Proposal On Monotype Representation

[shiloh]

To keep the focus on Monotype being added to Grand Slam, including Monotype wouldn’t just be for the sake of inclusion; it would be for seeing the best players demonstrate their skill across the lower tier singles metagames. I believe UT perfectly explained how Monotype would fit logistically in Grand Slam, there’s not much more to add. Monotype improves Grand Slam logistically, structurally, and competitively. Monotype abides by Grand Slam’s competitive variety within singles, not strict adherence to teambuilding symmetry.

I don't think that Monotype fits as snuggly into Grand Slam as most people are assuming, a 7 tier slam has been tried out in the past and its pushed the limits of what people found enjoyable / lead to an actual competitive tour. To start, I don't have an issue with Monotype in the tournament, its moreso an issue with having a tournament with 7 qualifying cups in the first place. Even with the current Best 5 Finish System for the 6 tournaments, its still optimal for ever person that wants to make a deep run to join all 6 tournaments. This gives you insurance if you have an early exit in a couple tournaments and effectively makes the Best 5 system useless. As an example, every single player that made playoffs or playoffs tiebreaker of this years slam joined all 6 tournaments, even though there was no point benefit to getting points in all 6 tournaments.

If we increase this to 7 we are now pushing it to having to join 7 tournaments potentially at the same time, and while its highly unlikely you will be in all 7 at the same time, it just increases the amount of tournaments by 1 per week for anyone hoping to make a deep run, even though your two worst won't count. While we don't have the numbers from how many of the 7 each playoff participant joined when there were 7 opens in 2016, we do have some anecdotal evidence from Teals thread in IS discussing the changes the slam format after one year of running it with 7 tiers in the tournament.

Following extraordinarily lengthy discussions, my team members and I have decided to make the following changes to Grand Slam VI:

• DOU Open will be removed from the tournament
• PU Open will be removed from the tournament

Grand Slam VI will revert to a 5 tier tournament consisting of the following metagames: Ubers, UU, RU, NU, and LC. Playoffs will revert to a more traditional format of best of 5 with no tiers being dropped or stricken by either player (higher seed, of course, choosing first).

There are a number of reasons why we believe that this format change is beneficial to the structure of the tournament. I've outlined these in several other posts in IS (in a more philosophical, and less direct-action sense) as well as through private conversations many times over.

Some of the biggest complaints we have received both through our polling system as well as in an informal manner relate to the length, tedium, and low-competitiveness of Grand Slam. In addition to this, I am particularly concerned about scalability and sustainability issues when they come to our tournaments, and believe that the original conceptualization for some of them is deficient. Put simply, if Grand Slam forever remained "the tournament which featured all Current Generation non-OU tiers" it would eventually end in a logistical nightmare. Our efforts today are an attempt to stop that before it starts as well as pare down the tournament to what we believe is its most optimal, efficient and competitive format.

And while yes, the site has changed a lot since, Slam signup numbers are similar between 2016 and 2025, with 2016 even having higher entrants in most tournaments. Since 2016 as well the number of tournaments in general has risen a lot more, with a lot more unofficial team tournaments in particular which further adds noise to the schedule.

Theres also the increase from 1->2 striked tiers in playoffs (unless people want to entertain Bo7s in playoffs), and it makes playoff sets even less enjoyable to certain communities / people. Playoffs of a tournament ideally should represent what it took to qualify for the tournament in terms of tiers/formats, and I already have a gripe with the current system where certain tiers can get striked a lot more often than others. For example in the current slam playoffs, half of the round 1 sets dropped LC. For the LC playerbase they now have no stake in really watching half of the sets in playoffs, and if you increase that from 1->2 tiers striked there will be a lot less of certain tiers in the playoffs creating a worse playoff viewing experience.

And while I don't want this to turn into just a Grand Slam 2026 format thread, I wanted to bring up some points against a 7 tier slam since I think it would be a mistake. Like I said at the start, I don't think adding monotype to slam would be an issue, and thats not my stance, but I think if it was added to slam it would have to be over another tier in the tournament, and thats a very different argument/thread than just adding it as a 7th tier.

 

[Jahkem]

Theres also the increase from 1->2 striked tiers in playoffs (unless people want to entertain Bo7s in playoffs), and it makes playoff sets even less enjoyable to certain communities / people. Playoffs of a tournament ideally should represent what it took to qualify for the tournament in terms of tiers/formats, and I already have a gripe with the current system where certain tiers can get striked a lot more often than others. For example in the current slam playoffs, half of the round 1 sets dropped LC. For the LC playerbase they now have no stake in really watching half of the sets in playoffs, and if you increase that from 1->2 tiers striked there will be a lot less of certain tiers in the playoffs creating a worse playoff viewing experience.

When you put it this way, it does make adding in Monotype as a 7th tier sound very opportunistic with the way Grand Slam is setup along with the 2 strike system. I’d still rather entertain 7 tiers over taking another tier’s spot or Bo7 playoffs. That being said, this why I’m asking the TD team what other suggestions or compromises do they have. Just looking at the attempts Monotype has had this year with the thread about getting into SCL and now Grand Slam, I’m not sure how else Monotype can move forward without input from the TD team on that side. There’s seems to be a fair amount of support for Monotype, just not many are sure where to slot the tier.