The Draft League Winter Seasonal is part of the 2024 Draft League Circuit and will provide points toward this year's Draft League Championship. This tournament is a Type A tournament and will be hosted by Theia and olivia. This tournament will take place in the [Gen 9] Tera Preview Draft tier on Pokémon Showdown! and battles will take place in a swiss style bracket.
The following spoilers will cover the rules for the tournament.
- You have up to 90 points with which to draft 8 Pokémon. Costs are listed on your pool’s tab on the drafting spreadsheet.
- If a Pokémon is picked by someone else, you may not pick it.
- For the first round, there is a 12 hour timer. After the first round ends, there will be a continuous 6 hour timer within which you must pick, or you will be skipped, and will be required to make-up your pick when you are next online. All timers are off between 10pm-7am local time (check your pools pinned message for local time).
- Your timer will halve every time you are skipped. It is recommended to leave picks (with backups) with your pool moderator to avoid this.
- Once the draft is over, you must declare two Tera Captains totalling equal to or less than 25 points. These are the only Pokémon on your draft that may terastalise.
- The following complex ban is in place:
- No Pokémon may use the move Last Respects - The following Pokémon may not be Tera-Captains:
- Baxcalibur
- Blaziken
- Chi-Yu
- Darkrai
- Dragonite
- Enamorus-Incarnate
- Garchomp
- Gouging Fire
- Iron Boulder
- Iron Bundle
- Iron Valiant
- Kyurem
- Latios
- Necrozma
- Ogerpon-Hearthflame
- Palafin 
- Roaring Moon
- Sneasler
- Terapagos
- Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
- Urshifu-Single-Strike
- The following Pokémon have access to all of their forms (although you may only bring up to 1 to each battle):
- Pikachu
- Basculin 
- Oricorio 
- Toxtricity 
- Indeedee 
- Basculegion 
- Oinkologne 
- Squawkabilly 
- Tatsugiri 
- Meowstic 
- If a Pokémon that is available in SV is untiered, please ask a host.
- Smogon’s Species Clause applies to your draft.
- All games must be played in the [Gen 9] Tera Preview Draft tier on smogtours.psim.us or psim.us. Be aware that each game on smogtours starts a timer automatically and cannot be turned off.
- General tournament rules and regulations can be found here.
- SV cartridge win conditions are in place; there are no ties.
- Each set is a best-of-one set.
- The following clauses apply:
- Species Clause: A player cannot have two Pokémon with the same National Pokédex number on a team.
- Sleep Clause: If a player has already put a Pokémon on their opponent's side to sleep and it is still sleeping, another one can't be put to sleep.
- Evasion Clause: A Pokémon may not hold an item, use a move or possess an ability that can increase their evasion stat
- OHKO Clause: A Pokémon may not have the moves Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill, or Sheer Cold in its moveset.
- Moody Clause: A team cannot have a Pokémon with the ability Moody.
- Endless Battle Clause: Players cannot intentionally prevent an opponent from being able to end the game without forfeiting.
- Baton Pass Clause: A Pokémon may not have Baton Pass in its moveset. - Quick claw and king's rock are banned.
- Any items unreleased in SV are banned.
- Rankings within swiss may not be 100% accurate as the spreadsheet does not track head-to-head results. Players are ranked based on the following criteria: most wins, resistance, head-to-head, battle differential.
- Replays must be posted to the round thread, please mention the result, your opponent's name and your pool number.
About Activity Decisions
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, and an extension has not been requested, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
Please note that all extension requests and activity claims must be posted to the thread, and that all of these will be judged on a case by case basis.
The deadline for all extension requests is Thursday, 28th March, at 23:59, GMT-5. Any requests submitted after this deadline will not be considered.
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, and an extension has not been requested, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
Please note that all extension requests and activity claims must be posted to the thread, and that all of these will be judged on a case by case basis.
The deadline for all extension requests is Thursday, 28th March, at 23:59, GMT-5. Any requests submitted after this deadline will not be considered.
Draft matchups can be found at: https://spo.ink/winter_seasonal_2024_matchups
1. gorex vs 32. Sylveon used calm mind
2. blittius vs 34. amyayayy
3. ultraplayer vs 35. Star
4. Baddy vs 29. Stefaan
5. PaperRuby vs 28. a12qsd too
6. doogalhh vs 38. Tjb145
7. enoelr vs 26. GoldenCyber
8. vinithewini vs 25. ThinkingSceptile
9. P2gyorg vs 24. Mana
10. ElevatedGodlynessOfficial vs 23. ComputerWhiz
11. One Take or Die vs 22. TheFallenShooriken
12. Swagata Mitra vs 21. hedja
13. ExtremeHD vs 20. Elgino
14. sablolol vs 19. Battlestorm
15. Nalaa vs 18. scionicle
16. not mishmesh vs 17. TanyaTK
REPLAYS ARE MANDATORY. POST THEM AS REPLIES TO THIS POST. All tournaments require competitors to submit the Pokepaste used for each battle to Theia via Smogon Forums or Discord DM (Discord ID: neomeris). These teams will be uploaded for use in the Draft Factory tier (not to be uploaded until after the tournament concludes). Failure to send each team you make and battle with may impact your ability to compete in future tournaments.
Here's the challenge command that includes all the teambuilder bans to make it easier for validation. Just paste it in the PMs of your opponent on Smogtours:/chall gen9terapreviewdraft @@@ -Last Respects, -Baton Pass This thread and all future Winter Seasonal threads should be considered the final ruling in case of discrepancy between threads, Discord announcements, and Google spreadsheets. Contact a host if you have any questions or spot an error. We are human, after all.
Activity claims must be posted in this thread.
Replays are mandatory and must be posted in this thread!
The deadline for this round is Sunday, March 31st at 11:59 PM GMT -4
Replays are mandatory and must be posted in this thread!
The deadline for this round is Sunday, March 31st at 11:59 PM GMT -4
NEW: The deadline for all extension requests is now Thursday, 28th March at 23:59, GMT-4. Any requests submitted after this deadline will not be considered.
