RE: Tier Inclusion & RBY Draft Formatting
Tier Inclusion
Whether RBYOMPL II will include 6 or 8 tiers will be decided by approximately Monday night, EST. The decision to include the additional tiers will be made based on the number and distribution of the signups. While these are not exact values, we are roughly aiming to see 100+ signups overall and 10+ unique signups per tier before we expand the tournament. Please understand: the presence of signups is the
only factor contributing to the inclusion of the expansion tiers.
If you are hoping to participate in the expansion tiers (RBY Draft and/or Stadium Rentals), I strongly encourage you to sign up as soon as possible because otherwise we as hosts will not know of your interest and will be more likely to exclude these tiers. I will remind you that you will be given a multiple-day warning during which you can request your signup post be edited or deleted if the expansion tiers end up being excluded. You can also preemptively lock out of tiers that you do not wish to play.
The two expansion tiers, RBY Draft and Stadium Rentals will either both be included or neither will be included.
RBY Draft Formatting
RBY Draft has been the subject of substantial speculation so I would like to clarify how I plan the format to work. Managers have received a version of this spiel already.
The draft will begin the week immediately after the player auction is done, and Week 1 of play will begin immediately after that. During the draft phase, each of the six teams will construct three separate draft rosters. By "draft roster," I mean the collection of Pokemon that the team has drafted and can use in-battle during the tournament. All six teams will participate in all three pools. The three drafts will run concurrently, but each one will start with a different team, being staggered such that each team will be guaranteed a first or second pick in one draft. The draft will snake in order until every team completes their draft. I am basing this draft roughly on my experience with the LGPL II Draft, if you want an example to pull from.
The draft board is currently in the works. It is primarily being prepared by me. The board is heavily influenced by the draft board created by Sabelette, which you can find
here. I am making some adjustments to the board to better accommodate the larger pool of participating teams and address some concerns that have been brought up by prospective players of the format. I plan to limit the number of Pokemon per team to a fixed 8 and to ban a few Pokemon, as to make the first pick a less lopsided advantage. If RBY Draft is included in RBYOMPL II, I will reveal the Draft Board within roughly 24 hours after said announcement, as to provide ample time for review leading up to the auction and draft. I will state now that this draft board will not be perfect. While I have nearly ten years of experience with RBY at this point, I am merely one player and RBY Draft is a very young metagame that requires a lot of theorizing ahead of time to make work. But we must start somewhere. This tournament is a key opportunity to learn how to make this tier better and have fun doing it.
Regarding the draft games themselves, they will be played in a best-of-three format. At the start of each week, the managers of each team will provide their lineups as well as the draft roster (1, 2, or 3) that their RBY Draft player will be using during their set that week. Players may not swap their draft roster between the games of their set, but they may change their teams between the games.
To avoid any conflicts of interest, should I be drafted, I will not assist my team with the draft process during that first week.
Thank you for your patience and I apologize for any confusion.