PU 2024 PU Circuit Playoffs - Round One

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ishtar

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PU Leader
op copied from here with slight modifications.
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art by LifeisDANK

Congrats to the Top 16 players in the PU Circuit for making it this far! All of this year's tournaments have finally led to this point. Now the Top 16 players will play to determine the winner of the Circuit, who'll be awarded with the PU Circuit Ribbon!

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Tournament-Specific Rules
  • This is a standard SV PU Single Elimination bo3 Tournament.
  • Matches are to be played on Pokemon Showdown!, preferably on the smogtours server.
  • General tournament rules and clauses apply.
  • Smogon-Wide Clauses still apply.
  • You may switch teams in between battles of the same set.
  • All matches must have replays saved and posted within the thread. All matches must be played publicly.
  • Any tier changes that occur after this post, if any, will not affect this tournament.
  • PU is a usage based tier. You can essentially use anything that is not in a higher tier or banned; anything in PUBL or higher is banned and cannot be used.
Standard Rules and Clauses
  • Species Clause: A player cannot have two Pokemon with the same PokeDex number on their team.
  • Sleep Clause: You cannot inflict sleep upon more than one member of the opposing team.
  • Evasion Clause: The moves Double Team and Minimize are banned.
  • OHKO Clause: The moves Horn Drill, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, and Fissure are banned.
  • Endless Battle Clause: Anything capable of intentionally creating an endless battle is banned.
Other tournament rules you should be aware of!
About playing on alts: It is entirely allowed to play on an alt other than your own main forum name, though if your opponent wishes to confirm your identity, you must log on to your main alt to show them you are who you claim to be. This is to prevent people from pretending to be who they're not.

About playing on different servers: The matches must be played on either the Smogtours server or the Main PS! server if both parties agree to that. Other servers are not sanctioned by the host(s) and playing in them might result in your game not counting. Protect yourself from that by playing on Smogtours.

Scouting

On scouting opponents: Going through your opponents replays of tournament and ladder games is entirely allowed, as long as a game is public there is nothing preventing you from watching it. An exception to this is abusing powers granted to you by being staff on Smogon or PS! to gain access to information a normal user wouldn't have access to, which is strictly forbidden.

On leaking teams: Divulging private information about someone's planned team to their opponent is never allowed, and will be heavily sanctioned. Requesting that such information be divulged is also grounds for punishment. Keep your scouting to publicly available information and you'll be fine.

Timer Clause / Disconnections

Timer Clause: As for taking long between moves, if your opponent asks you to hurry up, please oblige. If you are doing a damage calc for a key turn that is one thing, but prolonging every move is suspicious and annoying. Don't do it. Furthermore, Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason. If you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time.

Disconnections: Finally, in the case of a disconnect, the decision is in the hands of the player who did not disconnect. The options are: redo the battle move for move, redo the battle with the same teams but different moves, or redo the battle with completely different teams. If the battle was without a doubt over, they may also take the win. Any suspicion that a disconnect was committed on purpose to redo a match may be appealed to me, and if I feel this happened there will be severe consequences, don't do it.

Scheduling

Use VMs to schedule with your opponent to make it easier for me to track activity calls when needed, and use this guide to ensure you don't lose via activity or coinflip. If you use other methods to contact your opponent outside of VMs, then post in this thread confirming you're in contact with your opponent; otherwise, it's not necessary. Extensions for those with time conflicts will only be given when proof is provided of scheduling with their opponent in the beginning of the round, so do not schedule last minute expecting to be compensated in case of timezone conflicts or be given an activity win over your opponent.

I know that was a lot to read, but it is all necessary for me to have posted here so everyone can see it in the case of a dispute. I don't want any confusion or any problems.
1. DugZa
2. eifo
3. OranBerryBlissey10
4. Xiri
5. kyuss
6. Ampha
7. fish anemometer
8. MZ
9. Drud
10. asa
11. Star
12. LpZ
13. Scarf Kricketune
14. sufys
15. plznostep
16. feen

Round 1
sprites by the wonderful Denial, thank you!

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DugZa vs feen - 1 | 2 | 3


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eifo vs plznostep - 1 | 2 | 3

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OranBerryBlissey10 vs sufys - 1 | 2 | 3

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Xiri vs Scarf Kricketune - 1 | 2 | 3


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kyuss vs LpZ - 1 | 2 | 3

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Ampha vs Star - 1 | 2 | 3

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fish anemometer vs asa - 1 | 2 | 3



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MZ vs Drud - 1 | 2 | 3

Deadline for this round is Sunday, December 15th @ 11:59 GMT -5
 
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Dugza vs feen
eifo vs plznostep
OranBerryBlissey10 vs sufys
Xiri vs Scarf Kricketune
kyuss vs LpZ
Ampha vs Star
fish anemometer vs asa
MZ vs Drud

Dugza vs feen - These are both players that I'd happily root for any day of the week, but it's a simple mathematical fact that Dugza accrued more circuit points than feen even if you remove their Winter Seasonal performance entirely. It's been great to watch feen playing PU recently, but they are the type of player that asks me for teams because they don't build and I've managed to fool people into thinking that my builds function for anyone other than myself, if at all. All I'm saying is, nobody else brought dual Eject Pack offense to SCL and they were right to do so. Anyway, Doug is the type of player that tends to wax that particular phenotype of team-leacher, the sort of person who still remembers what sample teams Star was incorrectly recreating from a replay 5 months down the line. I, for one, would like them to play their Bo3 in Monotype PU with brand new teams they built themselves.

eifo vs plznostep - I'm writing this one second to last because there's very little to say here. The state of PU is such that even an upset of this magnitude (seeding-wise) wouldn't be earth-shattering, but eifo has a smorgasbord of strong recent results and plz is best at a gen that was released during the Bush administration. The player cards do kind of say it all, except for eifo's SCL record I suppose.

OranBerryBlissey10 vs sufys - It's very difficult to maintain faith in sufys as a player after reading some of the stuff they post about in the PU Discord. Not just the horrific takes either, so high on the supply of usually getting things right that they confidently dive into some of the worst shit you've ever seen, but the lack of self-confidence too. I'm not sure if sufys would bold himself here. And yet, as much as I know OBB to be a very strong player (and a great manager to play under), I don't think the recent showings have been that strong. If memory serves, he admitted to folding pretty badly vs Xiri in Swiss finals. I can certainly attest to just not playing very well vs him in Swiss too, and skimming the other sets wasn't a wellspring of confidence. I'm confident OBB has the skill within himself to pull this out, and hell even the recent showing is better than having zero from sufys since whenever the last time we tested for SCL was. I think the main thing leading me here is just that the amount of yapping our esteemed 15th seed rattles off in Discord has convinced me that they have the time and conviction to bring a hell of a good set to bear.

Xiri vs Scarf Kricketune - PU is no stranger to weird teams and weird runs picking up big tour wins, but they more often come from a relatively unknown quantity. To see a player with the history and success of Xiri be the one winning PU Swiss with the Poliwrath and the Honchkrow and everything else along those lines is downright jarring. Just one of those quietly weird runs that gains more and more oddities the more context you have. It's like a newer player watching Junebug pop off with Donkey Kong in Melee, which is hype enough on its own, and then learning about their history in Project M and gaining a deeper appreciation for what's going on. Anyway, I just don't see any recent results from SK to justify calling for an upset, as much as I feel like someone, surely, eventually, must be ready to outbuild Hitmontop+Ambipom teams. Maybe not SK, certainly not myself, but probably someone in this pool.

kyuss vs LpZ - This is just awkward. Brazil teamkill r1 forcing two excellent players to either come up with new stuff or trust that they can still pilot known techs, or however else they decide to navigate the situation. On paper, if I'm being honest, there's just about nothing to suggest that LpZ should be taking the upset-via-seeding here, this is easily the most gut-feeling call of these predicts. I just think that, all else being more or less equal, LpZ probably has more clutch factor and luck. Skill aside, you really need those to pick up a Slam trophy. And I do think all else is more or less equal, or at least close enough to where that's the only factor I can stake a claim on.

Ampha vs Star - I don't think it's a slight to Ampha to say that Star is the more talented player. Actually I'd say that about literally anyone Star faces, he's simply the most talented player in the pool. But the PU open combined a lot of good and easily accessible teams from samples and PUPL with a roster of opponents who still likely had less ability or inclination to prep than we might see in circuit. Ampha is plugged in and flying high in PUWC right now, an extremely capable player with teams and play that I do rate as being reasonably strong, and that seems like it'll trump Star if they're still scraping from replays and behind on some of the newer meta trends.

fish anemometer vs asa - How seriously does one take Discord breakdowns? It's the operative question here without a single convincing answer, but I'm inclined to believe that fish is just real burnt out. Losing in PUWC this last week or not (and it was in part due to 2 Leaf Storm misses), I'd favor a top-of-the-line fish over asa right now, although not more than 60-40. These are two proven players who I have more faith in than just about anyone to bring about a good performance, but ultimately fish's stated desire to phone it in and get a break seems well-deserved and convincing.

MZ vs Drud - I've really enjoyed the last few weeks not really doing anything serious for PU. TBH, since SCL regular season ended I've been phoning it in. I genuinely have no clue if I'll work up the motivation to get some good stuff going in the next week, I certainly haven't been saving up any prep. I'm happy just making circuit, afaik I've been in it every year except when SS was current because that gen's lame, and I've accepted being consistently decent over pushing myself to more.​
 
Dugza vs feen - 2 nerds but dugza is bigger nerd
eifo vs plznostep - a nerd and a zu player(sorry still are to me ;)) giving it to the nerd
OranBerryBlissey10 vs sufys - biggest NOOB here how does he make all these circuits im seething. Obb wins a circuit this year after last year tragedy of the hypno.
Xiri vs Scarf Kricketune - xiri won the most recent tour and seems in peak xiri poff mode rn.
kyuss vs LpZ - upset, no real reason at all besides the fact that lpz seems a little beatable rn(rare).
Ampha vs Star - bold star to motivate my friend ampha to prove me wrong.
fish anemometer vs asa - bolding asa to motivate her to win in puwc to avenge me.
MZ vs Drud - holding mz to avenge me further. Regardless of who I bold this game, drud will still be on my side to coup zu from evil tuthur’s clutches. Sign of a real man.
 
Philip-dicts

Dugza vs feen
Snarky? yes. great at the game? Unfortunately also yes. Dugza has had a great run and some fairly big showings in the tours that got him here, aswell as being more active in the tier. I think he's got this one.
eifo vs plznostep
Eifo is my goat but picking against step still hurts. Like MZ said if this battle were in gens 2-3 I think it'd be very one sided(no offense eifo) but frankly it's not.
And so i think eifo is favored.
OranBerryBlissey10 vs sufys
This bracket was just designed to upset me huh. Sufys is a great player and despite chat room negativity a rlly cool person BUT I mean..obb has better results and coming off a rough loss to xiri I feel they have enough to prove to get it done.
Xiri vs Scarf Kricketune
Now why are yall sleeping on my GOAT, krick took some time off but he's still him, I think xiri has met his creative match.
kyuss vs LpZ
Friendly fire lol, idk this one's tough, basically 50/50 but we'll say lpz
Ampha vs Star
No notable commentary.
fish anemometer vs asa
Absolutely no shade to fish but he's not motivated rn because he wants a break, I think this lends an inherent advantage to asa
MZ vs Drud
I'm sorry mz but druds recent records(and hilarious rng) may prove too much this time around. But neither result would shock me.
 
Will need extension to play this round :(
If not tomorrow definitely by wednesday.
 
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