Yeah SCL has been in a good spot the past few years and putting draft in when it hasnt even seen place in any other Smogon spaces seems a bit rushed and out of line. SCL has just found its footing after Snake fell flat and I'd hate to see that ruined just to try out draft in official Smogon tournaments for the first time. I think SCL is in a good enough spot where we can just lock it till the end of the generation imo, and anything else is just keeping SCL in the limbo where its never going to be able to form a real identity and just suffer the consequences early Snake did as well with it seeing format / other changes yearly and never really being that great. New generations are the best times to add format changes, since thats when theres usually a lot more new faces / overlap / connections being created, and thats usually when its best to try out a fairly big change like this.
I think draft has done great, and should have a place in our circuit, but the jump all the way from its first ribbon tour last year to SCL is just a bit crazy to me. As far as I know on Smogon, there hasnt even been an unofficial tour that mixes draft with other official tiers, and I think at the very least there should be some form of integration and ability to showcase how Draft can function in conjunction w/ OU, etc. like Piyu and expulso touched on. I know theres no tour for it currently, but I don't think it would be hard for people that cared to whip up a combination OU / Draft / whatever else tournament. Sure you might have to tie something to it like a banner or CA, but I think thats way easier than just saying "fuck it lets do SCL first". Even if down the line Draft turns out to be amazing in team tours (which I don't doubt) having it bomb its first showing potentially because theres not as much connection between other tiers and draft will hurt it infinitely more. I think this is the least the Draft / TDs / Whoever else wants this can do, and in my head I'd even want to see it in the official circuit in some way before actually adding it to official tours, but thats a much harder boundary to cross rather than seeing it in other Smogon spaces first.
Also, I do think the draft slots are probably going to end up being one of the most volatile ones we have seen in a team tournament and thats mainly because if you draft a bad draft player its going to be a lot worse than drafting a bad starter in any other tier. If your player drafts bad teams (and most managers aren't draft players which is why its also important to build connections before putting it in the tour), you now are stuck with those for the rest of the season. Even if you can retool at midseason, a majority of the best mons will be drafted by other teams id imagine, and even then thats 4 weeks to realize your player is bad and their drafts are bad, and having to find a sub who can re-draft a good team within a week or two is probably going to be nearly impossible. In other tiers if a player is bad in the first few weeks, a sub can slot in and take their time to learn and it can work out a lot better because theres no other barrier preventing them from being at the level of their opponents. However, with a bad draft a sub is going to be on even more of a backfoot than usual, and creates a massive weakness especially if a team manages to make playoffs after this. I'm sure theres arguments against this, and one is definetly a skill issue with the auction, but even then its a lot more punishing than any other slot we've had in official tournaments. I'm open to seeing what Draft players have to say about this since I could be misinformed, and my mind is open to being changed, but once again I think this is something that would be answered by seeing Draft in literally any other tournament aside from SCL first.
