aurora
You credited me with getting you to undelete your signup, but I distinctly remember telling you to think on it and decide if you'd want to return to mons, so I feel like I'm getting some credit I dont deserve there. Nonetheless, I'm glad you did decide to come back, without you I dont think we win this tournament. Be it clutching up important games like against Heysup, or providing tests in tiers I know for a fact you despise, you were invaluable to the team and we do not get here without you. I cant wait to make you learn RBY for UPL! At least there, Megahorn cant miss!
Selfdestruct on the other hand?
March Fires
You turned the season around fantastically from talking in the manager chat about how you might need to bench yourself, going from 0-2 into 8-3 is fantastic. Speaking as a teammate, you have no idea how relieving it is to know that someone on your team is so clutch and capable of playing in big moments, especially as we picked your bread and butter generation for both Tiebreaks. It gives your teammates immense confidence every week, and that faith was more than repaid. As a person, I'm glad you keep sticking around, you're incredibly fun to talk to and have in servers, I just wish you didnt lose your first discord account somehow. That being said, thanks for carrying my ass over the finish line.
TrueNora
I was a little concerned going into the tournament how much you actually wanted to be here. You had a full time job, a secondary job on the side, and had quit mons entirely as gen9 rolled in, so I didnt know whether we'd be seeing you once a week on occasion, or if you'd be a bit more active and helpful. Turns out it was neither, you were fucking everywhere while carrying the ss slot's prep on your back week in and week out. The amount of time, effort and dedication you put into this tour far exceeded what I expected, and it was fantastic to team up with you again like that. You mentioned the other day that you're possibly wanting to manage this UPL, I sincerely hope that was true, because you'd be a fantastic manager for any team you'd pick. One day we'll meet up for a drink... one day.
Stallion
Speaking of meeing up for a drink, you've become one of my closest friends on this website and I'm glad that we got to meet up in Melbourne, even though we couldnt go to the gym together. Back to pokemon though, your hot streak at the start of the tour combined with your unwavering faith in me helped push both me and the team to greater heights when it mattered the most, even as your own form started to drop when you faced tier fatigue. With the fish gone and nothing happening on the tier front for a while, I hope you can fully enjoy the break you intend to have for the next few months. And during that break, its ok to relax, you can even be fine with your fiancé eating chicken in bed! Hmu next time you're up north.
byronthewellwell
Going into this tournament, I thought that of the 4 'managers' from the SS era, only I would be signing back up. Even after Tape and Nora started talking in the discord, I didnt expect you to be around. You yourself hadnt even posted on the forums for 10 months when you did sign up. Needless to say, it was a profound relief to read your signup message, and know that we could resume the status quo, seeing no messages for about a week until we got a battle link, where you'd somehow mind control your opponents and win the games as though it was effortless. Thank you so much for playing even through your european holiday, and for being a pillar on which Oceania relied upon, both in ORAS and in tiebreak.
baconeatinassassin
I am incredibly angry with you, I only got to play my favourite generation once the entire tournament because you're too fucking good to not play. While I didnt always agree with the prep choices, you and Nora worked fantastically well together, and you were your normal self when it came to actually piloting them. Well, with one exception, and if I ever see an Urshifu OHKO a Calyrex switching in hard on it again I might start getting flashbacks, but you still clutched the game up anyway. Learn gen9 god damn it!
Trade
In a similar boat to byron, I wasnt expecting you to be around at all when you signed up. I hadnt seen you involved in Ubers for a long time, and I thought we'd probably repeat our first year together, with you saying nothing at all, linking gen7 games and winning them. To my unending delight, it turned out you wanted to play gen9 instead of gen7, and while your communication with regards to what team you wanted to bring is still not always what I would call reliable, after the mono-water fiasco and losing about 8 games to mono-water while using Miraidon, I decided that I would just trust you without letting myself get bogged down with silly details like "looking at the paste" or "sanity checking". Like I said with your tiebreak team, I dont think I could ever use one of your teams myself, but I am glad that you can and that you delivered as hard as you did this tournament, especially clutching up in high pressure situations against both Canada and India. We dont get to the finish line without you there pulling us along with you, and I am glad to have spent the season with you.
shrang
The DPP-HO goat! You said yourself that you were approaching the point in DPP where you feel like you were starting to commit to the one specific aspect of DPP that you have carved out for yourself, the HO playstyle as a whole, and I'm glad that it worked as well as it did here. With Robbie and Nora helping you prep, you really popped off at the start of the tour and were dominating games the way I knew you could. The tournament didnt end as well, most likely from it being too long of a format and too draining, which is why we switched it up with Byron in playoffs, but I also knew that you'd be both willing and capable of clutching up a win if push came to shove. You're the friend I've had on this website the longest, back from when you had a tiny yellow car and we saw the latest Star Wars movie, and I'm glad you stick around to this day.
Drifting
We have had our differences over the years, and I'm not sure I'll ever forgive you for all of the fucking Pangoro tests, but you wanted to play USM for us and I'm glad you were able to, clutching up an impressive 5-4 record against a rather stacked pool. I dont think we interacted that often this tour, my distaste for USM Ubers is well known at this point, but you were impressively consistent against tough opponents, and your general commentary in general and game-discussion was perfect for what the chat needed in terms of activity. Thank you for signing up, and I look forward to us teaming up again for World Cup proper!
I swear to god though if I see another Pangoro in testing for OU I am 4-pointering you on preview.
etern
I did not expect to see you sign up, but I was delighted that you did. I knew from SCL just how capable you were as a pilot, and you rounded out our SV core fantastically. I hope this will mean that you keep playing Ubers more, we could always do with a few more aussies around these parts.
MagearnaTheBoss
You were dealt an incredibly rough hand with ADV. It was the tier that was giving us the most headache going into the tournament, and I was glad to know that you wanted to play it for us, as it helped resolve that headache as best we could. While your record wasnt great at the end, I put that more on myself and the rest of us for not providing you the platform to thrive in, and myself especially for not being able to give you more building and testing support throughout the season. Thank you for playing with us.
Tal
You stepped in 3 times in emergency situations and gave it your all every time, including clutching up the game that sent us to tiebreak against Canada. Two of those times were also directly because of me. Thank you for playing with us and helping us out of our tight spots, and you were also always willing to spar with any of us in SV who needed the test games. I hope to see you stick around and keep playing Ubers, because it was a delight to team with you this tournament.
rookierobbie
I have two regrets this tournament, and they are: Not forcing Nora to play (ideally USM or BW Ubers), and not getting a chance to slot you into the lineup. You were invaluable in prepping with multiple old gen slots, and we had a serious discussion about finding a way of getting you into the lineup on a couple of occasions. You were a great teammate, helped keep the chat active and were always around and scheming up new twists on teams and styles with shrang, and it is a massive relief to me (someone clueless in all generations before the Fairy Type was invented) to have someone like you around and being so helpful.
And for some people who were heavily involved in the prep or the discord, but who were not on the team:
Batzi
I am sorry that we ended up needing to cut you from our lineup, but I'm glad that you stuck around in the discord and enjoyed your time there. We're now teaming up in DLWC so hopefully we can work well together there.
corvere
You hard carried etern's prep every single week, and it says something about the standards you have for yourself that you were somehow upset that you only managed to help guide him to a 6-2 record instead of an undefeated one. You were invaluable in prep and clicked fantastically with etern's playing style, and I am selfishly truly glad that we were able to have you on board and helping prep the entire season. Thanks for joining, thanks for sticking around, and thanks for just generally being an unsung hero for us.
Frito
I know you left the discord, but you were still helping both myself and Stallion prep each week until playoffs, even in spite of your dwindling investment in the tournament. I still think week 1 was the most entertaining scenario I've been a part of in a tournament when you accidentally built the team I was going to use for Autumn in call (and that you were going to use too!), and the game itself was one of the most generally fun games that I had this tournament too, even though I ended up losing it. You got me good, and I cant wait to get you back in PICHU.
Nyx
Its incredible to me how much our friend groups have managed to overlap since I met you in the old draft server we were both in. I find you a fantastic and reliable friend, and I think that the compliment you gave me in your RMT is one of the nicest I have ever received on this website. Much like Frito, you were a big help for both me and stallion in prepping and testing, although unlike frito you never bothered to join the discord to do so.
Icemaster
We think very differently about SS, but the help you gave in the SS tiebreaker was invaluable. Nobody understands Fc's tendencies better than you do, and I appreciated your help immensely when I played. While the game didnt end up mattering, prepping with you made me infinitely more confident going into the game, and I'm glad that you were willing to help us out.
FatFighter2
I'm glad you agreed to join to try to help our ADV, we were truly lost without you and you immediately started to have a great impact, including helping Aurora prep into winning a crucial game against Heysup, while also giving Aurora the right guidance needed for our finals ADV game, provided Megahorn is a good move.
Terracotta
While this was no BLT, even the brief amount of time you were helping us reminded me of just how much I enjoy being able to use your teams. You build fucking weird man, but for me they just click sometimes, and I'm glad that it was the case with the one team of yours I used. You're the only madman I'd compare Trade to, and I'll never draft the both of you on the same roster, but I really look forward to the next time we can team together again.
Fc
I've never had someone in the team discord who also tells me straight up that they are rooting for the other player to win. A very odd choice, but I appreciated it nonetheless, and I am sorry that I wasnt able to showcase your building better in the tiebreak match. You're a good friend, and I couldnt ask for someone better to lead Ubers alongside me.