2022 BDSP Circuit Discussion

[dhelmise]

Hello!

The mod team wants the community's feedback on the approach we should take for the circuit we are making in 2022. Namely:

1. Should the circuit be OU-based, or should we include other BDSP metas (UU, Ubers, Monotype, etc) as well? If the latter, which ones?
2. Should we have a BDSP Premier League? If yes, the specifics of the PL tiers will be discussed closer to the actual PL date.

There will be two polls in this thread for people to vote for #1, and the thread will remain open for people to give feedback. After that poll, we will have another for #2 if the feedback given within the thread isn't conclusive. This will be open for about 3-6 days, so make sure to get your feedback in ASAP!

 

[Clone]

Keep it OU centric until you establish the other tiers. OU earlier in the year, others later on if you have them included so the broken shit gets banned and it's not a crapshoot

I prefer just OU but the above is probably your best course of action if you do include other tiers

 

[Dorron]

I would include more tiers than OU, but not many. Imo Ubers and UU would be the perfect additions to the circuit. A single-tier circuit seems boring for me and having more than one stablished and balanced tier, something tournaments help to achieve, will make it easier for people to try and play or main at least one of them in the future.

 

[dhelmise]

I feel like I should clarify: If we have multiple metas, this means a grand slam would be involved and the playoffs would be multi-meta instead of just OU ideally

 

[Glitchwood High]

I think making it an OU-only tournament would make the most sense at the moment. UU, Ubers and Monotype as of right now are very underdeveloped and very new. I wouldn't be surprised if those tournaments end with horrible sweeps because absurdly broken strategies weren't banned in time due to the metas being very new and unexplored. OU isn't all that, either, but it has an active enough population that by the time of the circuit, things would be reasonable.

Additionally, I firmly believe that the popularity of the other tiers will only increase with ou's prominence; none of the bdsp ou tiers exist in isolation rn. Splitting things right from the get go lacks focus that the tier needs atm.

As for the Premier League, I honestly aren't sure.

 

[AM]

OU based like Clone said. PL to include Ubers, x3 OU, UU, possibly Doubles now that Smeargle got banned. Lot of stuff undeveloped chaotic so tough to say about PL long term.

 

[Jirac]

i'd love if you'd include UU aslongside ou but i don't really mind in terms of the other formats :)

 

[zee]

personally my support was for having a grand slam (likely type B or type C) but still keeping playoffs all OU. this does a few things:

- gives lowertier enthusiasts probably the only other chance to play their tiers in a tour setting after these kickoff tours end
- allows the people simply interested in ou to skip it with fairly little consequence
- simplifies playoffs by keeping it to one tier

most official tier circuits have a classic which is functionally the same thing, as they allow formats to be played mostly for novelty while keeping playoffs to the "main" tier

 

[BlackDemonDealer]

I really don't mind but I would say OU-based right now because I feel as the other metas need more time to develop. I say maybe in the future when their metas are more developed would be better in general.

 

[Sputnik]

Agree with Clone that OU should be the focus earlier in the year, if the circuit includes other metas it should probably be like Ubers, UU, and maybe Mono but the main focus should be OU

A PL seems really fun and there are definitely enough tiers and players to support one imo so I'm all for that

 

[spell]

Grand Slam seems good, with the tiers consisting of Ubers, UU and Doubles. This should happen probably later in the year after all these metagame have been kinked out. PL is doable but a bit early to be considering it, I could see it being a possibility later in the year after we’ve given OU + the other tiers ample time to fully come into their own, but a circuit that consists of mostly OU would be preferred just in general for me. 2 seasonals, probably a ladder tournament, Slam, PL and then circuit playoffs from there. Could probably cope with another OU tournament but I don’t know if a Last Chance or a Majors would be done. I also don’t think Monotype has a place anywhere near this circuit, but that’s just me

Edit: PL format would be nice if it were 6 slots:
3x BDSP OU
1x BDSP Ubers
1x BDSP UU
1x BDSP DOU

6 slots kind of suck but this is just what’s in my mind

 

[kiru]

Keep it Ou based, grand slam as a side tour, pl to include grand slam tiers+ou. 8 slots is fine. Pretty sure there is a great chunk of tiers attempting to develop on this om so 5 other slots is neat for Ubers/UU/DUO/Mono/Ag or whatever

 

[ausma]

I'll keep this short since already quite a bit of ground has been covered, but here's my stance:

- OU-centric early on. This I think is really important considering the other BDSP formats are still really fresh whereas OU's stronger Pokemon and teamstyles have already been discovered and fairly cemented. Focusing early on with OU will give these other metagames the time necessary to develop and ground themselves, and we can still keep up leveled action in the 2022 circuit by featuring an already somewhat-established tier.
- I do think later on it's important to represent these other formats. Having it be OU-centric exclusively I believe will damage the longevity of the circuit, though as I said having them represented later on is definitely the move. I'm ok with this donning a Grand Slam-style format even if we keep it OU early on.
- Playoffs being exclusively OU makes a lot of sense and is something I personally support too. This could be my inexperience with Grand Slams speaking but I'm not quite sure how multimeta playoffs would pan out, though I imagine there would be a structure for it so I'm indifferent if this is preferred, whichever is generally more consistent for hosts to manage and participants to play with.

Regarding the PL discussion; I would love a BDSP-centric PL sometime in the future once BDSP's other formats stabilize and develop more opaque/rigid features. PLs are tried and true formats and are a phenomenal way to fostering the community and encourage creative and practical communication between players, and this especially applies considering that the general community is still looking to find its footing. The ideal slots for this imo would be as follows:

x3 BDSP OU
x1 BDSP UU
x1 BDSP DOU
x1 BDSP Ubers

You could also represent CAP/Monotype too if we're not comfy with 6 slots, though I think that is mostly dependent on the turnout of the PL itself.

 

[Lalaya]

Personally I love both Zee and ausma's ideas, in possibly having a Slam with other tiers to actually put emphasis in how all of them are important, but otherwise keeping the circuit more OU-centric as for now. Our main tier is still very underdeveloped, the others are even worse right now, so I'd definitely use the circuit to make progress in OU first to then get a better handle on our subtiers later on, especially since I see there's already a definite interest in lower tiers (UU, Ubers and Doubles are very played right now, with Monotype falling a bit behind and CAP... being just born) and it will only benefit the circuit and the whole BDSP metagame as a whole.
I voted OU-based on the poll, but I definitely agree our subtiers should eventually be allowed in due time.

 

[AM]

I dont understand providing circuit points for metas that are not OU, then having the playoffs be all OU. Just have a grand slam of sorts without OU then for some prize or something and keep it separate. The Type B/C stuff already weird when they're usually not really to the primary format.

For what's worth and contrary to people saying the metas are super crazy/unbalanced most of these formats are playable with the exception of the following, so you dont need half a year to start a PL.

OU needing to ban Manaphy (maybe Latios though its not broken but its too much with the other stuff in the format guess we'll find out).
UU needing to ban Salamence.
Ubers needing to clause Moody out.
Doubles pending it needs either a sleep clause or Breloom banned because it's quite lame in that format but metas like 2 weeks old.

x6 slots would be my preferred and just have 10 teams or something to make up the loss in slots. I can't say much about all the other stuff right now but I know these formats are fun/playable enough to where you have enough interest and can form better meta development than a bunch of clickers on ladder/room tours. The "lower tiers" aren't as bad as being made out to be minus the points above.

 

[dhelmise]

Okay, sorry for the delay, but things seem to be wrapping up here.

Taking the poll into consideration, as well as the posts in this thread, the mod team has decided to do the following:

• The 2022 BDSP circuit will be mainly focused on OU; however, there will be a Grand Slam.
• The Grand Slam tiers (as well as Grand Slam playoffs) will not be Type A (their dedicated types will be determined later) to ensure that people who care about OU still have a fair chance to make it into the top 16.
• We will have a BDSP Premier League; the tiers mainly seem to have been decided in this thread, but we will discuss specifics later.
  • Other BDSP team tours are currently unconfirmed; we will have to see how the community grows to determine adding other stuff later into the year.

The tournament schedule will come out soon. Thanks for your participation!