Welcome to the first edition of the Solomods Premier League! A team tournament which brings together many corners of the solomods universe to battle each other out.
This year's edition of SoloPL is brought to you by literally just me someone send help.
SoloPL will consist of the following teams:
Manager Self-Buys:
Gensokyo Gourgeists: zxgzxg & anaconja
Driftveil Drakloaks: cyclonez_
Washed Wishiwashis:
Slugma Slugmas: Quinn & teamo
Zubat Swarm: M0onStarr & Woodchucknorris24
Siuuing Suiiicunes: Lialiabeast
The tiers this year are:
When a prospective player signs up, they are expected to also note which tiers they are interested in playing during the tournament. In order to ensure the best possible experience for yourself, the managers, and your team, please do NOT sign up for any tier you are unwilling to play. If you would not seriously consider playing that tier in a tournament environment, do not list it. The tiers you put down in your signup are not binding for the entire tournament, but they will affect how your prospective manager sees you, and as such they should be as accurate to your skillset as possible. Don't make joke posts about playing tiers you do not care for.
Please familiarise yourself with the Tournaments Rules and General Guidelines.
General SoloPL Rules & Regulations (borrowed and modified from SPL's guidelines)
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This post marks the formal start to SoloPL. Good luck and have fun!
This year's edition of SoloPL is brought to you by literally just me someone send help.
SoloPL will consist of the following teams:
Gensokyo Gourgiests: zxgzxg & anaconja
Driftveil Drakloaks: Noglastica & cyclonez_
Washed Wishiwashis: sojukirin & A plague doc
Slugma Slugmas: Quinn & teamo
Zubat Swarm: M0onStarr & Woodchucknorris24
Siuuing Suiiicunes: Lialiabeast & anique
Driftveil Drakloaks: Noglastica & cyclonez_
Washed Wishiwashis: sojukirin & A plague doc
Slugma Slugmas: Quinn & teamo
Zubat Swarm: M0onStarr & Woodchucknorris24
Siuuing Suiiicunes: Lialiabeast & anique
Manager Self-Buys:
Gensokyo Gourgeists: zxgzxg & anaconja
Driftveil Drakloaks: cyclonez_
Washed Wishiwashis:
Slugma Slugmas: Quinn & teamo
Zubat Swarm: M0onStarr & Woodchucknorris24
Siuuing Suiiicunes: Lialiabeast
The tiers this year are:
- Modern Gen 1
- Modern Gen 2
- Modern Gen 3
- Kanto Expansion Pak
- Do Not Use
- Balanced Createmons
- Fusion Evolution VGC
- Scootopia
When a prospective player signs up, they are expected to also note which tiers they are interested in playing during the tournament. In order to ensure the best possible experience for yourself, the managers, and your team, please do NOT sign up for any tier you are unwilling to play. If you would not seriously consider playing that tier in a tournament environment, do not list it. The tiers you put down in your signup are not binding for the entire tournament, but they will affect how your prospective manager sees you, and as such they should be as accurate to your skillset as possible. Don't make joke posts about playing tiers you do not care for.
Please familiarise yourself with the Tournaments Rules and General Guidelines.
General SoloPL Rules & Regulations (borrowed and modified from SPL's guidelines)
The General Manager of a team is essentially the boss of a team. The GM is the final word in all decisions (barring the hosts) regarding their team. The GM decides which players play on the team, who plays in what position, and even handles the team finances. Managers also make sure that the team keeps running on a day to day basis. If a team fails to complete their matches by the end of the allotted time, the onus is on the manager to inform the hosts as to what happened in order to make sure that proper activity calls are made.
Because of these responsibilities, The General Manager is probably the most important part of the team. As such, the position of GM is not one to be taken lightly.
General Managers are chosen largely on a subjective opinion of the Tournament Hosts as to who they believe would be fit for the position. Being fit for the position includes the knowledge of excellent battlers in the community (for fielding a competent team), having above average activity on the forums, Pokémon Showdown and/or Discord (in order to ensure that you don’t abandon your team), as well as possessing a necessary amount of “gravitas” (If you can’t make a player do what you tell them to, such as play an undesirable metagame, you’re not going to make a good manager).
General Managers are required to acquire one Assistant Manager. The Tournament Director team can veto the selection of an assistant manager, but will not require the General Manager to choose any particular user as their Assistant Manager. The assistant manager is essentially the second in command for the team. They have almost all of the functions and roles as the General Manager does, the GM just trumps him in head-to-head decisions.
Lastly, the General Manager has the following duties:
• They shall choose one Assistant Manager.
• They shall make the hosts aware of any player retentions by the time player signups close (48 hours prior to the start of the auction).
• They shall be present at the live auction, or appoint someone (preferably the Assistant Manager or a retained player if the AM is unavailable) to participate in the live auction in their stead.
• They shall send the hosts weekly rosters.
• They shall ensure to the best of his/her abilities that his/her battlers complete their matches on time.
• In the event that a match fails to be completed, they shall inform the hosts as to why the match failed to be completed, and what his/her battler did in order to finish the match.
• They shall communicate any grievances with the hosts.
Because of these responsibilities, The General Manager is probably the most important part of the team. As such, the position of GM is not one to be taken lightly.
General Managers are chosen largely on a subjective opinion of the Tournament Hosts as to who they believe would be fit for the position. Being fit for the position includes the knowledge of excellent battlers in the community (for fielding a competent team), having above average activity on the forums, Pokémon Showdown and/or Discord (in order to ensure that you don’t abandon your team), as well as possessing a necessary amount of “gravitas” (If you can’t make a player do what you tell them to, such as play an undesirable metagame, you’re not going to make a good manager).
General Managers are required to acquire one Assistant Manager. The Tournament Director team can veto the selection of an assistant manager, but will not require the General Manager to choose any particular user as their Assistant Manager. The assistant manager is essentially the second in command for the team. They have almost all of the functions and roles as the General Manager does, the GM just trumps him in head-to-head decisions.
Lastly, the General Manager has the following duties:
• They shall choose one Assistant Manager.
• They shall make the hosts aware of any player retentions by the time player signups close (48 hours prior to the start of the auction).
• They shall be present at the live auction, or appoint someone (preferably the Assistant Manager or a retained player if the AM is unavailable) to participate in the live auction in their stead.
• They shall send the hosts weekly rosters.
• They shall ensure to the best of his/her abilities that his/her battlers complete their matches on time.
• In the event that a match fails to be completed, they shall inform the hosts as to why the match failed to be completed, and what his/her battler did in order to finish the match.
• They shall communicate any grievances with the hosts.
All players must sign up if they wish to play in the SoloPL (Solomosss Premier League). It is mportant to note that the SoloPL will last for at least 8 weeks, and that the activity level of a player is significant. Do not sign up to play for a team if you do not intend to see the tournament through to the end. This includes maintaining a competitive attitude if your team is already eliminated from playoff contention. You never know whether or not winning your end-season matches will make you a more valued player next season, so even if your team isn’t necessarily in the playoff picture anymore, there’s always value in playing your best. Failure to complete matches in a timely manner consistently may result in being barred from entering the SoloPL in future seasons.
Total money for teams is TBD based on player signups
In the weeks preceding the live auction, a time will be chosen by all of the General Managers to meet and perform a live auction in order to choose players. Managers will be expected to remain at the auction for the entire duration, which should take approximately 2-3 hours. This will be scheduled at times to best accommodate all managers.
Once a time is set, all managers + the hosts will enter the place where the auction will be held - likely the Dragonheaven server. Spectators are allowed to join in to watch the fun unfold, but will not be able to speak. Discussion on the bidding at hand should be relegated to the Lobby chatroom or any other appropriate chat outlet.
The hosts will first ask a team to nominate a player. The order by which teams will nominate players will go in a snaking pattern from the highest ranked team from last year to the lowest ranked team (random for new teams / managers) then the lowest ranked team to the highest ranked team. The hosts will then tell the details of said player and bidding will commence, starting at 3000 credits, with the nominating team automatically placing the first bid. The auction will then be in real time. Managers will simply put in their bids in the chat, raising a minimum of 500 credits. If after 15 seconds there are no new bids, the player is sold to the highest bid in the channel. The hosts or utilized bot will provide a 5 second warning before bidding is closed on a player. The updated credit totals will then be posted and then the next manager in the rotation will be prompted to nominate a player.
Managers are advised that placed bids are final, and we will generally not permit an undo in the case of a mistake. Exceptions can be made in cases where a team nominates an incorrect player or if a typo in a bid amount would threaten the integrity of the team as a whole. Please make sure to double check your bids before sending them!
Managers are asked to please have a predetermined list of players you intend to nominate as well as potential bid caps, in order to make the process go as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Managers: it is necessary for you to field a roster to have starters for all slots and a minimum of 3 substitutes, with a maximum of 10 substitutes being allowed of which all must be paid at least 3000 credits. This creates a soft cap of 90,000 credits on any particular bid - that is, the maximum amount of money you can spend on any one player and still have enough money left over to pay at least 3000 credits a piece on 10 more players. This is based on the assumption that the credit cap per team is decided to be 120,000 credits once sign-ups have closed.
Remember that there are midseason free agent pick-ups. It may be beneficial to save some credits in order to pick up players midseason, but remember that no new players will be allowed to sign up for the midseason draft.
In the weeks preceding the live auction, a time will be chosen by all of the General Managers to meet and perform a live auction in order to choose players. Managers will be expected to remain at the auction for the entire duration, which should take approximately 2-3 hours. This will be scheduled at times to best accommodate all managers.
Once a time is set, all managers + the hosts will enter the place where the auction will be held - likely the Dragonheaven server. Spectators are allowed to join in to watch the fun unfold, but will not be able to speak. Discussion on the bidding at hand should be relegated to the Lobby chatroom or any other appropriate chat outlet.
The hosts will first ask a team to nominate a player. The order by which teams will nominate players will go in a snaking pattern from the highest ranked team from last year to the lowest ranked team (random for new teams / managers) then the lowest ranked team to the highest ranked team. The hosts will then tell the details of said player and bidding will commence, starting at 3000 credits, with the nominating team automatically placing the first bid. The auction will then be in real time. Managers will simply put in their bids in the chat, raising a minimum of 500 credits. If after 15 seconds there are no new bids, the player is sold to the highest bid in the channel. The hosts or utilized bot will provide a 5 second warning before bidding is closed on a player. The updated credit totals will then be posted and then the next manager in the rotation will be prompted to nominate a player.
Managers are advised that placed bids are final, and we will generally not permit an undo in the case of a mistake. Exceptions can be made in cases where a team nominates an incorrect player or if a typo in a bid amount would threaten the integrity of the team as a whole. Please make sure to double check your bids before sending them!
Managers are asked to please have a predetermined list of players you intend to nominate as well as potential bid caps, in order to make the process go as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Managers: it is necessary for you to field a roster to have starters for all slots and a minimum of 3 substitutes, with a maximum of 10 substitutes being allowed of which all must be paid at least 3000 credits. This creates a soft cap of 90,000 credits on any particular bid - that is, the maximum amount of money you can spend on any one player and still have enough money left over to pay at least 3000 credits a piece on 10 more players. This is based on the assumption that the credit cap per team is decided to be 120,000 credits once sign-ups have closed.
Remember that there are midseason free agent pick-ups. It may be beneficial to save some credits in order to pick up players midseason, but remember that no new players will be allowed to sign up for the midseason draft.
It is at this time that the tournament will commence. The league stages consist of a Round Robin tournament. Every team will face every other team once through 5 weeks of play. Each manager will submit to the hosts a roster no later than the deadline of the previous week. This roster will list the starting players and what metagames they will play.
When the week starts, teams' players will face off in their respective metagames / tiers. The MG1 OU from Team A will face the MG1 OU from team B, DNU team A will face DNU team B, and so on. Whichever team wins the most battles will be declared the victor for the week. Rather than score based on how many individual battles a team wins, the primary thing that matters is who beat the most teams. As such, points are awarded based only on wins and losses versus teams as a whole, not individual players. Beating a team in a week’s matchups is worth two points, tying with a team is worth one point, and losing is worth none, simple as that. At the end of the round robin, the top four teams in the points proceed to the playoffs and will be seeded into a knock-out style bracket where they will face off until only one team remains.
There are a few regulatory things during the league stages that need to be outlined.
1. Substitutes – At any point in time during the week, a team may make a substitution for a currently slotted player. In order to do this a manager must post in the thread, tagging the hosts, the opposing managers and the opposing player stating which player is substituting out, and which player is substituting in. A player that has substituted out for a week cannot be substituted back in. In addition, in order to catch any attempts at garnering favorable matchups, all substitutions are subject to veto by the hosts if the substitution is suspected to be attempting to “game” the system.
2. There will be no trades allowed at any point during SoloPL.
3. Activity decisions – There are inevitably times where two players simply fail to complete a match; however, the nature of the tournament system sometimes makes it advantageous to purposely fail to play (such as when a team is up 6-5 in a week). Because of this, it is necessary to make activity decisions on matches. Hosts are required to make thorough investigations regarding each and every potential failed match during a week. If both parties are deemed to be equally apathetic or enthusiastic about getting the match done, but just have not had the opportunity to make it happen, the match will result in a no contest. However, if it is deemed that one party made significantly more effort than the other in attempting to get the match done, then a win will be awarded to that player. Things that will make it very likely that you will lose via activity include: failing to VM your opponent immediately upon the week’s start, scheduling a match and being documented as missing the match time, failing to provide any concrete times for which you can be reached, failing to respond to an opponent’s VM at all. Please be certain to review the guidelines for a favorable judgement in an activity decision. Note that this is a tournament that requires a very high level of activity and diligence, if you don’t think you can get your matches done, quite simply don’t sign up.
4. Rule Breaking – There is no excuse for breaking any of the predetermined rules. If you are caught breaking a rule, you will lose your match. There is no lenience with regards to this. Break a rule, you lose. Period.
5. Reversing Rulings - No ruling will be retroactively overturned once the week following the week that the ruling has been made has ended. This includes: activity rulings / rulings based on rule breaking / anything else under the sun. I'm not going back in time to reevaluate every single decision I've made throughout the tournament on Week 9 because you think you were gypped 1-2 wins along the way and now they're the difference between you and a playoff spot. Any appeals to a ruling must be made during the week that the ruling is made; beyond that, all rulings are final once the week ends.
When the week starts, teams' players will face off in their respective metagames / tiers. The MG1 OU from Team A will face the MG1 OU from team B, DNU team A will face DNU team B, and so on. Whichever team wins the most battles will be declared the victor for the week. Rather than score based on how many individual battles a team wins, the primary thing that matters is who beat the most teams. As such, points are awarded based only on wins and losses versus teams as a whole, not individual players. Beating a team in a week’s matchups is worth two points, tying with a team is worth one point, and losing is worth none, simple as that. At the end of the round robin, the top four teams in the points proceed to the playoffs and will be seeded into a knock-out style bracket where they will face off until only one team remains.
There are a few regulatory things during the league stages that need to be outlined.
1. Substitutes – At any point in time during the week, a team may make a substitution for a currently slotted player. In order to do this a manager must post in the thread, tagging the hosts, the opposing managers and the opposing player stating which player is substituting out, and which player is substituting in. A player that has substituted out for a week cannot be substituted back in. In addition, in order to catch any attempts at garnering favorable matchups, all substitutions are subject to veto by the hosts if the substitution is suspected to be attempting to “game” the system.
2. There will be no trades allowed at any point during SoloPL.
3. Activity decisions – There are inevitably times where two players simply fail to complete a match; however, the nature of the tournament system sometimes makes it advantageous to purposely fail to play (such as when a team is up 6-5 in a week). Because of this, it is necessary to make activity decisions on matches. Hosts are required to make thorough investigations regarding each and every potential failed match during a week. If both parties are deemed to be equally apathetic or enthusiastic about getting the match done, but just have not had the opportunity to make it happen, the match will result in a no contest. However, if it is deemed that one party made significantly more effort than the other in attempting to get the match done, then a win will be awarded to that player. Things that will make it very likely that you will lose via activity include: failing to VM your opponent immediately upon the week’s start, scheduling a match and being documented as missing the match time, failing to provide any concrete times for which you can be reached, failing to respond to an opponent’s VM at all. Please be certain to review the guidelines for a favorable judgement in an activity decision. Note that this is a tournament that requires a very high level of activity and diligence, if you don’t think you can get your matches done, quite simply don’t sign up.
4. Rule Breaking – There is no excuse for breaking any of the predetermined rules. If you are caught breaking a rule, you will lose your match. There is no lenience with regards to this. Break a rule, you lose. Period.
5. Reversing Rulings - No ruling will be retroactively overturned once the week following the week that the ruling has been made has ended. This includes: activity rulings / rulings based on rule breaking / anything else under the sun. I'm not going back in time to reevaluate every single decision I've made throughout the tournament on Week 9 because you think you were gypped 1-2 wins along the way and now they're the difference between you and a playoff spot. Any appeals to a ruling must be made during the week that the ruling is made; beyond that, all rulings are final once the week ends.
At the end of the league stages, there will be a knockout style playoffs involving the top 4 teams in the points. In the event of a tie in overall points standings, the following criteria is used for breaking ties.
• Overall Points >
• Battle Difference (total # battles won - total # battles lost) >
• Best of 3 - each team picks a unique tier with the winner of the Head to Head matchup picking second, then a tier voted on by the hosts is the 3rd game. In the event that the two teams tied in the Head to Head matchup, the team with better results against the higher seeds will pick second.
After the top 4 have been determined, each team will be seeded. The #1 seed will play the #4 seed, and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. The victors of these matches will advance to the finals match. The winning team of this match will be declared the ultimate victors of the Pet Mods Premier League
League Stages & Playoffs
League Stages
Not all of the teams will qualify to play in the playoffs. Based on the results of the League stage, the top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs.
In the league stages, beating another team gives you 2 points, drawing the match gives you 1 point, and losing it gives you nothing. In addition, the manner in which you win will also be stored; that is, how many you won vs how many you lost. This difference will be used in case of a tie at the end of the league stage.
Playoffs
Based on the league stage, the top 4 teams will be seeded and placed into a bracket, in which they will go head to head. Teams will battle in the same format as during the league stage. At the end of all 8 battles, the team with more wins will advance to finals.
During the playoffs, to add to the epicness, and give some of the subs an extra opportunity to play, the higher seed in both matchups will get to pick a slot to double up on.
In the case of a tie in playoffs, the advancing team will be decided by a best of three - each team picks a unique tier with the higher seed picking second, then a tier voted on by the hosts is the 3rd game.
The tournament will progress in this format until there is only one team left standing, the champions of the Solomods Premier League I.
• Overall Points >
• Battle Difference (total # battles won - total # battles lost) >
• Best of 3 - each team picks a unique tier with the winner of the Head to Head matchup picking second, then a tier voted on by the hosts is the 3rd game. In the event that the two teams tied in the Head to Head matchup, the team with better results against the higher seeds will pick second.
After the top 4 have been determined, each team will be seeded. The #1 seed will play the #4 seed, and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. The victors of these matches will advance to the finals match. The winning team of this match will be declared the ultimate victors of the Pet Mods Premier League
League Stages & Playoffs
League Stages
Not all of the teams will qualify to play in the playoffs. Based on the results of the League stage, the top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs.
In the league stages, beating another team gives you 2 points, drawing the match gives you 1 point, and losing it gives you nothing. In addition, the manner in which you win will also be stored; that is, how many you won vs how many you lost. This difference will be used in case of a tie at the end of the league stage.
Playoffs
Based on the league stage, the top 4 teams will be seeded and placed into a bracket, in which they will go head to head. Teams will battle in the same format as during the league stage. At the end of all 8 battles, the team with more wins will advance to finals.
During the playoffs, to add to the epicness, and give some of the subs an extra opportunity to play, the higher seed in both matchups will get to pick a slot to double up on.
In the case of a tie in playoffs, the advancing team will be decided by a best of three - each team picks a unique tier with the higher seed picking second, then a tier voted on by the hosts is the 3rd game.
The tournament will progress in this format until there is only one team left standing, the champions of the Solomods Premier League I.
SoloPL has a wide variety to tiers that are not all played in the same server or the same way.
Modern Gen 1: Play with a challenge code on PS main or Smogtours. DO NOT PLAY ON DRAGONHEAVEN.
Modern Gen 2: Play the format on PS main or Smogtours. DO NOT PLAY ON DRAGONHEAVEN.
Modern Gen 3: Play with a challenge code on PS main or Smogtours. DO NOT PLAY ON DRAGONHEAVEN.
Kanto Expansion Pak: Play on Dragon Heaven.
Do Not Use: Play the format on PS main or Smogtours.
Fusion Evolution VGC: Play the Bo3 format (Open Team Sheet forced) on Dragon Heaven.
Scootopia: Play the format on Dragon Heaven.
Balanced Createmons: Play the format on this side server.
Modern Gen 1: Play with a challenge code on PS main or Smogtours. DO NOT PLAY ON DRAGONHEAVEN.
/challenge gen1customgame @@@ !! Max Level = 100, !! Max Team Size = 6, !! Max Move Count = 4, Obtainable Formes, -Dig, -Fly, -Bind, -Clamp, -Fire Spin, -Infestation, -Magma Storm, -Sand Tomb, -Snap Trap, -Thunder Cage, -Whirlpool, -Wrap, -Spikes, -Toxic Spikes, -Stealth Rock, -Sticky Web, -Stone Axe, -Ceaseless Edge, Freeze Clause Mod, -all items, -Fake Out, -Wonder Room, -Trick Room, -Magic Room, -Lucky Chant, -Tailwind, -Safeguard, -Gravity, -Confuse Ray, -Supersonic, -Swagger, -Sweet Kiss, -Flatter, -Protect, -Detect, -Shell Smash, Endless Battle Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Species Clause, Sleep Moves Clause, -Arceus, -Basculegion, -Basculegion-F, -Calyrex-Ice, -Calyrex-Shadow, -Darkrai, -Deoxys-Base, -Deoxys-Attack, -Deoxys-Speed, -Dialga, -Dragapult, -Eternatus, -Groudon, -Ho-oh, -Inteleon, -Iron-Bundle, -Iron-Valiant, -Koraidon, -Kyogre, -Kyurem-White, -Kyurem-Black, -Lugia, -Lunala, -Marshadow, -Mew, -Mewtwo, -Miraidon, -Naganadel, -Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, -Necrozma-Dawn-Wings, -Palkia, -Pheromosa, -Rayquaza, -Regigigas, -Reshiram, -Slaking, -Solgaleo, -Xerneas, -Zacian, -Zamazenta, -Zekrom, -all abilities, +No Ability
Modern Gen 3: Play with a challenge code on PS main or Smogtours. DO NOT PLAY ON DRAGONHEAVEN.
/challenge gen3customgame @@@ !! Max Level = 100, !! Max Team Size = 6, !! Max Move Count = 4, Obtainable Formes, Sleep Clause Mod, Endless Battle Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Species Clause, -Arceus, -Basculegion, -Basculegion-F, -Calyrex-Ice, -Calyrex-Shadow, -Chi-Yu, -Darkrai, -Deoxys-Base, -Deoxys-Attack, -Deoxys-Speed, -Dialga, -Eternatus, -Genesect, -Giratina, -Groudon, -Ho-oh, -Iron Bundle, -Koraidon, -Kyogre, -Kyurem-White, -Lugia, -Lunala, -Magearna, -Marshadow, -Miraidon, -Naganadel, -Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, -Necrozma-Dawn-Wings, -Palkia, -Pheromosa, -Rayquaza, -Reshiram, -Shaymin-Sky, -Solgaleo, -Xerneas, -Yveltal, -Zacian, -Zamazenta, -Zekrom, -Zygarde, -Aerodactylite, -Alakazite, -Salamencite, -Blastoisinite, -Gengarite, -Kangaskhanite, -Lucarionite, -Bright Powder, -Lax Incense, -Kings Rock, -Razor Fang, -Soul Dew, -Assist, -Baton Pass, -Shed Tail, -Arena Trap, -Battle Bond, -Moody, -Power Construct, -Sand Rush, -Sand Veil, -Shadow Tag, -Snow Cloak, EV Limit = 510
Do Not Use: Play the format on PS main or Smogtours.
Fusion Evolution VGC: Play the Bo3 format (Open Team Sheet forced) on Dragon Heaven.
Scootopia: Play the format on Dragon Heaven.
Balanced Createmons: Play the format on this side server.
This post marks the formal start to SoloPL. Good luck and have fun!
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