These are my first glance thoughts on the PPL 2023 teams. Very little thought has been put into these, they don't matter and they've been wildly off plenty of times in the past so remember to not take them seriously and just enjoy the read. They're for entertainment only!
8. Saffron Seers
48, Jumpy23 and Chiles Habaneros are undoubtedly very solid players, but they simply spent way too much to get there. Spending over 25% of a team's overall budget on Chiles Habaneros, or frankly anyone in this entire tournament, cannot possibly be right and I think this team illustrates why. After the aforementioned three, I have no idea who their fourth best player is but they're definitely not as good as the fourth best player on the other teams and the same can be said about their fifth or sixth best player too. It feels like a team of three very good players and then a bunch of filler, five of which have to be starters each week. I also question the capability of their subs should someone need to tag in in a pinch. I love being wrong about these things- after all, who doesn't like a good underdog story- and I think Shoot and Toxinalpaca are two managers who are going to care and put in effort, which can go a long way in side tours, but ultimately I feel this team lacks both the talent and the depth to be a serious contender. In my eyes this is clearly the weakest team this year.
7. Blackthorn Dragoons
Returning managers Amy and Joya seem to really prefer drafting squads like this, where it's balanced, generally solid enough in any given slot and doesn't have any blatant holes but lacks a true star or two at the top and certainly wouldn't have as strong a playoff tiebreaker trio as many other teams. I don't hate the philosophy that not having really bad players is more important than having really good players, but I wish they'd pushed a little harder for at least one person among the top 10 or so players available in the auction, which in my opinion this team does not possess. If the whole squad stays afloat and goes somewhere in the vicinity of .500 or a smidge better, that very well could be good enough to make playoffs and from there anything can happen. Not a bad team at the end of the day, but it's a team built for not losing rather than winning.
6, Mossdeep Supernovas
I'm not clear what exactly the draft plan was for our defending champs but it felt a lot like they were just buying their friends and people that they like rather than having a fleshed out, optimized plan. Buying Sprinkles and then Pokology when both are locked in to only play ADV is questionable, not only because it limits their flexibility as they're very much obligated to pick ADV as their extra tier (which they didn't by the way, meaning one of those two sits on any given week the opposing team didn't pick ADV as their extra tier, which makes these picks even more puzzling) but also because I don't think ADV is the right tier in this tour, with it being almost certainly the strongest and deepest pool, to try to double up on and bully your way to wins. Having retained Ebola- clearly one of the strongest RBYs in the pool- it makes a lot more sense to me for them to have gone hard for Mako or Kenix or other top RBYs and have a week to week advantage there instead. I'm also not sure after their 1/2/3 of Ebola/Sprinkles/Pokology they have as much talent as some of the top end teams. They certainly have depth, but quality over quantity generally holds true in these. Novas are the defending champs for a reason so I'll give them a little leeway to show me it wasn't a fluke, but I'd be very surprised if this team were to go back to back.
5. Driftveil Gold Diggers
Elian and Fakee were definitely too passive for too long in the auction and their mid round explosion of Jabba, BluBird and Vani all in a row was much needed to give this squad a fighting chance. Nevertheless, they still let too many high end players pass them by prior to this point and as such the top end talent here, while perfectly solid, isn't truly as good as that of the top teams. The Seasons retain is questionable for me. Good player, sure, but very well may have gone for less in the auction, especially given their incident last season and teams possibly being a bit gun shy to go down that rabbit hole. The starters, playing to their ceilings, can potentially muscle this team through to playoffs, and they're more or less going to need to given what I perceive to be a thin and shallow bench. Paulluxx was still available ridiculously late in the auction and gives them a much needed competent and flexible sub that could breath some life into a struggling slot, but ultimately this team is going to have no choice but to rely very heavily on their top end starters (one of which is Jabba, so they're doomed).
4. Fortree Snipers
I dislike the AHD retain as I feel he almost certainly would have gone for less in the auction, as every other BW player did, but they got such a ridiculous bargain on the Fruhdazi retain they can probably get away with it. Shing and Nael are solid starters in DPP and GSC respectively, but in the case of the former upon actually seeing starting lineups put to paper as I now have, I'm not actually convinced Nael is in the top end of the pool when he's going to have to face SPLers like Jester and Vani or someone like 007 who had a dominant PPL not that long ago. We'll see if Rainer ends up being as good as I suspect he might be. Admittedly I've never seen him play RBY, but I've watched him a good amount in fairy gens and I have a lot of respect for his game, and Mister Tim is a perfectly fine backup should things take a turn for the worse. For me this team feels like a slightly upgraded Dragoons in that it feels built to not have really bad slots rather than to have really good slots. I would have liked to see them push harder for one of the top players in the auction. Nevertheless, it's a solid starting lineup, a reasonably good bench and a sweaty tryhard manager who takes this tour too seriously, which is sometimes all you need to achieve the dream.
3. Goldenrod Rollers
I don't actually think these guys drafted fantastically, but their retains were so damn strong they were always going to be good unless they completely butchered the auction, which they did not. I definitely would have retained Unowndragon over 16bit though, and indeed as opposed to the 10K it would have cost them to keep him he ended up going for 20 elsewhere. Bleach is the obvious highlight purchase, having been a huge part of back to back SPL wins with the Raiders and undoubtedly being one of the strongest options in the ORAS pool, which multiple teams picked as their additional tier. Beyond that, and noting that Alucs for 3K is a ridiculous underpay, they simply drafted people who are fine and can stay afloat rather than anyone who truly stands out. I've never heard of their RBYer, Nicole, prior to this tournament but they ponied up a pretty penny to get her. Assuming she can perform to the level of her price tag, this squad should be plenty good enough- and relevantly very much flexible enough too- to make playoffs and go from there.
2. Cinnabar Pyros
As you'll note from watching the auction video, I found myself multiple times during the auction feeling like they bought someone quite good for less than they were supposed to cost. Odin and Le Don were both very worthwhile retains, giving this team a leg up from the start, and they took full advantage of their position. Haru, my former SPL teammate, has among the most team tour experience of all the managers and I feel that really showed in this auction. Blues was too cheap, Mako was 100% worth the price, 007 and Ace11 were both choices that made perfect sense to me in their respective moments. They seemed to repeatedly make the right decisions and understood where they were and what they needed. Their starting lineup looks quite formidable on paper and it's going to be a threat to any given team on any given week, especially with the lethal Odin/Blues ADV duo, both of whom are in the main event of CALLOUS Invitational this year. My sole gripe with this team is the shallowness of its bench, which is a natural consequence for pushing hard and making sure you land top end starters across multiple slots, as they did. Should Odin disappear as he sometimes does or if someone unexpectedly struggles, we may be underwhelmed by their replacement.
1. Snowpoint Yetis
Yetis had excellent retains in Kristyl and TC, the former being way, way less than she should have been, and after probably overspending a bit on Shortage with their initial nomination they followed up with Kenix for probably half of what he should have cost and all of a sudden they had four very high end players very early on in the auction and enough money left over to fill it in with the right supporting cast. 2HP is coming off a monster WCoPP where he largely carried Greece to an unexpected championship, Lucas was a huge underpay given his talent and Kollin7 is the strongest ADV "sub" in the tournament. I also wager Segale, who regularly sits above 1600 and near the top of BW ladder, will end up being one of the best 3K purchases as well. TLTK would start somewhere on any other team in this tournament but he's riding the bench here because the talent is so strong and so deep. I don't exactly feel like a genius picking this team as the favorites to win, as they simply have the most talent and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to pick the most talented team to win, but additionally a lot of these guys and gals are friends and want to play with each other, and Christos is an experienced manager who has won this tournament before and is motivated to do so again. I think he's set himself up to have the best chance to do so.
Top- Yetis, Pyros, Rollers
Mid- Snipers, Gold Diggers, Supernovas, Dragoons
Bottom- Seers
8. Saffron Seers
48, Jumpy23 and Chiles Habaneros are undoubtedly very solid players, but they simply spent way too much to get there. Spending over 25% of a team's overall budget on Chiles Habaneros, or frankly anyone in this entire tournament, cannot possibly be right and I think this team illustrates why. After the aforementioned three, I have no idea who their fourth best player is but they're definitely not as good as the fourth best player on the other teams and the same can be said about their fifth or sixth best player too. It feels like a team of three very good players and then a bunch of filler, five of which have to be starters each week. I also question the capability of their subs should someone need to tag in in a pinch. I love being wrong about these things- after all, who doesn't like a good underdog story- and I think Shoot and Toxinalpaca are two managers who are going to care and put in effort, which can go a long way in side tours, but ultimately I feel this team lacks both the talent and the depth to be a serious contender. In my eyes this is clearly the weakest team this year.
7. Blackthorn Dragoons
Returning managers Amy and Joya seem to really prefer drafting squads like this, where it's balanced, generally solid enough in any given slot and doesn't have any blatant holes but lacks a true star or two at the top and certainly wouldn't have as strong a playoff tiebreaker trio as many other teams. I don't hate the philosophy that not having really bad players is more important than having really good players, but I wish they'd pushed a little harder for at least one person among the top 10 or so players available in the auction, which in my opinion this team does not possess. If the whole squad stays afloat and goes somewhere in the vicinity of .500 or a smidge better, that very well could be good enough to make playoffs and from there anything can happen. Not a bad team at the end of the day, but it's a team built for not losing rather than winning.
6, Mossdeep Supernovas
I'm not clear what exactly the draft plan was for our defending champs but it felt a lot like they were just buying their friends and people that they like rather than having a fleshed out, optimized plan. Buying Sprinkles and then Pokology when both are locked in to only play ADV is questionable, not only because it limits their flexibility as they're very much obligated to pick ADV as their extra tier (which they didn't by the way, meaning one of those two sits on any given week the opposing team didn't pick ADV as their extra tier, which makes these picks even more puzzling) but also because I don't think ADV is the right tier in this tour, with it being almost certainly the strongest and deepest pool, to try to double up on and bully your way to wins. Having retained Ebola- clearly one of the strongest RBYs in the pool- it makes a lot more sense to me for them to have gone hard for Mako or Kenix or other top RBYs and have a week to week advantage there instead. I'm also not sure after their 1/2/3 of Ebola/Sprinkles/Pokology they have as much talent as some of the top end teams. They certainly have depth, but quality over quantity generally holds true in these. Novas are the defending champs for a reason so I'll give them a little leeway to show me it wasn't a fluke, but I'd be very surprised if this team were to go back to back.
5. Driftveil Gold Diggers
Elian and Fakee were definitely too passive for too long in the auction and their mid round explosion of Jabba, BluBird and Vani all in a row was much needed to give this squad a fighting chance. Nevertheless, they still let too many high end players pass them by prior to this point and as such the top end talent here, while perfectly solid, isn't truly as good as that of the top teams. The Seasons retain is questionable for me. Good player, sure, but very well may have gone for less in the auction, especially given their incident last season and teams possibly being a bit gun shy to go down that rabbit hole. The starters, playing to their ceilings, can potentially muscle this team through to playoffs, and they're more or less going to need to given what I perceive to be a thin and shallow bench. Paulluxx was still available ridiculously late in the auction and gives them a much needed competent and flexible sub that could breath some life into a struggling slot, but ultimately this team is going to have no choice but to rely very heavily on their top end starters (one of which is Jabba, so they're doomed).
4. Fortree Snipers
I dislike the AHD retain as I feel he almost certainly would have gone for less in the auction, as every other BW player did, but they got such a ridiculous bargain on the Fruhdazi retain they can probably get away with it. Shing and Nael are solid starters in DPP and GSC respectively, but in the case of the former upon actually seeing starting lineups put to paper as I now have, I'm not actually convinced Nael is in the top end of the pool when he's going to have to face SPLers like Jester and Vani or someone like 007 who had a dominant PPL not that long ago. We'll see if Rainer ends up being as good as I suspect he might be. Admittedly I've never seen him play RBY, but I've watched him a good amount in fairy gens and I have a lot of respect for his game, and Mister Tim is a perfectly fine backup should things take a turn for the worse. For me this team feels like a slightly upgraded Dragoons in that it feels built to not have really bad slots rather than to have really good slots. I would have liked to see them push harder for one of the top players in the auction. Nevertheless, it's a solid starting lineup, a reasonably good bench and a sweaty tryhard manager who takes this tour too seriously, which is sometimes all you need to achieve the dream.
3. Goldenrod Rollers
I don't actually think these guys drafted fantastically, but their retains were so damn strong they were always going to be good unless they completely butchered the auction, which they did not. I definitely would have retained Unowndragon over 16bit though, and indeed as opposed to the 10K it would have cost them to keep him he ended up going for 20 elsewhere. Bleach is the obvious highlight purchase, having been a huge part of back to back SPL wins with the Raiders and undoubtedly being one of the strongest options in the ORAS pool, which multiple teams picked as their additional tier. Beyond that, and noting that Alucs for 3K is a ridiculous underpay, they simply drafted people who are fine and can stay afloat rather than anyone who truly stands out. I've never heard of their RBYer, Nicole, prior to this tournament but they ponied up a pretty penny to get her. Assuming she can perform to the level of her price tag, this squad should be plenty good enough- and relevantly very much flexible enough too- to make playoffs and go from there.
2. Cinnabar Pyros
As you'll note from watching the auction video, I found myself multiple times during the auction feeling like they bought someone quite good for less than they were supposed to cost. Odin and Le Don were both very worthwhile retains, giving this team a leg up from the start, and they took full advantage of their position. Haru, my former SPL teammate, has among the most team tour experience of all the managers and I feel that really showed in this auction. Blues was too cheap, Mako was 100% worth the price, 007 and Ace11 were both choices that made perfect sense to me in their respective moments. They seemed to repeatedly make the right decisions and understood where they were and what they needed. Their starting lineup looks quite formidable on paper and it's going to be a threat to any given team on any given week, especially with the lethal Odin/Blues ADV duo, both of whom are in the main event of CALLOUS Invitational this year. My sole gripe with this team is the shallowness of its bench, which is a natural consequence for pushing hard and making sure you land top end starters across multiple slots, as they did. Should Odin disappear as he sometimes does or if someone unexpectedly struggles, we may be underwhelmed by their replacement.
1. Snowpoint Yetis
Yetis had excellent retains in Kristyl and TC, the former being way, way less than she should have been, and after probably overspending a bit on Shortage with their initial nomination they followed up with Kenix for probably half of what he should have cost and all of a sudden they had four very high end players very early on in the auction and enough money left over to fill it in with the right supporting cast. 2HP is coming off a monster WCoPP where he largely carried Greece to an unexpected championship, Lucas was a huge underpay given his talent and Kollin7 is the strongest ADV "sub" in the tournament. I also wager Segale, who regularly sits above 1600 and near the top of BW ladder, will end up being one of the best 3K purchases as well. TLTK would start somewhere on any other team in this tournament but he's riding the bench here because the talent is so strong and so deep. I don't exactly feel like a genius picking this team as the favorites to win, as they simply have the most talent and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to pick the most talented team to win, but additionally a lot of these guys and gals are friends and want to play with each other, and Christos is an experienced manager who has won this tournament before and is motivated to do so again. I think he's set himself up to have the best chance to do so.
Top- Yetis, Pyros, Rollers
Mid- Snipers, Gold Diggers, Supernovas, Dragoons
Bottom- Seers