Identity
Users are expected to play on identifiable accounts. They may choose not to, but if asked must comply with identification requests by an opponent, either via switching to an account you are identifiable on, or via a Smogon message. Do not assume an account that you use regularly in other tours or with your friends is "identifiable." Use an account that matches your Smogon username or is in your About page to avoid this problem.
Scouting
Going through publicly posted teams or available replays from other tournaments / rounds / the PS! replays site is understandable and an acceptable play in tournament prep. Using power given on Smogon or PS! to find things unavailable to the regular user, such as deleted posts, PS alt account connections, or hidden rooms, is unacceptable and can result in loss of access.
Do not badger an opponent's friends, teammates, or previous opponents for information, respect their wishes for privacy if asked. Divulging private information about someone's planned team to their opponent is never allowed, and will be heavily sanctioned. Requesting that such information be divulged is also grounds for punishment. Keep your scouting to publicly available information and you'll be fine.
Timer and Disconnections
The timer is expected to be on from the start of every game until its conclusion, unless indicated otherwise in a tournament's rules (such as a ghosting tour). Please be respectful of each other's time while in-game, battle timeouts are there for a reason.
If you run out of time, you lose. If you disconnect and run out of time to reconnect, you lose. For particularly high stakes games, under certain conditions, a Tournament Director may be able to recreate a game played on Smogtours, but do not rely on or expect this. It is the responsibility of the player that disconnected to get a TD into the room before it expires (15 minutes), as once a room expires there is no chance of recreation. A game played on Main can never be recreated.
Communication
Schedule your games via public wall/visitor messages (VMs) to make it possible for hosts to track activity claims when needed. Use
this guide to ensure that you don't lose via activity or go to a coinflip. If you use other means of contacting your opponent, such as private messages on Smogon, Discord or PS! messages of any sort, or another platform altogether, then provide all scheduling conversations should you need to make an activity claim.
Remember that late contact is not grounds for an activity claim. If extensions are even possible, they will only be provided in circumstances where contact was early enough and you and your opponent were unable to find a time during the standard schedule to play and have already found a time during the standard extension window to play. The further you stray from that ideal, the less likely an extension request is to be granted.
Server
The default server to play tournament matches on is
Smogtours. An acceptable alternative, should both players agree to go to it, is the main Pokemon Showdown server. No other server is allowed, even if both users agree to it. If one user requests to play on Main and the other user requests to play on Smogtours, the game must be played on Smogtours.
Bugs
Any battle mechanics not properly implemented in the simulator used for a tournament battle are fair game, unless explicitly banned by that tournament's rules. Illegal movesets that are not restricted by the simulator fall into this category as well. However, this does not include faulty tier scripts; for example, if there was a bug in the BW OU tier script that allowed you to use Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team, taking advantage of this would result in disqualification in that battle. If a game breaking glitch is discovered, we will make a blanket tournament ban on that glitch via an announcement in the Tournaments forum until it is fixed.
Cheating, Throwing, and Poor Sportsmanship
Respect yourself and your fellow players. The
Tournament Rules go into more detail on each of these topics, but the short answer is that players who do any of the above acts risk removal from the tournament, infractions, or worse.
