i am in favor of keeping the cup format.
i don't necessarily dislike the swiss format, but for classic i believe it is an inferior format, and that the criticisms leveled against classic are not sufficient to warrant a change in the format.
the scheduling argument is where this movement started. admittedly, 5 individual tournaments each w/ a 1-week deadline is a bit of a commitment. certainly, it can be difficult to schedule individually for so many matches a week especially if you end up making a deep run in the tournament. however, point blank it is a detriment to the competitive and aesthetic quality of the tournament to privilege convenience here. most of us spend more time arguing the scheduling issues inherent w/ an expansive tour than we would actually spend preparing for it. to be honest, it really is not that difficult to play this many series a week (all things considered, very few players will actually be playing all 5 cups for an extended period of time) given the time we spend on other tours hosted by the community. unless you are quite literally building new teams from scratch every single round for every single tier, then you really just need to log on and play. the whole point of bo3 (esp. in the early rounds) is to minimize the subjective factors of pokemon and reduce the outcome to that of the most skilled player. if you don't have the time, truly, to play smogon classic in its full form, then don't play it. or, just play a few of the cups where you have a realistic chance of winning. one of the most compelling components of the classic format is that winning/making a deep run in an individual cup is an accomplishment in its own right. i would know, as i have made the finals/semis of numerous cups since classic started and have used cup results to gauge the skill of players to draft in spl, as i am sure many players have done.
i don't think turning this into a swiss format would necessarily up the competitive stature of classic either. most of the people who don't have time to play decide to sit out generally. plenty of players have abstained from spl, which is 1 game a week, for the same reason. we can analyze pools year-over-year to see that principle in action. decreasing the number of games weekly does not really correlate strongly w/ who participates. instead, it appears to be a matter of base level activity which is determinative as to whether or not you participate at all.
as for the circuits, i don't see how incorporating the cups into an already frequent tournament schedule would do anything other than compromise the already existing schedule, and further depreciate the meaning of any individual cup as a gauge of competitive acumen.
Players with no interest in Classic playoffs can unintentionally block players who are trying to qualify.
i don't see this as an issue. why does it matter if somebody blocks you from playoffs in
any tour? if this was an issue, then we would have to completely get rid of smogon tour b/c half of the people who play live tours are uninterested in making poffs, and instead just want to sign up for a live tour and have fun with others (i.e. me). if you want to win a tour, then you're going to have to beat players who are/are not interested in making playoffs. further, what about people who lost to other players who
intended to make playoffs in the first place? does that also compromise competitive integrity? again, if you want to win any tournament on smogon, you are going to have to compete with individuals that are not holistically invested in the trophy and just playing for fun.
A player who only plays two tiers can qualify with strong Cup runs despite lacking experience in the other three—only to get immediately outclassed in the BO5 all-gens playoff structure.
isn't this the point of classic? one of the virtues of the cup format is that we see players who would not otherwise manage to make playoffs compete at the highest level. classic is a
holistic gauge of skill in gens 1-5. nobody is going to be strong in every single tier in a special way. when it comes to being purely and completely outclassed in a bo5 structure, i can't name many instances of that really happening. a player who is competent in at least a couple of gens is probably going to have a base level of skill solid enough to at least put up a fight in their weaker gens. classic playoffs will always have an imbalance of skill in playoffs, and personally, i think the sharp occasional imbalance in tier aptitude actually makes the playoffs more entertaining from a spectator perspective,
and from a player perspective.
case in point: going into classic i was very weak in rby and gsc. i developed my skill over time in each of these tiers, and was very committed during the playoffs phase to improve my skill in each. the bo5 / cup format encourages you to improve. i won every rby game in playoffs precisely because i dedicated an immense amount of time to practicing openings and re-learning mechanics that i might have brushed aside if i knew that i was not going to be playing any rby specialists.
i could delve more into the aesthetic components of classic as a tour which truly acts as a showcase for our old generations, but other users have already touched upon that extensively (it also probably isn't the most persuasive argument). regardless, i really would want classic to stay the way it is because i think the inherent difficulty of truly mastering 5 tiers in their individually cups is cooler to watch, play, and is more competitive in both the knockout and playoffs phase. as for scheduling, yeah, it can be a pain in the ass to play/schedule 5 games a week until you lose a cup, but half of us are online 24/7 anyway. i am in law school + work and i won the last edition of classic. i guarantee you that conflict, mcmeghan, august, fear, mdrag, abr, and soulwind all have jobs too. hell, some of us even have children.
