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Tournaments SPL XVI - ORAS OU Discussion

MrAldo

MrAldo

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layout stolen from gsc spl discussion by vani which then has been stolen from Sylvi

Hello my fellow ORAS Fans. I hope everyone is excited for the 16th iteration of SPL and is looking forward to see how this pool will perform in this tournament! This thread is for general dicussion regarding players, metagame trends, matches, predictions and anything related to ORAS in SPL really.

Auction
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Projected ORAS Starter Prices
Poek - 5000
RufflesPro - 18500
erz - 3000
Garay Oak - 22000
lighthouses - 3000
BluBirD - 3000
Axel - 6500
Santu - 19000
MichaelDerBeste2 - 16000
pj - 10000

ORAS Cores
Assumed Starters
Likely Support and/or Substitue Players
Manager Support

Dragonspiral Tyrants :tyrantrum:- Poek, Metallica126, temp; blunderr
Circus Maximus Tigers :raikou:- RufflesPro, c0mp, devin; z0mog
Alpha Ruiners :entei:- erz, London Beats; Gondra
Indie Scooters :Alakazam-Mega:- Garay Oak, Chiharu, robjr; SuperEpicAmpharos
Stark Sharks :Garchomp:- lighthouses, Niko; starmaster
Wi-Fi Wolfpack :Lycanroc:- BluBirD, fade
Cryonicles :Suicune:- Axel, ACR1, Vileman; Spitfire Arcanine
Ever Grande Bigs :Snorlax:- Santu, Charmflash; ABR
Team Raiders :Marowak-alola:- MichaelDerBeste2, Paprikaflow
Congregation of the Classiest :Gardevoir-Mega:- pj, LpZ; starry
​
Overall a year with some expected faces to return, legends missing, and exciting new prospects given a chance as a first or second option. RufflesPro showing as a very expensive first timer thanks to a 2024 that can only be described as phenomenal, hopefully the pressure of such a high price tag doesnt get to him.

Overall what I like about this spl in particular besides notable drafting is how the pool of managers is surprisingly fresh with a lot of new faces. Thats pretty great!


Stay tuned for this season. Doing game analyses from my side is OUT of the question, too much to write, so hopefully someone is willing to do it. Have fun yapping!
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In order to bring some activity into this lets play a little game, shall we? We all love to do unbiased, or biased, rankings for something so lets do this:

Assuming these are going to be the 10 ORAS Starters for SPL:


lighthouses, pj, Santu, BlubirD, MichaelDerBeste2, Garay Oak, Axel, RufflesPro, erz, Poek


How would you rank them? 1 to 10 of course

You can be as objective as you want, or you can use the classic "cause I said so", thats valid too!
 
Peace be upon you,

1. Rufflespro: I believe Rufflespro has the best team-building skills by far, which would help him achieve the best record.
2. Michaelderbeste2: The champion of the first edition of the ORAS Invitational.
3. Santu: Has an excellent record in SPL and the ORAS Circuit.
4. Lighthouse: I admire his builds, and he made significant progress in this year's ORAS Invitational.
5. PJ: The champion of the second edition of the ORAS Invitational.
6. Erz: I've used his team dump, so I feel obligated to rank him in the top six.
7. Blubird: I like his teams, so I'm placing him here.

As for the other three players, I don’t know them well enough to rank them, so I’ve decided to leave them out.
 
4 groups (no order within those groups):

1. Santu - undisputed #1 in this pool, especially cause of strongest play

2. - 5. Michael, Ruffles, pj, Poek - strong contenders with (maybe) small questionmarks - michael: dedication and general knowledge in the tier, ruffles: how will he handle the pressure?, poek: not many results in the tier recently, pj: probably the most consistent one, but his 2023 was better than his 2024... generally I do have a lot of faith in these guys though

6. - 8. Garay Oak, lighthouses, erz - underdogs, I don't expect them to be amazing, but they can win a couple games. Not impossible one of them can pull off a great run

9. - 10. BluBirD, Axel - now I think BluBirD is a strong builder in the tier, but whenever I saw him play he rushed things and did not play up to the standard he sets in the teambuilder. Whenever I saw Axel play lately he seemed out of touch with the tier, but hopefully I'm wrong. If they can improve on their weak spots (BluBirD: playing, Axel: teams), they can move up the ladder
 
BluBirD vs Axel - BluBirD vs the Sheriff. Axel definitely has more history within the tournament and the experience on how to handle being in the spotlight can be important. It has been said BluBirD ORAS OU builds are absolute fuego, and I have seen he is a more than capable with his EV spreads and concepts so this is probably the best matchup to show he can start with the right foot. History tells me to bold for the sheriff tho, he has been kind of shaky lately but we shall see.

lighthouses vs Poek - Diogo has been more used to competitive play with his recent invitational run imo. That rhythm can definitely be handy since Poek doesnt have much recent ORAS activity from what I recall? Poek experience and the big support in blunderr can play a big part into this matchup but I feel Diogo has been more on the frontline recently (this is also an objectively bias prediction).

MichaelderBeste2 vs Garay oak - No doubt Garay Oak is spectacular but this is MDB2 we are talking about here. Winner of the 1st ORAS OU invitational and just an outstanding player in pretty everything he touches, hard to bold against him tbh, here is no exception. SEA support can be nice but have to make a decision. There is always a chance for an upset but MDB2 level in general is crazy.

erz vs Santu - this is honestly lowkey the closest call in this week, lol. Santu is arguably the best in the pool due to his consistency but I dont anyone who is a fan of facing erz. A bag of trickery as deep as the ocean can prove to be a pain to prep for but Santu extremely solid fundamental play does have a slight edge despite erz being no slouch. This one is definitely gonna be interesting to watch. A master scientist vs the equivalent of a very consistent athlete. We shall see how it goes.

pj vs RufflesPro - This one has the potential to be the most fire matchup of the week. Both really solid on the builder and play, proven by how RufflesPro has been perfect on the recent invitational, and both can make very fun and varied choices when it comes about teams. I give the slight edge to pj due to previous history and success in this tournament, but RufflesPro can prove to be a menace. Hopefully the weight of the price tag doesnt affect him.


yada yada
 
BluBirD vs Axel wont predict my own teammate
Lighthouse vs Poek Diogo should get some edge on the builder but is quite close
Michaelderbeste2 vs Garay Oak I think Michael is more in touch w the tier, but ngl i expect some spikes balance mirror
Erz vs Santu Santussi the best player in the pool)
PJ vs Ruffles I think Ruffles is in better form but imo this is the closest MU of the week but i still go w Ruffles. ily praj the n1 Messi supporter
 
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