UUSD III RBY UU Unofficial Power Rankings
Howdy! I unfortunately couldn't muster the commitment to play in UUSD this year, so I will instead show my support by providing an Unofficial Power Ranking for the tier, this being my first one since UUFPL I. Before I begin, I want to say this is probably the most stacked tournament for RBY UU so far. I say this about seemingly every tour, but that's only because it continues to be true as the level of competition rises and the size of the player base enlarges. However, this makes making a good PR pretty difficult, as most of these players seem to be pretty much on the same level overall. I really can't say that I suspect any player will dominate and I think the best record will probably be like a 5-2 or something. I could see most players beating most of the others due to the homogenous skill level and the way certain players' playstyles happen to matchup. It's so close, I could see this PR end up being way off, despite my best efforts. Anyhow:
#1 L.A.P.R.A.S
Starter: Unowndragon (R4)
Support: pokemonisfun
Unowndragon has been a very dominant player in RBY UU recently, garnering a terrifying 8-1 record in the now concluded UUFPL II. He has demonstrated proficiency with a wide variety of teams and playstyles, so I see him as probably the most difficult to exploit player out of the whole bunch. He has also been playing the tier for a quite a while now, so he's gathered his fair share of experience, accomplishments, and good wins. I think we'll see a diverse array of powerful an innovative teams from him throughout the entire tournament. He also has some pretty solid support in pokemonisfun. While not exactly a RBY UU main, they've gotten a few good wins so far with an overall no-nonsense approach to teambuilding. I hope they'll be a good practice partner for Unowndragon. Additionally, rumor has it that May will be supporting Unowndragon in this tournament, and considering she helped him get that 8-1 record... the rest of the pool should prepare themselves.
#2 Paniola Primarinas
Starter: juoean (R6)
Support: Lily
This might be a bit of a hot take, as juoean doesn't have the longest history in RBY UU and she was drafted relatively late when compared to the other players of the tier. She takes a pretty unique approach to teambuilding, being able to catch players new and old off guard and dominate. I don't totally find myself agreeing with her approach to the tier, but it very clearly wins, so I can't really judge it poorly. She claimed victory in the RBY UU Invitational, despite not even being invited (she also won the Last Chance Qualifier). She is very clearly a competent player that can win under pressure against basically anyone. And as I said, she has very particular tastes in teambuilding, so I look forward to seeing a few niche picks show up and possibly rise on the VR thereafter. I think she'll win a bunch of games. She also benefits a little from having a teammate in occasional RBY UU player and comrade of LGPE OU Lily, who I hope will help juoean practice for her matches and build some strong teams.
#3 The Hydrophobic Volcanions
Starter: Torchic (R3)
Support: N/A
Much like Unowndragon, Torchic has a pretty long history with the RBY UU tier and has his fair share of accomplishments, perhaps boasting even more than him. He's probably the best player in the pool in an "overall" sense, but Unowndragon and juoean have more dominant results in recent memory, so I put them ahead. Regardless, he took the Bronze in the 2021 RoA Olympics in RBY UU and had an excellent RoAPL for RBY OU, so I think he is still an active and fearsome competitor. I think "the Godslayer," as some have affectionally dubbed him, will claim his fair share of victories given his intense tier experience and standard but reliable approach teambuilding. The only downside is that I really don't see anyone on his team who even casually plays RBY UU, so I hope he can find good practice games somewhere, though he probably needs them the least.
#4 Sinistea Ministry
Starter: stunner047 (R8)
Support: Ika Ika Musume
Perhaps another unconventional pick, I have stunner047 at a strong fourth. They don't have the most experience with RBY UU to my knowledge, but they had a great start with UUFPL, boasting a strong 5-2 record. They have a ton of tour experience in RBY in general as well, so I have no worries for them in this tournament. They're the kind of player that I really don't see losing to a weaker player. They seem to fall in line with Torchic in that they play pretty reliable standard teams in a very sound manner, so I think they'll probably end up with a positive record overall and possibly grab an upset here or there. Ika Ika Musume is also a pretty talented RBY player. They tend to lean more towards OU and NU, but I don't see them struggling too much with swapping over to UU if needed. If stunner047 needs to be benched for whatever reason, I think the Sinistea Ministry will remain in good hands (or tentacles idk). Anyhow, I think stunner047 will play just fine and they have a good resource for teams and games by their side.
#5 Dragon's Den Dragonairs
Starter: Shellnuts (R5)
Support: Sage
I feel bad ranking long-time sparring partner and RBY UU enthusiast Shellnuts this low. He's a very solid player and I believe he probably "knows" the most about the tier in a general sense. He has played for quite a while at this point and has dedicated a lot of time and energy to analyzing the tier. The pool is just that strong, however. Shellnuts is coming off a decent 2-2 record in UUFPL II and had a pretty decent performance in the Invitational, but he lacks that big recent result of his peers above. Regardless, I could see him channeling his 4-1 from UUFPL I and going positive once again. Again, this pool is incredibly strong and close, so that's why I could easily see the fifth player on this list grabbing such a good record. In particular, he and stunner047 were really close to split, but I gave it to the latter for recency reasons and support options. He's a classic yet fairly experimental player and I always enjoy watching his games. Additionally, while I suspect Sage will have other things to tend to, I know she knows the tier and could potentially offer some warmups for Shellnuts.
#6 Wild Wild Wurmples
Starter: AM (R10)
Support: BigFatMantis, cam, robjr
I kind of love this team for RBY UU. After AM, it happens to have just a hodgepodge of people that just kind of casually dabble in RBY UU, meaning AM has some of the most interesting support options available (assuming they are willing to indulge the tier). Anyhow, AM is a unique player in RBY UU. I believe UUFPL I and II are his only major forays into the tier, where he went 3-1 and 1-2, respectively. He doesn't have the largest archive of victories and I find some of his teams and game plans to be a bit too straightforward, perhaps similar to someone like juoean or pokemonisfun, though with fewer major accomplishments. I'm pretty confident he or one of his teammates will grab a good upset or two though. If he gets his position early on in the game, he is usually able to dominate from there, given his preference for offense. I'm looking forward to seeing this group of players and AM's unique take on the meta.
#7 TDK Today at 22:01 lily my team has decided we will not have a team name
Starter: phoopes (R9)
Support: Aliss
It's been a rough season for phoopes. He certainly knows RBY UU and has gotten some good victories in the past (see UUFPL I or RBYPL II), but he had a very tough time in both the Invitational and UUFPL II. He has a pretty bad bunch of records he needs to claw back from. He definitely has the capacity as a player to win, but he needs to catch up with the meta and hunker down. I know he's a solid player and I'm not counting him out, but again, this is a tough pool with a lot of really strong recent history, so I'm pretty much forced to rank him down here. My apologies to the phandom; I'll root for the upsets. I'm not too sure if Aliss is overly familiar with RBY UU, but she's a strong OU player to my knowledge, so perhaps she could help out a little here and there.
#8 Lake of Outrage Sandacondas
Starter: emma (R10)
Support: holly, Celebiii
So this is an interesting one. While emma may be undefeated in SPL, she was certainly a surprise pick from my perspective. The Player Signups Pool was very deep and I think a lot of really solid players were unfortunately glossed over. Meanwhile, emma doesn't really have a history in RBY UU that I can talk about here. Like she is obviously a good player in a general sense, but against a pool of elite players that have played this tier for years at a tournament level... I'm not sure how I could rank her anywhere else. She needs to read up on the meta as soon as possible and try to beat her opponents with pure strategy, because I think she's going to be bested by most of them in terms of metagame knowledge. This isn't insurmountable, but I don't think it'll be easy. Thankfully, she has holly and Celebiii who are at least decently familiar with RBY UU to set her in the right direction and offer her some practice.
Still Swimming
As I said, I think the RBY UU Player Pool was very good. Unfortunately, not every player was drafted, so I wanted to take a brief moment to talk about some players that I think were missed. There were a lot of these players, but I decided to cut it down to two for brevity.
May is a pretty significant representative of the RBY UU Community with a reasonably long tournament history at this point. Admittedly, she doesn't have the greatest set of records to her name, so I understand the hesitancy to draft her in some ways. However, I believe she is a capable starter and a very solid support player. She is easily one the best scouts in competitive Pokemon and a pretty solid teambuilder and practice partner. Big missed opportunity to not grab her as an extra player. After all, she guided Unowndragon to such incredible heights in UUFPL II.
iKiQ is a very seasoned player from the early days of RBY UU. With relatively few recent records, I can see how he flew under the radar; however, I still think he would have been a very strong competitor going into this tournament. I think he would have held his own and secured a nearly even or winning record, despite having not played in a bit. It's a shame that we won't get to see a member of the Old Guard give it another go in tournament.
Well that was long. I wish everyone the best of luck going into this tournament. The competition is incredibly strong, so I truly believe this could be anyone's tournament. I could probably make this PR again tomorrow and have a totally different list; it is just that close. I look forward to seeing some great games and superfluous chess comparisons, it should be a lot of fun. Expect a Midseason PR; I plan on making another after like Week 4 or 5, depending on my schedule. Cheers!