Now that my team has been eliminated, I should probably say a few words. First of all, I would like to say that I am so incredibly proud of this unholy conglomeration of Canada, Texas, and the Midwestern United States for never giving up, no matter how bad the odds or how unlucky we were. I know you guys were frustrated (I was too) and your willingness to fight through it means a lot to me. Giving up at multiple points during the season would've been so easy, but we persevered and made it to playoffs. The team environment was great and I enjoyed interacting with you guys. As cliche as it sounds, we made a lot of memories along the way. To me, the best of them was that magical run at the end of Week 9, when we were down 3 games and came back to win 5 straight and earn ourselves a playoff spot. I don't want to make this too long since it's getting late and I'm tired, but some of you deserve individual shoutouts.
EviGaro deserves the first one for picking me up to begin with, starting me every week, and having faith in my ability to win despite having every reason not to. Going from 0-4 in RUPL to ending the regular season positive and going even after a loss in playoffs means more to me than it probably should, and I never would've managed it without you giving me a chance long after you could've been forgiven for passing me by. In addition to that, you did a great job leading the team in general and repeatedly showed up as a player when we needed you. Good luck in SPL, and I hope we can team up for RUPL as well. Maybe by then I will be able to contribute in USUM RU as well. My only complaint is that you
still won't let me use Electivire (but were apparently willing to sign off on things like Floatzel ?_?).
SilentVerse and
passion did a great deal behind the scenes to help me build. I appreciate all your advice. Thank you to SilentVerse in particular for putting up with me pinging you constantly and asking for input or for help finishing teams (my building strategy for most of the tour was as follows: come up with a concept, get stuck on the last Pokemon or two, and make SilentVerse solve my problems for me). I appreciate you being so good-natured and willing to put up with me. I learned a lot about BW RU from you and hope to
make you my build slave team with you again in the future. passion, you're hilarious and did a lot to help the team in general in addition to your contributions to my teambuilding. The techs you recommended I use were pretty cool and (I think) resulted in wins when I used them, so props to you for helping me even though you don't like this tier. Without your help, I would've struggled more in the early weeks and found it harder to try to preserve team morale.
Props to
Megazard for stepping in when we needed a second BW player despite not really being familiar with the tier and managing to bring us some wins. I know it's hard to be successful when you're just dropped into a tier and expected to fill in, but you never complained and did your best to make it work, which was a huge asset to the team.
bebo7788 gets a shoutout for being super friendly and upbeat and posting a good record despite high IQ moments like having to be told not to forfeit a game he eventually won, assuming that we were out of playoffs after the team had spent several minutes talking about the fact that we were in playoffs, and forgetting that 4+4 = 8. I think you'll go far in the future and look forward to seeing you make a name for yourself in future tours. I think your success will come soon after you acquire an understanding of basic mathematics. Love you, buddy.
I'm getting tired now, so I'll try to wrap this up.
Sage is awesome and always had a kind word for everyone. I know you wanted a better record, but I'm sure you'll manage that in RUPL. I enjoyed getting the chance to catch up with you and would enjoy teaming with you in the future.
Kink and I have had our issues in the past, but you did a lot to help the team and I think significantly better of you as a result.
Sam I know you think this wasn't your tour, but I want you to know that I felt like we could always rely on you to win games if the RNG didn't decide to punish you. Thanks for being here for the team when we needed you. The ORAS goons deserve recognition for playing that awful tier for 10 weeks without losing their minds and occasionally almost making it interesting to watch. We wouldn't be here without you. The reliable
FLCL really helped us out by showing up big-time during some important games. You're a quiet dude, but you were super important to our success.
CryoGyro did well despite being somewhat inexperienced in team tours. I hope to see you continue to develop and would love to see you find success in the future. Everyone I may have forgotten deserves recognition for showing up and playing their games when needed. Finally, I'd like to thank
Accelgor for cheering me on for years now (has it really been that long?) and putting up with my habit of endlessly spamming him with BW RU challenges even when I do things like hax him or make him forfeit with Expert Belt techs.
One last note: I think this tour was a really cool idea and am glad to see all the young teams bringing fresh talent that would ordinarily be passed over in team tours onto the scene. I hope all the people who got their first real team tour exposure here continue to grow and develop.
