YAHALLO!!! The BIGs narrowly managed to avoid elimination this week, but the Scooters were not so lucky. Welcome to the second
eulogy of the season.
The Indie Scooters are a historic SPL franchise. They won the first ever iteration of this tournament, after all. Since then, though, the team has struggled to find any consistent success. The past decade of the franchise's history is littered with countless examples of failure. The bro fist / CBB / BKC / Jirachee era Scooters failed to really accomplish anything remotely impressive, up until SPL VIII that is. The SPL VIII team made the finals, and was one untimely Ice Beam away from taking home the trophy against Smogon's most infamous cheater, Mazar. The success wouldn't last, however, as obii made a mockery of the team in SPL 9. He had no choice but to stop down after such a disgraceful performance. This, of course, leads us to where we are now: the FlamingVictini era. The team overperformed in SPL X, reaching the semifinals and almost toppling the eventual champion Ruiners, despite a host of naysayers criticizing their draft at every opportunity. This year, however, they would not be so lucky. Instead of a spot in the playoffs, the Scooters find themselves as the subjects of the second eulogy of SPL XI.
The Scooters' sole retain this season was Lopunny Kicks. A noted spreadsheet warrior, grabbing the #8 ranked SS OUer in the Power Rankings for only 10k seemed like a no-brainer move. I'd assume that they would have retained FMG as well had he not signed up to manage. With their one valuable retain in hand, the team looked to be in prime position to make some waves in SPL XI.
The team's first big purchase in the draft was Fear, who went for an astronomical 26k. You all know my stance on Fear. I think he's a good player, and was pretty easily the 2nd best GSCer in this pool in my eyes. However, he undeniably gets more than his fair share of luck, and I don't think he's skilled enough to be worth 26k, especially when he's not helping his teammates as much as say, BKC. It was a justifiable move in the eyes of pretty much everyone else in the community, though, so I can't really hate on it too much, I suppose. The next move was even more crazy to me; the team purchased zf for 20.5k. I know he's hyped and all, but this seemed like a pretty big overpay to me. He was only ranked 4th in the BW OU Power Rankings; although, I suppose the people ranked above him cost a bit more than him as well. He's had some nice ADV performances in the past as well, so maybe his flexibility had something to do with his inflated price tag. Nonetheless, I wasn't too confident in his ability to live up to it. The team also took a risk on Jayde, drafting him for 16k in SS OU despite his lengthy hiatus from the scene. Management must have really bought into the whole strong era / weak era memes. I thought Jayde would do pretty well, but 16k seemed like a bit much considering that he didn't sign up for BW OU. Perhaps his talent in that tier factored into his price tag.
The team's other two relatively big buys were ZoroClick and Bedschibaer. I've always thought Zoro was a bit above average, so getting him for 10k was solid in my eyes. Beds was also 10k, and that seemed like a bit much to me. He's had some nice RBY performances in the past, but, as we all know, spending 10k on RBY is not a good idea. Beds was also only ranked 6th in the Power Rankings. He's also shown the ability to play GSC in the past. He's worse in that tier than in RBY, though, and 10k for his GSC talents also seems like a massive overpay. The rest of the team was rather uninspiring, as the team filled the remaining slots with a bunch of filler characters. The exception to this would be Odin, who the team snagged for only 3k. I thought he could easily go positive against this putrid ADV field, and figured he had a pretty good shot of being one of the steals of the draft.
Overall, the team's big investments were relatively risky, and I thought they could have allocated some of these funds better in order to create better roster. That being said, due to the overall lack of talent in this SPL, the Scooters found themselves grouped in with the teams below my "big 3" (Tyrants / Cryos / Wolfpack), and ended up at #5 in my rankings; they were also ranked #6 in the official Power Rankings. My general thoughts on the team were the following: "This team will be relying heavily on its OU core to pull through. It’s not a terrible team, and they could be in position to challenge for a playoff spot if their SS OU players have really good seasons."
Well, unfortunately, the condition for their success was not fulfilled. The SS OU core did not reach their lofty ceiling. Lopunny Kicks struggled on his way to a 3-4 record. The weak era proved to be a bit too much for Jayde as well, as he started 0-3 before getting his first win; he currently sports a poor 2-4 record. The team also decided to start talah in SS OU...which, to absolutely no one's surprise, was a disastrous decision. Shocker. ZoroDark also didn't do well, only playing 5 games and putting up a 2-3 record up to this point. zf also underperformed, only managing to go 3-4 and vindicating the notion that his 20.5k price tag was excessive. Bedschibaer currently has a decent 4-3 record; I suppose that's solid for 10k, but I still would have preferred if they spent that money elsewhere.
The team did have some bright spots, though. Fear currently sports an undefeated 7-0 record; he's played pretty well this tour. His record is definitely inflated due to luck, but either way, he has performed well this tournament as a whole and lived up to his lofty price tag. The real star of the show, though, is CyberOdin, who managed to put forth a ridiculous performance this SPL. He's currently 6-1, and is arguably the steal of the draft. These two players combined for a 13-1 record; unfortunately, the remaining members of this roster weren't anywhere near talented enough to help the Scooters stave off elimination.
The team's ORAS and DPP slots were a disaster. Adri and Quaze only managed to go 2-5 in ORAS, and the duo of Honor and Kevin Garrett went a combined 2-5 in DPP. The fact that the team had to turn to Kevin Garrett in 2020 pretty much says all you need to know, honestly. It's also pretty unsurprising to see the ORAS slots falter considering both of those players were pretty unproven and have not established themselves as viable players on the big stage. The real killers of the team, though, were the LC and Doubles slots, which pretty much canceled out all wins Fear and Odin brought to the table. tazz and Memoric both underperformed heavily, with the duo only combining for 2 wins in the span of 7 weeks; zf also lost in his lone LC experience. The pre-Snake tazz hype seems absolutely ridiculous at this point. Mathematically, it makes perfect sense why this team was eliminated so early. They were hard carried by two players, but they also had two slots combine for 12 losses to basically offset all of those wins. With their other big purchases underperforming as well, the team simply lacked the talent to find any measure of success this year.
Overall, the Scooters' downfall can be attributed to three major factors:
1. They took some pretty big risks with the big names in their draft. Getting zf + Jayde (for SS OU) for 36.5k is a major gamble, and the team really didn't have any value besides Odin to make up for it.
2. They spent 15.5k on DPP + RBY (This, once again, isn't TOO bad. However, it's definitely not ideal, especially because they almost assuredly overpaid for Bedschibaer)
3. They started a non-Asta / Fear / roudolf Greek player...FOR 6 GAMES. The outcome of this decision was so blatantly obvious that it has to be mentioned.
The team also struggled with activity this week, where both Jayde and ZoroDark had to be subbed out for lesser players in starry and talah. Considering the fact that the team managed to the tie the week despite both slots going 0-2, it's very conceivable that the Scooters would still be alive had those players showed up. Like...imagine rolling up to a must-win week against one of the best teams in SPL with these three fodder slots:
Overall, the Scooters underperformed relative to their projections. They were never going to be anything close to a world-beater, but they did have some nice pieces, and if their OU players reached their lofty ceilings, the team could have very easily made the playoffs. The team also had arguably the biggest steal of the draft in CyberOdin; when one of your 3k players goes 6-1, it should be pretty hard for your team to be eliminated in Week 7. However, the Scooters simply lacked the talent to back up the performances of Odin and Fear. It's unclear how the rest of the FlamingVictini era will progress; he did manage to draft a playoff-caliber team last year, after all. The past decade of the Scooters' franchise has been a pretty dark one, though, so it's fair to wonder whether they'll ever be able to lift the coveted trophy again.