Smogon Tournament #8
Welcome to Smogon Tournament VIII, the eighth edition of Smogon's premier Standard OU tournament. From the hundreds who will register to play in this tournament, a single champion will be crowned and forever become a part of the exclusive group of elite players that hold an Official Smogon Tournament trophy. Winning this tournament is considered by many to be one of the greatest achievements in competitive Pokémon.
Tournament Rules - How to Join or Host a Tournament
Given the fact that this tournament is so large, we want to ensure that everything progresses quickly and without problems, and for that reason there are some extra joining conditions.
Joining Rules
- You must have a good standing title on Smogon. This means you cannot have the "I Could Be Banned!" status under your nickname.
- If you have just registered at Smogon, you cannot join this tournament. This requirement may be avoided if you have made a sufficient number of quality posts, which will be determined by the Tournament Directors. Similarly, if you have been inactive over long periods of time, then you may be disallowed to join. The reasoning for this rule is that we are trying to make sure nobody will be inactive over the course of the tournament.
- If you have been registered for an ample amount of time but do not have a large enough posting history, you may be disallowed from participating. It is one thing to lurk, but we don't want to see people signing up with next to no posts to their name.
If you discover that your sign up post was deleted, that means you did not meet one or more of the above criteria and were rejected from joining. Do not post asking to register again if your first post was deleted.
The number of participants will hopefully be 256 or 512, though if there are between 384 and 512 entrants then the tournament will have 384 participants and have a round robin final.
Following the success of last year's format, this year will be a best of three format. This means that players will play until one of them wins two games. Players are allowed to switch teams completely between games, or use the same team, it is completely up to the player. If players only partially complete a series before the deadline, it will be considered an uncompleted battle and action will be taken accordingly, either an activity win or a coin flip.
Specific Rules
- This is a standard BW OU tournament.
- The tournament will be single elimination.
- Players will play a best of three series of games each round.
- Matches are to be played on Pokemon Online (Smogon University server).
Standard Rules and Clauses
- Sleep Clause: A player cannot put two or more different opposing Pokémon to sleep using attacks that induce sleep to opposing pokémon.
- Species Clause: A player cannot have two of the same pokémon on their team. For example, a player cannot have two Koffing on his or her team.
- Wifi Clause: Players must turn on the Team Preview feature where players can view the opposing team's Pokémon and choose their lead Pokémon.
- Evasion Clause*: A player cannot use the moves Double Team or Minimize in their Pokémon's movesets, and cannot give their Pokémon the hold items BrightPowder or Lax Incense.
- OHKO Clause*: Players cannot use Horn Drill, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, or Fissure in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
- Timer Clause*: If a player exhausts the timer, he/she loses.
- Uber Clause*: Pokémon that are in the Uber Tier are not allowed to be used. The tier list can be found here. In addition, the following restrictions on abilities apply:
- Players cannot use the ability Moody on any of their Pokémon.
- Players cannot have a Pokémon with the ability Drizzle and a Pokémon with the ability Swift Swim on the same team.
Questions and Answers
- Q: Should I save a log of my match as proof of my victory?
- A: Yes. While it is not mandatory to show us the log of your victory, it is the only proof you have in the case of a dispute and it is always a good practice to keep the logs of your tournament matches.
- Q: Will there be a Predictions Tournament like last year?
- A: Yes. It will be hosted by Hipmonlee. You can expect the first thread to appear sometime soon.
Rulings
Those who have followed Smogon's official tournaments should be well aware of these, but here they are again:
Identity
I expect many battles to be completed under alts. This can be bad for tournament security, and thus I will make this clear: If I hear any whispers of identity theft (battling as someone you are not) or proxy battling (helping someone else battle through pm) I will not be pleased and I will take severe actions.
Scouting
Next, I do not want to hear anything about counterteaming, at all. Do not complain about it. I also don't want to hear about any blatant scouting. There is a difference between "[user] is known for using stall" and "let me follow [user] around all day to watch all his battles since I am his opponent". I expect a lot of the former and none of the latter.
With that said, I give permission to all battlers to ask any person spectating their battle to leave if they do not want them watching.
Timer Clause
As for taking long between moves, if your opponent asks you to hurry up, please oblige. If you are doing a damage calc for a key turn that is one thing, but prolonging every move is suspicious and annoying. Don't do it. Furthermore, Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason. If you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time.
Disconnections
Finally, in the case of a disconnect, the decision is in the hands of the player who did not disconnect. The options are: redo the battle move for move, redo the battle with the same teams but different moves, or redo the battle with completely different teams. If the battle was without a doubt over, they may also take the win. Any suspicion that a disconnect was committed on purpose to redo a match may be appealed to me, and if I feel this happened there will be severe consequences, don't do it.
I expect many battles to be completed under alts. This can be bad for tournament security, and thus I will make this clear: If I hear any whispers of identity theft (battling as someone you are not) or proxy battling (helping someone else battle through pm) I will not be pleased and I will take severe actions.
Scouting
Next, I do not want to hear anything about counterteaming, at all. Do not complain about it. I also don't want to hear about any blatant scouting. There is a difference between "[user] is known for using stall" and "let me follow [user] around all day to watch all his battles since I am his opponent". I expect a lot of the former and none of the latter.
With that said, I give permission to all battlers to ask any person spectating their battle to leave if they do not want them watching.
Timer Clause
As for taking long between moves, if your opponent asks you to hurry up, please oblige. If you are doing a damage calc for a key turn that is one thing, but prolonging every move is suspicious and annoying. Don't do it. Furthermore, Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason. If you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time.
Disconnections
Finally, in the case of a disconnect, the decision is in the hands of the player who did not disconnect. The options are: redo the battle move for move, redo the battle with the same teams but different moves, or redo the battle with completely different teams. If the battle was without a doubt over, they may also take the win. Any suspicion that a disconnect was committed on purpose to redo a match may be appealed to me, and if I feel this happened there will be severe consequences, don't do it.
Signups will stay open for 10 days, closing at midnight EST on Monday, November 21st, 2011.
If you have any questions, please PM them to a Tournament Director. If they aren't answered by this thread, then I will add it to the Questions and Answers section.
Good luck to all who join, and have fun!
Thanks to Zracknel for the amazing new logo!
