By popular demand here are the unofficial, my personal opinion only, biased, meaningless CALLOUS Power Rankings. I consulted no one and I don't know some of the players and may be wildly off. In other words, take these for what they are- absolutely meaningless and only worth reading for entertainment purposes.
The teams, weakest to strongest in my eyes, are as follows-
8.
Blackthorn Dragoons
First of all, none of the teams are
bad, and it wouldn't surprise me if this team finished somewhere other than last, but alas, you can't have "power rankings" if you just call it a four or five way tie with all the middle of the pack ish teams. With this team I look at Fakes and I look at Kael, two quality players to be sure, and then I'm genuinely unsure who their third best player is, but whoever it is it's a significant dropoff from the aforementioned power players. Also, if Kael is your second best player, is that truly good enough for a championship push? Fakes at 31K is acceptable in this auction *if* he's going to show up and play all of his matches- far from a certainty- and *if* you're playing him in his best tier, which certainly isn't GSC. For this team to have a shot Fakes will need to play every week and do a whole lot of winning in what is, ultimately, probably his fourth or fifth best tier. If Fakes disappears this team is absolutely doomed. Likewise, A Hero's Destiny, an underrated player who I'm quite fond of, is in my eyes superior in both ADV and BW than he is in DPP, so that's another instance of weird tier slotting and not maximizing the player in my opinion. Devin, SEA, Jaajgko and Mattakata are all serviceable, middling, role-player type of guys that are never going to carry their team but also shouldn't be a liability. Nevertheless, I view most of these guys as 3-4/4-3 type players, which only works out if the team catches the right breaks at the right time. If this is the worst team it isn't miles and miles below all but the top two in my opinion, but I think there simply isn't enough upside here, pending huge overperformances from multiple guys, to cross the finish line.
7.
Fortree Snipers
The top three here- Raiza, Gacu and SadisticNarwhal- is definitely very solid, but it's also far from a guaranteed 3-0 or 2-1 on a week in, week out basis. Unfortunately, unless those three are putting up a consistent 2-1 or better, or perhaps sometimes even when they do, I can see it being challenging to find the three or four additional wins required to actually win the week. Shakur is an underrated and solid ADV player who can potentially put up a 4-3~ kind of record, but against opponents like Shortage, Endill, Jabba, Dice and other stronger, more experienced ADV players he will certainly have to catch some breaks in order to do so. Toytean is capable of getting wins but his results are inconsistent and he could just as easily finish 2-5 as he could 5-2. The DPP core here seems on par with or worse than most of the other teams. I have a hard time envisioning the team being carried from this tier. Beraldinhoo is capable of a 5-2~ record, but it's far from guaranteed, and he also sometimes has activity issues. The GSC here, all things considered, is actually reasonable. Egor is an underrated player who can hold his own. However, as with the DPP, while this core can probably keep afloat and not be a blatant liability, I can't envision it being dominant or carrying the team either. For this team to win the top three need to be winning consistently and the other guys need to catch the right breaks at the right time. Stranger things have happened, but I think it'll be a dogfight to scrape together the fifth and sixth win on any given week.
6.
Goldenrod Rollers
The top three here- Eden, Watermess, Thunder Cebra- are all definitely good, but are any of them *fantastic*? Are those three going to 2-1 or better every week, and are those three really truly going to be at an advantage in a playoff tiebreaker situation? Eden in BW feels a bit wasted to me, especially given his price tag. Was he worth what you paid for him if he puts up a 3-4/4-3 type record? Watermess has gotten better and better as time passes, and I'd be shocked if he didn't finish positive, but the ADV pool is solid and he's not a massive favorite, if a favorite at all, on any given week against the other top end pieces of the ADV pool. TC is another player who continues to improve and improve, but RBY is RBY. He, like Watermess, will almost certainly finish positive, but it's also hard to envision a 6-1 or 7-0 type of performance from him that the team very well may need in order to make playoffs. After the big three, there's a lot of question marks. Are CalamityGreed and Zacpz going to finish positive most of the time? How good is Caloom? Are Lighthouses and 64 Squares, while solid enough in their own right, going to carry the team via DPP week to week? Similar to Snipers I think this team will struggle week in and week out to find the fifth and sixth win, especially if their top end isn't going 2-1 or better every time. The role-players on this team will have to really step up and overperform if the Rollers want to repeat their finals run from last year.
5.
Cinnabar Pyros
An imbalanced team with a high ceiling and a low floor, the Pyros are one of the more interesting teams to analyze. The Sabella + Choolio BW core should almost certainly finish positive, even if they don't necessarily dominate, and the same can be said about the very solid Kristyl + ElectricityCat pairing. The ADV, however, while not abhorrent by any means, looks weaker than that of the other teams and will very likely finish negative. Nchmax is talented and up and coming, but he'll likely finish with a middling record, and Pokology is not on the same level as the Watermess, Jabba, Endill, Gacu, Dice, etc type of guys at the top of the pool. He may find himself limping to a 2-5 or 3-4 kind of record. Lord Thorx has definitely gotten better and can get wins in an unexciting GSC pool and Unowndragon in RBY is likely to finish middling or positive as well, giving these guys a clear path to victory on any given week, but there's still some question marks. I haven't even heard of their second GSC or RBY players, respectively. If, hypothetically, they can each finish with 3-4/4-3 kind of record, this team should be in a good place and can easily make a playoff run. If, however, there's a good reason I've never heard of them and they end up being liabilities, especially when I think the ADV as a whole is going to drag the team down, then this team might have too many negatives that drown out the positives to make a true championship run. Unlike the three teams below the Pyros, with this team I can see multiple ways to get to five or six wins on any given week, and as such I expect them to be in the mix throughout the season.
4.
Snowpoint Yetis
The Yetis did not have a great draft by any means. This team is where it is because their retains really are that damn good. And they need to be, because while Christos and ErPeris did add more than nothing, with Siglut, Johnnyg2 and Oiseau Bleu all being solid additions that should finish positive, they simply did not add enough. Six of the slots are rock solid and four of them are huge question marks. This kind of team has the potential to be carried hard by its top end or to completely flounder and sink should a portion of the aforementioned six players not perform as expected. Links in BW isn't the worst thing in the world, nor is Egalvanc in GSC, but it's hard to imagine either one putting up better than a middling record (with potential for a less than middling record too) and BlessyZ and Max both feel like near-guaranteed negative finishes. Granted, there's 3-4 negative and there's 1-6 negative. The former might be salvageable but the latter is not. This team doesn't have much in the way of options regarding subbing those players out either, so if the bottom end is getting tossed week in and week out there's little to nothing they can do. At least some of their top end guys (Shortage, Johnny, Luck>Skill) are fairly flexible and can potentially move to another tier to accommodate a struggling weaker player should the need arise. It's hard to go too far wrong when you have three retains that are always going to perform but it's hard not to feel like this team had a significantly better shot to win it all last year than they do this time around.
3.
Mossdeep Supernovas
Mister Tim and Drogba in Shenhua drafted themselves a sneaky good squad here, with two huge Russian picks courtesy of Mister Tim in Azazel and Nazip that are both relatively unknown, and therefore inexpensive, but genuinely solid. The Caetano + Azazel BW pair is definitely one of the best BW duos in the tour. Emeral is an SPL level DPP and Nazip will hold his own, again making this one of the better DPP duos in the tournament. The ADV is one of the weaker points of the team. Chino Itsuki is underrated and can definitely get wins, but he won't carry, and their second ADVer is unknown to me, which is almost certainly a bad thing given my familiarity with the ADV playerbase and the overall strength of the pool. I'd assume, possibly ignorantly, this player will finish negative. Oibaf and Rahel is a perfectly respectable GSC duo given the pool. I'd think they'll finish middling or positive. Oibaf in particular has never been someone I've viewed as a world-beating player but he's looking better and better in recent times. Frrf is one of the better RBYs in the tour and should also finish positive. Newalfonquest is not someone I'd be overly comfortable starting in RBY, and I suspect he's in for a rough tour, but overall, save the two slots I've got some serious doubts about (the second ADV and second RBY, respectively), this team is quite solid. Should the two slots I'm iffy about put up middling records, this group is even better than I think it is. I think it's easy to underrate this squad because the average team tour player is likely unfamiliar with half of these guys, but I expect this team to make playoffs and who knows from there...
2.
Saffron Seers
HSOWA had a rock solid draft and has assembled a legitimate championship contender. I'm very much of the mind that bad players hurt teams more than good players help them and this team in my eyes has ten solid, proper mons players who won't drag the team down and zero liability slots. Rokhan + CKW isn't amazing, but it isn't terrible either, and they can both get a handful of wins and keep the team afloat. Luisotte remains perpetually unknown and underrated and will, almost certainly, finish positive, and Jhonx is talented and consistent and should be able to generally keep pace. Dice + Stockings is definitely one the top three ADV duos. They should hold their own without issue, even if they don't dominate. Vanisherrr + Slurmz is likely above the median for GSC duos in this tour and should, once again, finish neutral or better. The RBY here is excellent- Mikmer + Louna is clearly the best RBY duo in the tournament. Louna has a history of dipping out on his team in team tours, which would definitely weaken this team significantly should he do that here, but if he stays engaged and plays his sets every week, this RBY duo is virtually guaranteed to go positive and will carry this team to playoffs. Overall, with four standout players in Luisotte, Dice, Mikmer and Louna, zero blatant liabilities and the ability to win from any tier on any given week, this is undoubtedly one of the strongest teams and one of the favorites. Dice or Louna quitting on the team or the BW underperforming are the two biggest ways I see this team potentially imploding, but I fully expect the Seers in playoffs.
1.
Driftveil Gold Diggers
Vulpix03 is, in my opinion, the strongest drafter in this tournament and this finished product is exactly the kind of team I'd expect from him. This is just solid all the way around and there are zero liabilities to be found here whatsoever. Juan Juan is a reasonable BW player and Beatiful can tag in off the bench if need be and PkmTrainerBlue, while largely unknown to the community at large, is a sneaky good up and coming BWer who has already defeated SoulWind in tournament play. Max Und Max is another unknown, underappreciated pick. He's the twin brother of Felix and he has all the support he will ever need between his managers, Jabba and Sprinkles all feeding him teams and providing tests. Sprinkles, regardless of your opinion of his personality, is very consistent in side tours, virtually always finishing positive and often putting up X-1 or X-2 type records. He takes side tours very seriously, preps, cares and is a genuinely great team presence. Jabba + Endill is an ADV core of two SPL starters which is, for purposes of this tour, extremely good. It's hard to imagine the DPP or the ADV on this team not finishing positive. TopLel + K3nix is one of the strongest GSC pairings in the tour and should, once again, finish at least neutral if not positive. RampageWebber + Emma is, yet again, just solid, even if they're not the highlight of the team or likely to hard carry. In every single tier, other than *maybe* BW, this team is at or above (in some cases well above) the median for that tier in the tournament. With the amount of talent here and given how well-rounded the team is, especially when considering the amount of liability spots almost all of the other teams have, it's very hard for me to envision the Gold Diggers, last year's last place finishers, not making playoffs or contending for the championship.
Overall-
Top- Gold Diggers, Seers
Middle- Supernovas, Yetis, Pyros
Bottom- Rollers, Snipers, Dragoons
Thanks for reading!
