take a fair bit of shaking off the rust before the rankers trust him to do well, but don't worry too much about him; KSt3ve is a very strong player when he's in form and can definitely exceed expectations given the chance. But the crust rule is the crust rule, and you've got to keep it in mind when deciding who's gonna be at the top of the standings.

• Team: 1-2 overall

If this was a username power ranking, ChrisPBacon would easily find himself at the top of the rankings. In SS UU, though, that isn't quite the case. ChrisPBacon is a solid player in SS as a generation but has very limited UU experience, with none in UU team tournaments to speak of. It's kind of hard to have anything to say about him as a result; stall isn't very good in SS UU and he's known for using it, so that's kind of rough, and uhh… well, he knows his way around a Pokemon game, so it'd be surprising if he doesn't win at least a couple. Being an unknown quantity can be nice though; nobody knows what to expect from you, so maybe he can exceed expectations! Or maybe not. Who knows?

• Team: N/A

Shiddin and fardin, as one SS ranker lovingly called this player, finds himself ranked last in the pool. It's not really a surprise, either. Fardin has no experience in UU team tournaments and limited SS support on his team. While he is an experienced and successful—albeit controversial—OM player, those have historically been hit or miss in UU team tournaments, and until Fardin proves he can swim there isn't a ton of reason for the rankers to believe in him.

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• Team: 5-3 UUPL XI, 22-17 all-time UUPL, 36-23 all-time SM and 53-30 overall

pinkdragontamer is the man right now; he is one of the most concretely aggressive players we have laid our eyes on, and his builds fit him and his playstyle seamlessly. Not only is it a safe bet that he will do well in any tour you throw him in right now, it's about as safe of a bet as possible in regards to any tour including SM UU. SM is where the dragon tamer really spread his wings and did his 10,000 hours of grinding; he laddered as much as anybody, he built as much as anybody, and he was as active as much as anybody. Still to this day he is offering fresh takes on the meta that nobody else does, and even though his pop-off definitely started after SM as a generation concluded, his SM prowess is as sharp as ever, and he shows no signs of stopping his spree of dominance.

pdt's teams are by no means predictable, but his archetype is; he is an offense spammer through and through and will never touch a fat team till the day he dies in a tour game. This isn't as exploitable as it sounds, though, as part of his brilliance is his consistent ability to muscle through potentially poor defensive matchups with aggression and maintaining momentum, that's what pdt is all about. For someone to beat him, they will have to do something he doesn't expect, and he's usually in his opponent's head rent free.

• Team: 6-3 UUPL XI, 28-18 all-time UUPL, 33-17 all-time SM and 55-39 overall

Robert Junior is among the top of the SM pool every single UU tour, and there is no reason for that to change here. He pilots everything well, he plays how he's supposed to, and he has a stockpile of teams he will forever remain unpunished for reusing. The world would have to explode for rob to truly flop to an overwhelmingly negative record, and I don't see the world simply exploding any time within this tournament.

rob's teams can range between anything that is viable within the tier, most commonly leaning on Mega Aggron / Mega Aerodactyl type bulky offenses with an Amoonguss/Krook and very high Latias usage (for good reason). His stuff is consistent, and he usually throws in one hyper offense per tour or so, with stall being in his arsenal as well if necessary. His consistency in reusing can make him potentially predictable, but in this tier, good teams are good, and he will definitely pilot his good teams well. Punishing robjr will be extremely difficult, and we will find out in this tour to see if many people are up to the task.

• Team: 3-2 UUPL XI, 27-21 all-time UUPL, 12-9 all-time SM and 37-29 overall

kumi is in SM this time around, with seemingly being bored of SS for this UU tour (understandably so). While SM mignt not be as fresh in kumi's mind, they are a player and builder worthy of applaud in any tier they step into. Let alone a UU tier they were extremely active and prevalent in during current generation. There are basically no doubts that our former tier leader will step into this monstrous pool and put up some stellar results, as they are one of the most consistent performers you can find.

With that being said it won't be an easy task to put up numbers, and their dominance isn't an absolute given, as they will need to stay on their toes. This tier can use an active kumiko, as it should be expected for some new things to see the light of day in their games, fresh ideas, fresh takes on a now rather old metagame. Their fat pink blob usage will be sky high and he will remain unpunished (probably), navigating around the physical Fighting-types and Pursuit with ease.

• Team: 1-5 UUPL XI, 18-21 all-time UUPL, 3-7 all-time SM and 22-25 overall

Indigo Plateau is coming off of a rough last UUPL, and on top of that his activity in recent memory has been at an all-time low. This bodes poorly for his projected success in this tier with a pool this strong. With that being said, SM is the current UU tier leader's starting point in UnderUsed, and he provided support and solid play on numerous occasions when it was current gen. On his side he has one of the most valuable support options possible within the tier in longtime friend Pak. Whether IP is rusty or not, he has Pak to hold him accountable and keep him in check with any tier developments and even outright provide builds if necessary, though IP has always generally been self sufficient.

Indigo Plateau can very realistically put up a stellar record despite the pool's strength, but it is somewhat difficult to make that assumption given the context of his recent activity, recent performances, and how long it's been since we've seen him play or support SM UU too actively.

• Team: 15-5 all-time UUPL, 9-6 all-time SM and 23-12 overall

odr has an incredible 15-5 all-time UUPL record and a solid 9-6 all-time SM record to fall back on, making it clear that when it comes to this tier, he knows his stuff. On top of this, odr has support from manager vivalospride, who will build all kinds of trash for him to use, almost certainly centered around Incredibly Good Pokemon like Mega Beedrill and Zeraora. Despite this, odr finds himself in fifth place; this should really speak to the strength of the pool, because I'm having trouble finding flaws to poke at here. The main fear with odr is that he and viv get lost in the sauce and bring something that just doesn't work, but if he loads up good teams, he knows how to click the right buttons perfectly fine and will almost certainly perform well for the Friends.

• Team: 8-14 all-time UUPL, 4-11 all-time SM and 8-14 overall

Lycans is a very interesting slot in this tournament, as he finds himself in one of (if not) the strongest pools you can find, after a very long break at that. He is noted to be truly one of the greatest UU performers of all time. It remains to be seen as to whether he will seem rusty or not, and he has historically needed building support. With it being literal years probably since he's played an SM UU game, the emphasis on his support potentially just being Bouff borrowing from the archive could be detrimental, as Lycans is someone that might need a refresher or two in terms of what teams are winning and what are not in this tier, and while Bouff's archive of collected teams is helpful, his direct SM knowledge not being as high as some of his other tiers might be an issue of some sort.

With that being said I find it unlikely that Lycans's tour truly explodes and he doesn't perform whatsoever, but at a 15.5k price tag, it might be difficult for him to live up to it fully, with potential rust to shake off and lacking a barclay SMer like Pak or IP to give him full-fledged building support week to week.

• Team: 3-4 UUPL XI, 11-15 all-time UUPL, 26-27 all-time SS and 26-27 overall

Xiri is as quiet and friendly as he is dangerous, and he has proven time and time again that he knows his way around SM UU. From that stellar ribbon run years back to his post-gen performances, Xiri has found himself manning the SM ship over and over and usually does quite well in it. His overall record is an unfortunately slightly negative 26-27, but that's also more than 50 SM UU team tournament games played, which is truly an astonishing number for a gen that's still pretty recent. Despite all of this, Xiri does find himself in 7th; the pool above him is quite tough, and Xiri has proven to be less dominant in particularly strong pools. It is likely that he will get wins and perform fine, but it does not seem incredibly likely that he has a standout season. Keen SM enjoyers will surely be excited to find out how this year's UUPL unfolds for him.

• Team: 4-9 all-time UUPL, 13-18 all-time SM and 13-18 overall

etern is a consistent SM pilot with both past individual and team tour performances to back up his placement in this pool. With that being said, he doesn't have the consistent dominance factor that a lot of others have in this pool. etern is generally consistent as a pilot across the entirety of his time playing SM UU, but there definitely has been one or two stinker tours for him as well; not that it's alarming, as most people do have stinkers. The thing that is slightly alarming is that etern does need full building support unless his managers intend for him to primarily reuse, which, SM is a tier where that is completely plausible. But with how strong the pool is, fresh builds could give him an edge that managers would enjoy having. The problem is that his team lacks direct building support aside from manager Estarossa, Askov, and Highways, none of whom have had specifically dominant results in SM, as most of their careers took off after. Estarossa's building ideals also do not align with what is good in SM much at all, nor do they align with the other two names I mentioned as potential SM support.

What will happen with the builds in this slot remain to be seen; etern can be set up for either success or failure. It is in his managers' hands and his own hands to control his destiny.

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• Team: 6-2 UUPL XI, 33-16 all-time UUPL, 40-16 all-time ORAS and 52-24 overall

If you know literally anything about ORAS UU at all or have even heard anyone speak about the tier within the past five years, you know exactly why Pak is at the #1 spot. It's not even a competition at this stage; this is an uncontested position that literally everyone who ranked ORAS agreed with. I could write all about Pak's accomplishments like his 40-16 ORAS record, or his complete dearth of negative seasons, or his top bench, but there's a much simpler way to sum this position up. When asked to rank the ORAS pool, one submitter filled in the #1 slot with "did you even need to ask?".

• Team: 4-3 UUPL XI, 20-24 all-time UUPL, 25-25 all-time ORAS and 30-29 overall

dingbat claims the #2 slot in this ORAS pool after a series of strong recent performances in the tier. It seems as though ever since the Conkeldurr ban, dingbat's stock has just repeatedly gone up. Maybe it's because his trademark crack offenses are more effective now, or maybe he just enjoys the tier more, or maybe he's got more free time after maxing his OSRS Ironman, or maybe he just got better. Who's to say for sure? All we know is that dingbat has been winning quite a bit lately. Being a strong, self-sufficient player, it would not be a surprise to see another successful season for him.

• Team: 2-0 UUPL XI, 2-0 all-time UUPL and 4-2 overall

London Beats people in ORAS UU, apparently, so much so that he has found his way into the #3 spot without a single ORAS game on the UU sheet. London is a successful ORAS OU player that decided to give UU a whirl in the most recent ORAS PL to much success and quickly grew an affinity for the tier, now frequently chatting about the tier and building in it. That's already a great sign, but when you combine those traits with a player that knows what they're doing, you've got something dangerous. It's hard to say a ton about London's results because ultimately in terms of UU he has few, but the ranking is certainly not unjustified given recent form. With a little support, given he's still quite new to the tier overall, expect a great showing from London Beats.

• Team: 4-3 UUPL XI, 8-10 all-time UUPL, 9-5 all-time ORAS and 29-28 overall

Lyssa returns to ORAS to give herself another shot in the tier following a great 5-3 performance in the most recent UUSD, picking up the mantle from partner in crime umbry who played the tier in last year's UUPL to slightly less success than usual. The duo knows ORAS quite well and obviously work well together, with manager Bouff knowing his way around ORAS UU too, so the support is certainly there if Lyssa doesn't feel confident in self-sufficiency. Her all-time ORAS record is an excellent 9-5, and although this pool is quite experienced in the tier, she is very clearly capable of holding her own. The VTubers should be able to hold their own just fine with Lyssa in ORAS.

• Team: 7-2 UUPL XI, 22-18 all-time UUPL, 24-22 all-time ORAS and 24-22 overall

Killintime's ranking spread is, quite frankly, one of the most absurd things I've ever seen. Seven players voted on Killintime's power ranking position, and everyone ranked him in a different spot, meaning he had votes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, AND 7th. I don't think that's ever happened and I don't know if it ever will again. On the topic of numbers, Killintime is returning from a stellar 7-2 UUPL and has a lot of experience in the tier; assuming he plays for the full tournament, Killintime will cross 50 ORAS UU sheet games during this UUPL. 5th place is surprisingly harsh given his recent success, though the players above KT have plenty of success of their own, so it's understandable enough. If he can recreate the lightning in a bottle of last year, maybe he'll even get 4th next year.

• Team: 4-2 UUPL XI, 13-13 all-time UUPL, 18-13 ORAS all-time and 29-23 overall

The CEO of playing on a Monday, Chaitanya finds himself back for another year of ORAS UU. His overall ORAS record is pretty great at a nice 18-13, giving him plenty of experience and the clear capability to win. The lower overall ranking is likely a result of Chait's brief ORAS hiatus, having played SV in last year's UUPL—though he did play it successfully! The ORAS meta has changed a lot in the past couple years, so it'll be interesting to see how Chaitanya adapts to it. Nonetheless, he has shown the clear ability to do so in the past and has all the power in the world to overcome this ranking, but the recent success of players above him makes them an easier bet.

• Team: 1-6 UUPL XI, 11-19 all-time UUPL, 0-6 all-time ORAS and 26-25 overall

Highways has certainly had something of a fall from grace recently. A couple of years ago Highways went on an undefeated god run in ORAS in the UU Invitational, solidifying himself as a solid player in the tier, but his success since then has been… kinda nonexistent. Part of that is down to him not playing much recently, but that's already not a good sign. Highways's overall ORAS team tour record is a brutal 0-6 which, alongside a rough 11-19 overall UUPL record, does not instil the most confidence. Now in fairness, a lot of that is in the past before he improved as a player, so maybe it's slightly misrepresentative, but it does explain the lower ranking if nothing else. At the very least, if he can recapture the strength he held in that time a year or two ago, Highways could overperform.

• Team: 1-1 all-time UUPL, 4-2 all-time ORAS and 9-6 overall

The Strap actually has a decent overall ORAS record at 4-2, especially decent for someone ranked last. What he does lack, however, is experience—every player in this tournament is more experienced than him in terms of raw ORAS UU play by a country mile, and that's a gap that can be hard to overcome in these old generations. The Strap is a competent player and has some help from Amukamara and pdt, who have some solid ORAS knowledge themselves, so he's certainly not completely screwed, but it is hard to bet on him over the more experienced players in this pool.

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• Team: 6-2 UUPL XI, 22-17 all-time UUPL, 30-19 all-time BW and 44-30 overall

Liam has been consistently dominant in BW UU, posting the second best record in UUPL and the best in BWPL while also throwing in a win in UUSA vs the world. His UUFPL record, while not the most relevant to this, is also an absurd 20-3 or something. In a pool with a fair number of non-mainers or people new to BW UU, he is a very reliable choice due to his experience in the format and the sheer number of times he has farmed people unfamiliar with the tier (for instance, bringing the world's most hilariously botted team vs sensei axew's hyper offense last UUPL). It would be quite surprising if Liam does not finish with at least five wins.

• Team: 45-22 all-time UUPL, 23-14 all-time BW and 53-41 overall

Going 0-6 in his last UU subforum tour (UUSD IV) didn't stop the team from ranking watashi very highly in this pool. He's currently playing BW OU in SPL and has been associated with BW UU in the past; for instance, in 2021's UUPL he posted the best record in a pool containing SoulWind, Liam, Punny, and choolio among others. The talent is definitely there, but he hasn't shown it in a while and seems to lack any notable support on this team. However, the rankers expect him to turn back the clock against a BW UU pool lacking some of the big names from the past.

• Team: 2-6 UUPL XI, 36-29 all-time UUPL, 6-6 all-time BW and 43-39 overall

rs (formerly Shiba) bounced back from a poor 2-6 UUPL by putting up the best BW record in UUSD. Prior to 2023, he was known as a very solid ADV UU player and even won the current gen UU ribbon. Coming right after this performance, the 2023 UUPL shattered a lot of his "AURA" to borrow from NBA Twitter. He lost crucial semis and finals games in BW. Now, he's on a "farewell tour" and has a chance to regain his prior form in UU subforum tours, including a four-year stretch of 5-4 -> 6-2 -> 5-2 -> 6-3. He'll have the support of GoldCat as well, though admittedly a downgrade from the Liam support he received during last year's playoffs. Outcomes for this slot could go in nearly any direction, though the raters expect positive things.

• Team: 24-13 all-time UUPL, 6-2 all-time BW and 38-24 overall

Gama is a very strong player with a history of success in UU tours; with a few scattered 1-2s, he's finished positive in almost every full season he has played. He's a well-respected OU player with an off-beat style that uses less common Pokemon or sets without dipping into the "cheese" territory. Rankers may be withholding judgment due to his perceived lack of experience in BW UU. I actually wasn't expecting to find any either, but he went 5-2 in BW UU in 2022's UUPL. He's ranked a little lower than I expect; perhaps people question his motivation or support, but he has Alkione and some UU all-rounders like Askov on the team and hasn't needed that much motivation to succeed in the past. 4th is hardly a bad ranking though, and time will tell whether he posts another strong full-season campaign or gets thrown in another tier after a few weeks.

• Team: 3-4 UUPL XI, 4-8 all-time UUPL, 6-9 all-time BW and 14-25 overall

Perhaps one of the players on this list with the most to prove, Fakee has shown significant interest in BW UU the last two years but hasn't yet had a dominant campaign. He finished slightly negative in both UUPL and UUSD, though he did notch a win over Punny in semis of UUSD before winning in finals as well. He finished slightly positive in BWPL this year too; given his prior tours hovering around .500, the ranking of 5th makes sense. He now teams with Bouff after defeating America's rs in a mald-inducing series of UUSA vs the World, and perhaps the active support and prep environment of the VTubers can help elevate Fakee above his ranking. However, his prior UU tours include losses to people with little BW UU experience like jay and dex, so the floor for this season might be rather low as well.

• Team: 2-3 overall

There isn't too much to say about Monai in UU. His only prior experience on the UU sheet was a 2-3 UUSD campaign in which he was forced to play GSC and RBY. However, Monai did go 6-2 in a recent UUFPL playing SV UU, including a win over pif. What does this say about BW UU? Basically nothing. Realistically, Monai was likely drafted for this slot due to his experience in BW OU, where he's known as a tryhard and builder despite struggling badly last SPL. He will have the support of Punny and potentially LpZ + col49 too; Punny immediately makes this the best-supported BW slot. However, I will say Punny's teams are often fairly unique to his playstyle and aren't the easiest to pick up and use. But in a relatively unproven bottom of the pool, the Friends' strong support likely convinced the rankers to elevate him above the other two BW UU neophytes.

• Team: N/A

"Fate of the universe on the line… the Martians have the death beam pointed at Earth… give me FEANIIX," FrankJosh recently declared on the popular UUPN show First Take. A long-time advocate for the German, FrankJosh saw Feaniix go positive for him in UUFPL and liked it enough to run it back. Despite being a long-time staple in BW tiers/tours, Feaniix actually has no UU sheet games prior to this tour, so this will be his debut. He'll have the support of his UUFPL opponent dingbat along with the moral support of any Germans that brigade the UUPL thread. However, his newness, along with a failure to really break out in any of the other tiers where he's played BW before, leads the rankers to be rather skeptical of this slot.

• Team: 7-6 all-time UUPL and 11-13 overall

freezai has always hovered right around average in UU tours, going 2-3, 3-3, and 2-2 in his last few tours. While I wouldn't put him in the top half of the pool, it's frankly a surprise to see rankers turn just this negative about him, since he's a very proven OU player who has explored plenty of lower tiers through his YouTube career. He will also have Lily's support, leaving him not totally listless here. Perhaps people simply think he has the least motivation to win? Regardless of the reason, the YouTuber now receives some free thumbnail content from the low ranking and a chance to prove people wrong.

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• Team: 4-2 UUPL XI, 4-2 all-time UUPL, 9-3 all-time DPP and 12-4 overall

Current gen phenom and ribbon finalist FrankJosh enters this year's DPP pool as the top dog. With a truly elite UU sheet record of 12-4, hari has found success in every subforum team tournament he's played. Rankers aren't concerned about a mediocre to poor SCL performance—the DPP pool doesn't contain many pdt/McMeghan/Punny/umbry-level names, and even if it did, hari has shown the ability to defeat the best of the best in DPP with 4-2 and 5-1 performances in the tier so far. He's expressed some desire to move on from DPP in the past but seems to be back into it after a long break. Motivation could be a concern in a seven-week tour plus playoffs, especially when your only testing option is avarice loading Walrein and Hippopotas. Even more impressive is that he's self sufficient, building his own unique and very fun teams. Overall, expectations are deservedly very high for FrankJosh.

• Team: 2-5 UUPL XI, 6-11 all-time UUPL, 10-9 all-time DPP and 15-25 overall

Despite going 2-5 and 4-4 in the past year's two big UU tournaments, LpZ is considered one of the best in DPP UU players around. He showed his upside with a recent 4-1 performance in DPPPL, with wins over a great collection of opponents in rs, Torchic, Heysup, and fatty. Furthermore, his bad UUPL was spent in BW and ADV, as he teamed with hariyana grande. He's known as a tireless lower tier grinder, to the point where BW PU is one of his most-known tiers. This shows he has very high motivation and lots of experience under his belt—although a UU sheet record of 15-25 is concerning. He varies his playstyle a lot and isn't afraid to bring more aggressive picks, as he showed in a victorious UUSA vs The World series featuring lead Hariyama and Custap Weezing, or the standard Venu / Milo / Regi bulky teams.

• Team: 6-3 UUPL XI, 6-6 all-time UUPL, 9-8 all-time DPP and 14-15 overall

The French rising star leaves the Smashers after putting up an elite 6-3 record to join the team that defeated them, Lily's Idols. His positive attitude and high motivation will surely make him a fun teammate, and the rankers think he'll also be a successful one. He became self sufficient in DPP UU very quickly, or at least sufficient with Donny P's support (which may follow him to the Idols, among two to four other chats).

• Team: 4-2 UUPL XI, 10-3 all-time UUPL, 1-2 all-time DPP and 17-15 overall

After playing (current gen) SS and BW in the past two UUPLs, Expulso slides into DPP for this tour with dcecntly high expectations. He has little background in DPP UU, with a limited sample size of UUSD (1-2) and DPPPL (2-0) along with a loss to LpZ in UUSA vs The World. He does have some background in DPP NU and OU, though it's of limited relevance. The main factor that convinced the rankers was likely a 4-2 effort when he picked up BW UU last UUPL or his generally high activity in the UU community. However, with limited support on the VTubers, he'll have to become self sufficient as a builder quickly.

• Team: N/A

Not much at all is known about Highlord; his only DPP UU resume seems to be a Top 24 finish (i.e. winning three rounds) in the most recent DPP UU Cup. However, he's proven his talent for picking up metas in a recent SCL, where he learned SV Ubers from scratch, along with winning BKC's prestigious DPP Ubers Invitational (and a cash prize of roughly $1000). This all gives him a very high ceiling; he could be the best player in this group. The floor, of course, comes from the fact that he's played probably ten DPP UU games in his life. However, if he's motivated and figures out the builder, anything is possible.

• Team: 0-1 all-time DPP and 1-2 overall

Spitfire Arcanine's only DPP experience seems to come from his nickname corresponding to an A+-tier Pokemon—always a good omen when you're picking up a tier. Even in UUFPL it doesn't seem like he's played DPP, though it may give him some passing familiarity with the tier. With a record of 1-2 on the UU sheet as well, asking him to be a starter for a full season is questionable. He's a solid enough player that has played well so far this SPL, so (as I seem to say in half these writeups…) if he becomes familiar with the tier, who knows. However, it's rare to see him playing old generations in any PL, so he may even have some gaps in knowledge for DPP mechanics, not to mention the intricacies of DPP UU as a whole. The Smashers also seem to have little DPP support, though players like rob and rs have likely played it in Classic before, and they'll have Micciu teams from last year. Nonetheless, the rankers have some hope in him, ranking him above known UU community member Estarossa.

• Team: 2-5 UUPL XI, 10-10 all-time UUPL and 27-17 overall

Estarossa has evidently moved on from GSC to DPP, and based on his UU discord takes he's very likely to bring Qwilfish with him. Will he make it a whole season in DPP? His opinions on this tier have seemed quite negative in the past, alleging that the poisonous puffer fish ruins the tier with its mid-game Spikes (and, I assume, also complaining about Umbreon being OU for no reason). Known as a tilt-prone player, it's quite possible that he remains dissatisfied with this meta and either does poorly or switches back to GSC. However, his all-time resume in UU is very strong, with a 27-17 record in UU's teamtours. This is even after a 2-5 performance last year; if he can regain his prior form he may go on a hot streak like he once did in GSC. Rankers may be reacting strongly to his performance last UUPL, but the peaks of "The Show" do seem to be a while ago now.

• Team: N/A

How many of you know who Kaboom is? Joke's on you, because I actually do. Kaboom is an LCer, mostly known for playing BW, but he may be doing the SV seasonal rn. He went 4-2 last LCPL and also beat reyscarface in round 1 of this OST. I think he has been around for a while. That's basically it, though; outside of LC he has no lower tier experience at all, not even a suspect test I'm pretty confident. tko feels very confident that he can plug-and-play one of "his guys" based on his success in RUSD. While tko is a good, successful manager, UUPL is undeniably a tough tour to make your debut in. The Monsters also went 1-6 last UUPL, meaning there won't really be any good teams to pull from prior versions of the tour. Rankers don't seem to see any reason to expect anything different this year. While that sounds bad, this can also be a blessing; someone with no expectations that isn't part of the UU community really has nothing to lose. DPP's also a scouting/tendency-heavy tier, and there's absolutely 0 information on him.

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• Team: 5-2 UUPL XI, 46-28 all-time UUPL, 29-8 ADV all-time and 67-47 overall

As one of the most tenured players in the entire tour, Heysup looks to continue his high-end performance in ADV UU. He's been farming the tier for basically years now in every tournament he's played it in, and while this pool seems to be much stronger than usual, it doesn't seem like he has any intention of stopping here. His builds have historically been known to be on the wackier side, something that's been written ad nauseam in past power rankings for him, but many of his games seem to end up being lopsided because his team just happens to have something that no one ever uses but has a perfect matchup in that particular game. Even if every player below him on this list is perfectly capable of beating him, his performances make it easy to see why he's the best player on the UU team tour sheet.

• Team: 5-2 UUPL XI, 26-16 all-time UUPL, 12-8 all-time ADV and 40-32 overall

Regarded as one of the few players who can play more than two UU oldgens at a level of expertise, Garay makes his return to ADV after dipping into SM in UUWC and skipping out on UUSD. For the tours he did play in ADV for last year, he absolutely cleared, and he's known to be one of the best in high-stakes situations. While he's been noted to be a little less active recently, his passion for the tier is one few possess, and if he takes on the tournament with full effort, he'll undoubtedly put up essential results for the Monsters.

• Team: 5-2 UUPL XI, 31-33 all-time UUPL, 15-14 all-time ADV and 52-44 overall

While typically confined within DPP UU as of late, fatty is known as one of the main driving forces of ADV UU historically. He's known to have strong opinions on how the tier should be played, and like Heysup, he isn't afraid to step outside of the bounds of building that few are comfortable crossing. He did note that this year may be his last time truly playing the game, so with his skills he should be able to make his final performance one to place his name as one of the all-time greats.

• Team: 4-4 UUPL XI, 4-4 all-time UUPL, 7-2 all-time ADV and 13-8 overall

Originally, Xrn made it evident that he didn't want to play ADV anymore after his stellar performance in UUSD last year, seeming to be tired of the tier's nuances. However, our benevolent tier leader doesn't give a shit about any of that, so he finds his way back here again. Xrn put up big numbers in basically every tournament he played in last year, and his understanding of the game makes him an easy retain to put back in a tier for the Idols, which is important as high end ADV players tend to be more costly than the specialists of other tiers. While he doesn't have as much support as he did in the last tournament, he should still be able to go toe to toe with anyone in the pool.

• Team: 6-2 UUPL XI, 15-16 all-time UUPL, 8-2 all-time ADV and 15-16 overall

Last year when writing the rankings, I cast a lot of doubt onto shiloh, who seemed extremely out of place in the tier. He then proceeded to farm everyone with ease, so I'll do my best to not eat my words this time. He showed great capabilities in piloting different styles last year and didn't seem to lose off any blatant misunderstandings of the tier. To make things even better for him, he also has a good support system for teams and ideas in LpZ and BigFatMantis, so there won't be any shortage of builds for him to work with.

• Team: 5-3 UUPL XI, 5-3 all-time UUPL, 10-5 all-time ADV and 15-12 overall

Parpar makes his grand return to ADV after a dive into SV UU last year where he made one of the funniest plays of the tournament in the semifinals. He's settled himself into the playerbase after integrating himself in the tier about a year and a half ago and has made himself into a household name. However, he faces stiff competition from those above him, and his support is a disinterested rs, whose attitude towards the tiering process of ADV UU has been less than favorable. Expectations for him aren't necessarily low, but it may be difficult for him to truly cement himself as one of the best this tour.

• Team: 2-1 all-time UUPL, 6-3 all-time ADV and 11-7 overall

The newest face in this pool, Chaos2333 is a rising star who made his name through a solid 5-2 performance in the most recent UUSD. He showed some impressive gameplay for a newcomer, given that ADV isn't the easiest tier to truly get a grasp on, and mostly brought teams that he could pilot sufficiently. However, it mostly ends there for him for hard results, and the pool is objectively on another level here. While he does have support from Bouff and Expulso, he may have to step it up to another echelon if he wants to show that last year wasn't a fluke.

• Team: 3-8 all-time UUPL, 10-9 all-time ADV and 11-12 overall

Everyone loves clowning on Hyoga for some reason, so they unsurprisingly end up on this list at the very bottom. They haven't played ADV UU since UUPL 2022, and the tier has gone through many developments with the additions of Arcanine and Lapras. Don't let these factors (and their shitposts) fool you, though, as they are a solid player that has put up good performances in the past. They're also known to put in a solid effort in their preparation, and coupled with Hantsuki's own support as a builder with a unique spin on the tier, they could have a good season. With that being said, the Sisters would do well to ensure that they play their games sober, for the season could end disastrously for them otherwise.

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• Team: 5-2 UUPL XI, 6-4 all-time UUPL, 11-4 all-time GSC and 12-6 overall

Real FV13 has been been arguably the most dominant prescence in GSC UU tournaments for the past year. He has competed, and done well, in most of the GSC UU tournaments in recent times, going 5-2 in UUPL XI and 6-2 in UUSD IV. He has also done very well in individual tournaments, winning the GSC UU Cup and making finals of the GSC UU Open. Real FV is solid and consistent in battle, while his building patterns are unpredictable and creative. FV is able to build his own teams and has support in that front from Bouff. Not all of FV's inventions are hits, but he generally has more hits than misses. Who knows what inventions FV will bring to the table this year. Hopefully, he is not rewarded for absolutely throwing vs Gyarados in the teambuilder. In all seriousness, Real FV13 is almost certainly going to add UUPL XII to his already stacked GSC UU resume.

• Team: 4-5 all-time UUPL, 18-14 all-time GSC and 18-14 overall

dawnbuster is undoubtedly a legend of GSC UU. Dawn has been responsible for an untold number of sets, cores, and team archetypes in his tenure in the tier and has shown time and time again that he's fully capable of piloting his creations to devastating effect. After a lengthy year away from Smogon, Dawn's back and ready to take on UUPL full force. After a bit of a lackluster start going 3-4 in UUSD IV, he swept away the competition in GSCPL IV with an astounding 8-1 record in GSC UU. Dawn is certainly capable of obtaining an excellent record all on his own but has both manager col49 and teammate BigFatMantis at the ready to assist in testing some of his more creative ideas. Innovative, adaptable, and ruthless in battle, Dawn is well deserving of the moniker CEO of GSC UU. As long as he can shake the nerves of being on the big stage again (and avoid trolling too hard), it's certain he'll once again show just how dynamic GSC can be in the hands of an expert.

• Team: N/A

pp's splash town, also known as "the Shuckle thread", has emerged as one of the most solid and dedicated GSC UU players in recent times, with him playing and teambuilding, even outside of tours, more than anyone except dawnbuster. Speaking of dawnbuster, pp is indeed a student of his, with the two sparring in friendlies constantly. pp has competed in several tournaments in the past year and gone positive in every one of them. His most recent tournament was a 5-1 ALTPL II, so he is in great shape right now. pp has been pushing the metagame forward with his innovative teams, and on the battlefield he is a force to be reckoned with. pp is one of the more enthusiastic GSC UU players in general, with him putting in a lot of effort in every tour he plays. All in all, pp is a strong contender in this pool, especially if his opponents happen to load the wrong Granbull set.

• Team: 3-4 UUPL XI, 13-11 all-time UUPL, 13-11 all-time GSC and 13-11 overall

d0nut is back for his fourth season of GSC UU in UUPL. An experienced GSC OU player and SPL manager, d0nut gave UU a try in UUPL VII, and has played in two of the three UUPLs since then. He went positive in his first two seasons, including a 6-3 in UUPL XV. He did, however, finish the last UUPL with a 3-4 record. d0nut's biggest hurdle is going to be the fact that he hasn't touched the tier since the last UUPL, so he may be a bit rusty and not be up to date with some of the metagame trends. The tier has evolved in several ways in the past year, especially with introduction of Aerodactyl and Muk. This is made worse by the fact that he seems to lack good GSC support on his team. With some catching up, though, d0nut is definitely capable of doing great in this overall weaker pool. He also gets bonus points for having a Bayleef avatar.

• Team: 4-3 UUPL XI, 8-8 all-time UUPL, 8-8 all-time GSC and 26-15 overall

Torchic, the man who has supposedly made Curse Chansey work, is back to play GSC UU in UUPL for the third year in a row. Torchic lands in the middle of this year's top-heavy GSC UU pool. He is most known for his endeavors in various RBY tiers, but RBY UU is nowhere to be seen in UUPL, so the other boomer tier it is. While his performances in the past two UUPLs were just about average, Torchic is not someone to be taken lightly. Similarly to FV, Torchic's building patterns are unpredictable, and he is good at catching his opponents off guard with various techs. This makes him a tricky person to prep for. He is also a fine if average person on the battlefield, knowing how to pilot his teams and how to make the right moves. Torchic is certainly capable of doing well in this pool with enough effort.

• Team: N/A

SANKE CARP is seemingly the newest player in this UUPL pool, having only picked this tier up in the last six months or so. A member of the SPR crowd, SANKE CARP is a GSC/ADV Randbats aficionado who was introduced to the GSC lower tiers by MrSoup, who then bought SANKE CARP in GSC PL. SANKE CARP did well in that tournament, winning several UU and NU games for the wonderful Bayleefs. SANKE CARP is lower on this list because he simply has less experience than the other players. He also had a disappointing ALTPL II very recently and has admitted to being burned out on the game. He may also struggle in the teambuilder, especially considering he seems to have no good GSC support. SANKE CARP has strong fundamentals, though, which are likely to carry him to a decent enough season. SANKE CARP is definitely someone to look out for; he could even send someone to the losers half of this pool.

• Team: 8-10 all-time UUPL, 10-14 overall

innovamania is a jack of all trades, master of none. He seems to play like every single oldgen lower tier from the first five gens. In previous UUPLs he has played tiers like DPP UU, and this time he is taking a crack at GSC UU. innovamania is near the bottom of the pool primarily because of a lack of experience. He seems to be the player with the least GSC UU tour experience in this pool, only having a few scattered games in the tier and not a full season of something. He is a fine enough player with decent fundamentals, though, and he has support from his manager Estarossa, who has a lot of experience with this metagame. His lack of high level experience is definitely his biggest hurdle in this pool, especially when going up versus the higher ranked players.

• Team: N/A

At least one person had to come in last, and Lialiabeast is the person who wound up there. Lialiabeast has only played in a few tournaments, and he hasn't done that well in most of them. His team choices can be questionable, and he doesn't seem as confident or consistent in game. However, the potential is definitely there. Lialiabeast has been noticeably improving recently; his play has looked a little more impressive in recent tours such as ALTPL. He has played this tier in enough tournaments to know what is going on, he is not a complete outsider to GSC UU. Lialiabeast has been on the same teams as some good GSC UU players, like pp's splash town in GSCPL, meaning he has probably picked up information from them. It will be tough for him to match up versus the top of the higher ranked players, but I can see him taking a few games with enough hard work. pp's splash town in particular should be careful, tee hee hee.

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These two cover basically every generation of UU and are the perfect mix of both activity and skill, with neither of them going exclusively in one direction. I think umbry is one of the greatest UU minds oat and Bouff is one of the most tryhardy tryhards oat. With all this being said, I think they've already made a mistake in not buying either one of themselves, with the brokenness of manager buys and the viability of both users in their respective pools being very high, and there is a chance star power won't be as readily available for them when it would've otherwise been served on a platter with manager buy mechanics. They surely have a plan though, and I have no doubt it's a well-enough-thought-out one.

This ranking is pretty heavily carried by Lily and the fact that they are reigning champions. Idk anything about zoe and whether or not she offers much of anything to a UUPL, no shade I just literally have no fucking clue. Lily is of course good and strong and very helpful in the past two generations and some BW. I think there isn't a massive amount of flop potential, and the fact that this is the reigning champs bodes well for their chances in this tournament.

These guys are wildcards with a very high ceiling. They've had true success and they've had true failure, and the past success combined with mence being basically in his prime is what carried them above the managers below them. There is flop potential but there is also very real pop off potential, and really I think it all starts with how much mence cares. If he's Shiftrying every single game then he can only rly care so much, and if he doesn't care much I don't see them hitting their ceiling at least. They will form their usual Sisters core and definitely won't be ass on paper regardless at this point probably.

Zero playoff appearances as a solidified manager isn't great for vivalospride, and every Friends iteration led by him has failed in the grand scheme of things. With that being said these two can easily deserve being even higher up the list, with the two of them covering most UU gens effectively and having a lot of experience between them. No doubt viv will tryhard with the Friends under his reign and col will be his usual reliable self. The sky can be the limit but the floor can also be low; we shall see what route ends up being taken, as I think viv and col are a duo with promise for sure, and col knows what it takes for players to win and will balance out the team nicely guaranteed. Unfortunately history points towards a negative outcome for the friends, but it is all in their control to change it, and with a valuable enough manager buy and hopefully col keeping idiot viv in check, they can do it.

This pair is definitely a bit of a curveball compared to what the Monsters usually run with. With that being said Garay is big time and the Monsters foundation at its core is very good, I can't imagine a Monsters roster that just sucks ass, even without Carson at the helm. I'm sure they'll successfully take from prior Monster iterations and have a fair amount of success, but they definitely aren't as heavy of a playoff lock as a Carson-led Monsters would be assumed to be. Their tier coverage could be worse, but the fact that their support isn't as built in as previous iterations is something that could hurt them in worst case scenario. Even though these two are first-time UUPL managers (to my knowledge), it doesn't feel like it as much as they're inheriting the Monsters foundation and probably can just flip through numerous UUPLs for a free draft plan that still works. Their activity and passion is in question though and bumps them down the rankings quite a bit.

Respect must be shown for the Smashers franchise, since despite no rings, this franchise is almost always competitive. With that being said, this duo is weighed down simply by the fact that it's 2024. Shiba has quit mons like 12 times atp, and Noah legit hasn't played a single Pokemon game since 2020. As a manager pair they have the tier coverage with Shiba alone, and the charisma of Noah is definitely noteworthy, but in 2024 Shiba's activity level surely isn't high enough to qualify as prime Accel level support in any given tier. If Shiba and Noah are motivated enough, they are a duo that can make for a last fairytale run for this Smashers franchise for sure, the potential is there. But the chances of them reaching their ceiling don't seem high enough with their assumed motivation levels.

This core has an extremely high ceiling, with pdt being one of the most valuable self-buys possible in this tournament, easily. Fc is a respectable pilot and user but in a UU tournament might be lacking the support characteristic that is ideal of a great manager. He is good enough to provide input probably in several generations, though, and pdt will cover several tiers in terms of support. The main reason these two are below the manager pairs above them is that they are first-time managers in UUPL, and it is hard to expect greatness with nothing to go off of; we know what they are as players, but what about managers? idk. It's easy to assume pdt will carry his weight and Fc will at least be active and charismatic. Who knows what else to assume from there though, perhaps their tiers not covered by pdt will suffer, or maybe not, but these two definitely have a high ceiling and can easily skyrocket up this list next year if they stay together.

Last but I guess also least, these two are forum grinders. They know UU inside and out but tier coverage wise they don't complement each other as well as they should really. That combined with their ceiling seeming lower than most other pairs is why they rank last. Monky and Esta both know SV/SS well at the least, and Esta vaguely knows some older gens until you fall down to GSC, which he is very passionate about. There's a lot of very top-heavy pools that they will have to either support themselves or get lucky and find support for. That being said these two are new managers to the UUPL format, similarly to the duo above. So, there isn't a lot to go off of, as well as lack of a super high-value manager buy between them. There is a real world where this team does very well, but I think of all the manager pairs in the tour this is the one that it's safest to expect to be more "mid" than anything else

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Overall Team Rankings

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