ZUPL V Coverage

By Tuthur. Released: 2023/11/22.

Introduction

Just like every summer since 2019, ZU held its most important tournament of the year: ZeroUsed Premier League. Just like last year, it saw eight teams competing for seven weeks to reach the top four and therefore playoffs. With the release of Scarlet and Violet, the number of slots remained the same as last year, but SM lost one, meaning now every old gen from DPP to SS had exactly one slot.

Teams

8th - Proud Pupitars

Colteor and Monai made their first appearance as ZUPL managers with the Proud Pupitars. On the one hand, Colteor is an established manager, with experience in multiple oldgen Premier Leagues. On the other hand, Monai is an accomplished team tournament player, with experience across multiple similar forum team tours, and also a proven ZU player, leading BW ZU and joining the current gen ZU council during the tournament. Unfortunately, though, the pair didn't reach their expected success, as the Pupitars finished last, breaking the record set last year by Sacred Sakura for the worst season in a ZUPL with 4 points and a -14 differential. While Monai lived up to the expectations as a player with an impressive 5-1 record against tough opponents in SV ZU, their other star players' showings were underwhelming. Danny and Xrn are two excellent players who've met success in official team tournaments and are experienced in their respective tier, but they were thrown into two of the most competitive pools of this ZUPL in SM and BW, respectively. The rest of the team was then filled mostly with players with little or no experience in ZUPL such as diegoyuhhi, Fragments, and SOMALIA, and unfortunately, none of them popped off in the tournament. With nine players going negative, a 0-7 SM record, and their only team win being in the last week against another team that was already out, there is not much that went right for the Pupitars, and the team failed to harness the full potential of its members.

7th - Flying Grumpigs

Unlike the above pair, a fruitshop owner and Mirbro are well-known ZUPL managers, with both reaching playoffs last year with their respective teams and fruits having managed in nearly every ZU team tournament. The team was the spiritual successor of Cursed Trevenants, retaining a big part of their roster with a fruitshop owner, avarice, PrinceOfAllTacos, and TPP returning to the team. Most of them had incredible records last year, with a combined 23 - 8. The team was then rounded out with some strong non-mainers in JustFranco and ProDigeZz, as well as ZU mainers like AstilCodex, SBPC, and TomatoZause. However, most of the Grumpigs' star players didn't have as much success as last year, going slightly negative or neutral for the most part. Grumpigs' biggest weaknesses were their BW and DPP slots, in which they went 1-5 and 1-6, respectively, which balanced out avarice's and JustFranco's very strong records. Grumpigs showed in some weeks that they could be very dominant, with two 6-2 wins, but they lacked consistency and failed to stay at this level during the whole tournament, leaving them near the bottom of the standings.

6th - Fiery Flamencos

DurzaOffTopic was back again to lead the Fiery Flamencos, just like the four past iterations of the tournament, this time paired with the Butterfrees' most notorious helper and ZU room voice, BaitWiz. Durza had been one of the most consistent ZUPL managers, only missing playoffs once and being the only manager to have won the tournament twice. They spent lavish credits to surround themselves with those they consider the best: Greybaum, one of the most consistent SM ZU players across the years and Durza's loyal sidekick; 5gen, former tier leader and expert in multiple generations; and Heysup, Durza's partner in crime in ZUPL since the first iteration and arguably the best DPP ZU player. Overall, the Flamencos had good success in most old gens, especially DPP, but they struggled a lot in SV and ORAS. However, just like last gen, the Flamencos' weakness has been their current gen slots, getting the cumulative worst record in 7-14. The SV core changed a lot throughout the tournament and was composed by some of Greybaum's OMPL teammates in hayedenn, pannu, and Sylvi, as well as ZU newcomers in Lizardu'' and plznostep. Unfortunately, their motivation didn't make up for their inexperience, and only Lizardu'' ended up without an underwhelming record. Fiery Flamencos barely missed playoffs, once again, as until the last week they could make it. Fiery Flamencos used to be the most scary ZUPL franchise, and we hope the phoenix will rise from its ashes and learn SV ZU next year.

5th - Shiiny Shiinotics

OranBerryBlissey10 was back with Shiiny Shiinotics, with his former assistant manager Mirbro being replaced with ZU room moderator skrimps. The Shiiny Shiinotic franchise, spiritual successor of Pay-Day Persians, had made playoffs for the past two years and followed their tradition of drafting mainly ZU mainers and ZUPL regulars. The Shiinotics mostly shined through their SV slots, as they scored the best record overall in that tier with 13-9, with LustfulLice proving they grew as a player and moving from one of the worst record in SS ZU last year to the best SV ZU record pre-playoffs. Their other slots were quite solid, except for DPP and SS, which struggled quite a lot despite the massive DPP support from experienced DPP ZU players in Huargensy, skrimps, and wooper, as well as OranBerryBlissey10 being ranked first on the SS ZU Power Rankings after his great showings in the latest SS ZU individual tournaments, reaching finals of Championship and Majors. What stood out with the Shiinotics was the number of benched players they had, as three of their players didn't play a single game and two of them went 0-1, with one being an activity loss; despite having a large range of options, they stuck to the same lineup for most of the tournament and barely missed playoffs, making it to a 1-2 tiebreak against Dave's Dunsparces.

4th - Sacred Sakura

Yours truly made his return as a ZUPL manager, leading the Sacred Sakura in their second season. After winning ZU Olympiads some months prior, Beka and I were confident in our ability to claim another team tour trophy. The Sacred Sakura learned their lesson from last year and massively invested in their oldgen core; Luck O' the Irish, Shaneghoul, and SEA made for very strong starters in SS, ORAS, and BW, respectively. The team scored a 16-6 record in these tiers, while it struggled a bit in the other old gens, getting a neutral record in DPP and a slightly negative one in SM. The team stood on top of the Power Rankings and standings for the first half of the tournament, but afterwards it started getting a bit dire for them. Their SV core, composed of Bouff, JJ09LIE, and myself, struggled to adapt to the tier shifts and flipped from going 2-1 to going 1-2, leading eventually to them going negative. The Sakura still managed to comfortably qualify for playoffs before week 7 at seed 2 and looked quite menacing with 7 of their starters having positive records entering semi-finals, with the last one, me, being neutral. However, the team got completely crushed, going 0-5, and was eliminated.

3rd - Dave's Dunsparces

This year, Stone Cold and Leru managed in almost every team tour on Smogon, and ZUPL V wasn't an exception. They went for an unique draft strategy, drafting almost exclusively non-ZU mainers and relying on them to learn the tiers by themselves during the tournament. Most notably, Mana is known for solving more niche metagames and building extremely consistent teams in those, skills he had already proven within the Daves during PMPL and that he displayed again in ZUPL, getting the best record of the tournament in 7-2. Two other excellent official top team tournament players, Lily and TDK, also got great records in SV and BW, respectively, while tko and Joya got more moderated success with SV and ORAS, respectively. However, the Daves struggled with their three other slots, SS, SM, and DPP, and while they eventually solved their SM issue with changing their starter, their SS and DPP stayed very weak for the whole tournament, with both only getting two wins throughtout the tournament. Nonetheless, the Daves managed to barely qualify for playoff in a close tiebreak against the Shiinotics and also made it to a tiebreaker in semis, which they eventually lost.

2nd - Mighty Mycellium Marauders

The Morpeek-A-Boos were rebranded into the Mighty Mycellium Marauders aka MMM. While Toto was still managing, he replaced his assman with the new ZU Leader, Corthius, and still drafted his former assman, btboy, for a very high amount, making him the most expensive player of his draft. This made up for a very solid core of ZU contributors who would support the building and take on the BW and ORAS slots, which was further rounded out with fish anemometer, JonAmon 25, Medeia, and Tack. Other old gens were covered by experienced non-ZU mainers who already scored great records in previous ZUPL with Ninja in SS, Finchinator in SM, and Lunala in DPP. The current gen core was based around fish anemometer supporting the two OST semifinalists, Ciro Napoli and Sylveon used calm mind, who had shown great understanding of the generation. Between great management and an awesome draft, the team easily qualified for playoffs and completely crushed their opponent 5-0 in semifinals. Unfortunately for them, they lost the finals tiebreak 0-2; still, they scored an amazing season, with no slot going negative and just two players without positive records.

1st - To Pimp a Butterfree

Despite being ranked last on Power Rankings and losing one of their star players before week 1, the Butterfrees managed to win ZUPL back to back. Drud and TWiTT, the team's managers, have had some of the best results in ZU team tours since they both started in ZUPL III; TWiTT has four wins and one finals, while Drud has two wins and two finals. The Butterfrees really didn't have any weakness, as every slot ended up positive, with DugZa, Drud, clean, and LpZ each bringing at least six wins to their team through the season. They struggled a bit at first in SV and ORAS with Jett, siras, and tier having underwhelming seasons in their respective tiers, but after tweaking the lineup, every slot was consistently going positive. The Butterfrees didn't lose a single week in the tournament, easily finishing first on the standings, and even when they had to play tiebreakers both in semifinals and finals, they made it through. The Butterfree have now joined the Flamencos as most succesful ZUPL franchise, also offering TWiTT his third ZUPL win in a row.

Metagame Trends

SV

SV ZU has been chaotic, experiencing many banlist changes throughout the tournament. During the first couple weeks, players were competing in a fresh metagame following Frogadier's ban that was still recovering from the loss of two important defensive backbones in Dunsparce and Hisuian Sliggoo. Swalot had been a premier Pokémon in the tier since Alpha and cemented itself as the best Pokémon in the tier. Most Swalot were running setup sets with either Acid Armor or Swords Dance during ZU Open and ZULT, but a new set emerged and quickly became the most popular set in the format. This set worked as a defensive pivot that was hard to wear down due to its amazing bulk, Toxic immunity, and Sticky Hold letting it absorb Knock Off, and it could cripple threats with Thunder Wave and Encore (the former letting it more usually use the latter) while threatening Thunder Wave-immune enemies such as Dedenne and Toedscool with its powerful STAB Sludge Bomb and super effective Ice Beam. Stonjourner also established itself as one of the most easy-to-fit and threatening attackers in the tier; IronPress sets fell out of favor in favor of offensive Stealth Rock, Choice Band, and Choice Scarf sets, which all had their benefits. Choice Scarf notably was very uncommon at first and grabbed some surprise KOs by catching players off guard, whereas it was the most common set in the later weeks of the tournament. Stonjourner ended up being the most used Pokémon in the whole tournament, as it could fit on almost every team and was one of the most reliable progress makers.

Swalot's and Stonjourner's rise in popularity shouldn't overshadow the rise of other Pokémon that didn't receive much usage prior to the tournament. With Heavy Slam letting Stonjourner easily tear through defensive cores using Toedscool as their Ground-type, Sandygast emerged as a premier physical wall that could also match up well against other threats like Raboot, Dragonair lacking Rest, and Swords Dance Swalot. With Sandygast, Stonjourner, and Swalot lacking Body Press and Earthquake being the most common physically bulky threats, Pawniard emerged as a threatening wallbreaker, being able to find setup opportunities on common threats like Banette, Calyrex, and Oranguru thanks to its typing and easily clean late-game with its powerful Sucker Punch. Eiscue, which was mostly known for extremely niche sets using Snowscape or Belly Drum, also rose as one of the most powerful wallbreakers in the tier and a staple on bulky offense and balance with its Choice Specs + Tera Ground sets. Its Noice forme outspeeds the whole unboosted tier and even some of the most common Choice Scarf users like Gothitelle and Stonjourner, and the combination of Ice Beam, Freeze-Dry, and Tera Blast let Eiscue hit most walls for super effective damage. Eventually, players started to run Eviolite Crocalor more, as people figured out defensive cores to support it, and thanks to its raw bulk, it was able to stall out many weakened teams on its own, especially with Tera removing its weakness to Stealth Rock and letting it handle would-be checks like Stonjourner and Drizzile.

This SV season was also shaken by many significant shifts; August tier shifts introduced Squawkabilly, an insanely broken wallbreaker that was capable of outspeeding a huge part of the tier, and it failed to be banned before Week 5. During this week, Stonjourner's usage skyrocketed to 95%, as it was the only reliable check to it, and Squawkabilly was quickbanned before Week 6. These shifts also brought three prominent new threats in Calyrex, Drakloak, and Lumineon; Calyrex could run many sets ranging from Choice Scarf to Double Dance, while Drakloak offered a fast option that could also spinblock, and Lumineon became of the most prominent offensive pivots in the tier, completely neutering other Water-types such as Drizzile and Wugtrio. Eventually, September shifts hit ZUPL for the playoffs and removed Swalot and Thwackey to introduce many very influential Pokemon such as Glimmet and Camerupt. However, the one that stood out was Rotom-S, which completely warped the metagame around it with its Tera Ground and Tera Steel Nasty Plot sets. As a result, Pupitar, which had barely seen any usage throughout the tournament, became very popular as one of the few Pokemon with a good matchup against it.

Showcasing games

SS

With most ZU mainers opting to play current gen, the SS pool was filled with many newcomers to the tournament such as dex and TomatoZause, as well as by tournament players who had experience with the tier in previous ZUPL such as clean, Luck O' the Irish, and Ninja. The tier saw very little development, as many considered it an already solved metagame. The dominating playstyles kept thriving, with Articuno + Miltank balances and Tangela bulky offenses at the top of usage. The usage stats were extremely close to last year, with the exact same top 11 except for Skuntank replacing Qwilfish. The top 3 is the exact same; Articuno, Silvally, and Miltank. This isn't very surprising, as many older teams kept getting reused.

While Palossand used to be the preferred Ground-type in ZUPL IV and ZU Olympiad I, Stunfisk took its spot. Palossand used to be the prefered Ground-type in Miltank + Articuno balance, due to its access to reliable recovery and ability to check Sawk and Klinklang. However, with time, both got worse, as seen by their below average winrates, while balance breakers like Skuntank and Nasty Plot Rotom formes rose in popularity thanks to their ability to exploit these structures and positive matchup against Tangela. Silvally-Dark also keeps rising in usage, with the RestTalk set seeing always more usage and proving to be a massive threat to many teams lacking Dark answers.

Showcasing games

SM

SM ZU saw very little changes from last ZUPL. During ZUPL IV, players shaped a new metagame thanks to Exeggutor's ban, which had been warping teambuilding around itself. This year's SM pool was also of high quality, and arguably the best since SM stopped being the current generation. As a result, most metagame trends from last year continued, such as Wishiwashi's rise and Bronzor dropping in popularity in favor of Golem and Torterra as Steath Rock users.

That said, some of those developments didn't stick; for instance, uncommon stat-boosting Z-Move users such as Pinsir and Bellossom were much rarer, as the tier had adapted to their presence. Likewise, Furfrou, which had a spectacular ZUPL IV with a 83% winrate, dropped to a more reasonable 50% winrate, as players learned how to account for this new threat. Rotom-S used to be fourth in usage with a positive winrate but fell from the top 10 in usage stats and to a sub-30% winrate. Golem and Electivire being on most teams made it awkward to use Choice Scarf Rotom-S, as they are immune to Electric and resist Air Slash. As a defensive Pokemon, Rotom-S also has many problems with its Stealth Rock weakness, which limits its ability to switch in, even on resisted hits. Its inability to keep Stealth Rock off the field against the most common hazard setters like Golem and Bronzor and lack of power on its STAB moves mean even foes weak to them like Wishiwashi and Mareanie can often afford to stay in against it. On the flip side, Swanna saw a resurgence in use and winrates. Last year, it had a negative winrate for the first time in ZUPL history, and it was now back with a winrate above 70%. Some players rated Swanna low in the developed metagame, but they were proven wrong, as even with Wishiwashi around, Swanna finds way to break and claim wins.

Showcasing games

ORAS

Unlike the above metagames, ORAS was brand new thanks to the Purugly ban. This was the first tournament to take place since, and players had to figure out what was going to be good in this new metagame. The biggest change induced with Purugly's ban is the rise in usage of Vibrava, now the most used Pokemon in the tier, as Purugly can't deter it from using Defog anymore, so hazard removal rose in viability. Likewise, this opened the door to Bronzor as an alternative Normal answer, since it hated Knock Off from Purugly, leading to Carbink and Gigalith dropping in usage. The last major direct metagame adaptation to Purugly's ban was the rise of hyper offense, namely weathers and dual screens, as Purugly used able to stall out precious turns and revenge kill threats with its powerful Fake Out and also take advantage of Sticky Web with Defiant. Threats that were common in these archetypes such as Huntail and Simipour scored really high winrates. Also, despite Purugly making Spikes harder to keep up, they were still quite effective at whittling down teams.

However, the biggest metagame development has nothing to do with Purugly. Duosion keeps growing in popularity, just like it already had started to in ZU Olympiads and Triathlon, despite Purugly's presence. With Regenerator, a specially defensive spread, and Eviolite, Duosion becomes almost impossible to take out with special attacks and able to shrug off hits from some of the most threatening attackers in the tier like Electabuzz and Magmar. Even uninvested, it hits extremely hard with base 125 Special Attack, threatening most of the tier with its powerful Future Sight while also crippling foes with Toxic and Thunder Wave. With it rising as one of the most consistent defensive backbone in the tier, Krokorok has also been rising in usage, thanks to its Psychic and Thunder Wave immunity letting it take advantage of Duosion, even though it needs to be careful about switching into potential Signal Beam.

Showcasing games

BW

BW is the most played ZU old gen on Smogon, thanks to being featured in some non-ZeroUsed tournaments like BWPL and RoA Olympics. While BW ZU was a bit underexplored following the Articuno ban in ZUPL IV, players are now very familiar with the new metagame. The main change is how players have adapted to play around entry hazards. While Staryu used to be one of the most common Pokemon during ZU BreadWinners, due to being among the most consistent Rapid Spin users, its usage started dropping during ZUPL, and it is not very common anymore. Most teams now prefer to forgo removal entirely instead of crippling themselves with an LC Pokemon that needs turns to remove hazards. Clefairy rising up in usage and winrate confirm this, which had a pretty poor winrate last year and is now the second most used Pokemon with 60% winrate. With its incredible bulk, hazard immunity, and wide support movepool, Clefairy finds itself on many teams as a defensive backbone that can blanket check many threats and is tedious to weaken.

Showcasing games

DPP

DPP has historically had one of the smallest player pools in ZUPL, with a small group of very good users and newcomers picking up the tiers each year. DPP ZU also saw many changes since last year, with Kingler and Walrein getting banned. The tier had always been dominated by these very powerful Water-types, as well as Lapras, which was banned in the middle of last ZUPL, and it seems like the tier eventually can stop banning them, as Phione, Wailord, and Whiscash, which have taken their place, seem balanced enough.

The biggest change has been Carnivine's rise in popularity. It used to be pretty middling due to losing to the previous Water-types of the tier, but it is now the most popular Pokemon in the tier. Its solid bulk paired with a Spikes immunity allows it to switch in and take neutral hits from most foes and then recover off the damage with Synthesis or threaten something with Sleep Powder and its STAB moves coming from solid offensive stats. Normal-types also are stronger than before, with both Raticate and Stantler both have stellar winrates, while they were unpopular and unsuccesful last year. Likewise, Sableye became very popular in the later weeks of the tournament as a defensive Calm Mind sweeper, with an amazing defensive typing and solid enough stats to take advantage of passive walls like Probopass and NFEs.

Showcasing games

Final Thoughts

For the first time since I've started writing these recaps, I find little to say about old gens, which shows how much they have developed throughout the years. ZUPL started as a small tournament with very underexplored tiers, as some of them were only a couple months old. Seeing the whole development of these tiers throughout the years is very satisfying and shows the dedication of the ZU community. Likewise, SV is a chaotic format due to the constant tier shifts, and yet players still stay motivated to stay up to date regardless of the banlist changes. ZUPL V was a great tournament, and I'm looking forward 2023 Circuit Playoff to see more SV and ZU Olympiads in early 2024 for more old gens.

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