Rules and Tournament Format
General Tournament Rules
- This is a standard BW OU tournament
- This will be a Ladder Tournament into Single Elimination, Best of Three, Top 8 Playoffs
- Ladder Portion Rules
- This tournament will be hosted on the regular Pokemon Showdown! BW OU ladder. All qualification will be done on this ladder. The Top 8 players (described below) will advanced to a single elimination, best of three playoffs.
- You need to make a new alt account for this tournament. Your alt name must begin with BWLT2. For example, I may register the alt "BWLT2 goldmason" for laddering. To give us a way to identify each account, please include in your sign-up post your alt name in plain text, as well as a picture of your laddering alt. You are not required to make a new alt for each ladder cycle.
- In order to sign up for the BW Ladder Tournament II, please create a post in this thread listing your alts. You are allowed ONLY ONE ALT; you may replace your current alt with a fresh one by editing your post to include your new alt only in the first three days of a cycle, and doing so will completely forfeit your old alt's eligibility to qualify for the playoffs. If an alt in the Top 4 at the end of a cycle is not registered in this thread at the time the cycle ends, it will be ignored.
- You must create and register a new alt in this thread before you play any battles on it.
- The ladder portion of the tournament spans 2 cycles lasting 7 days each. The cutoff times for each cycle are listed below; at the cutoff time, one of the moderators will take a screenshot of the ladder. In order to qualify for the playoffs, your alt must be among the top 4 newly made alts in the screenshot. If a player in the top 4 of a given cycle is already qualified, their alt will be ignored when counting the top 4 alts for that cycle.
- In order to break potential ties, the unrounded ELO of each player who qualifies in a given cycle will be recorded in order to break any potential ties. Your unrounded ELO can be found by using the following URL: https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/~~showdown/action.php?act=ladderget&user=[your username here]
- For the playoffs stage, players will be seeded by their ELO at their respective screenshot time
- All ladder games involving a player with a BWLT2 prefix are forced to be public. If you have the "Don't allow spectators" box checked when you start a BWLT2 game, your game will be public and you will be met with this message: "This battle is required to be public due to a player having a name starting with 'BWLT2'."
- Playoffs Portion Rules
- Rounds will be Best of Three. You may switch teams in between battles of the same set.
- Matches are to be played on Pokemon Showdown!. Smogtours is mandatory for the entirety of playoffs.
- Replays are required for all matches.
- Activity calls will be made by me, potentially with neutral assistance from a BW Moderator or Tournament Director. Coin flips will be done publicly on PS!
- In the event that something is added to or removed from the BW OU metagame in the middle of a round, that change will be in effect starting the next round.
- General Rules
- Do not cheat. Cheating will result in a disqualification. Additional punishments may be applied as necessary. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:
- Asking your opponent to forfeit on the ladder
- Ghosting or being ghosted by another player (e.g. while playing a set, asking for advice about what plays to make)
- Manipulating match outcomes (e.g. throwing a match in exchange for Smogon likes)
- Do not harass or insult your opponents. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone breaking this rule. Additional punishments may be applied as necessary.
- Do not cheat. Cheating will result in a disqualification. Additional punishments may be applied as necessary. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:
This tournament will award points towards the 2026 BW OU Circuit, which awards a ribbon to the winner of the entire circuit.
Resources
BW Discord
BW Resources
BW OU Sample Teams
Cycle Start & End Times + Qualifiers
(all times GMT-5)
Cycle 1
START | Monday, March 23rd at 1:30 AM
END | Sunday, March 29th at 8:00 PM
Qualifiers
N/A
Cycle 2
START | Sunday, March 29th at 8:00 PM
END | Sunday, April 5th at 5:00 PM
Qualifiers
N/A
