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Announcement AAAPL IV Format Discussion

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Betticus IV

Betticus IV

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With manager sign-ups for the fourth edition of AAAPL going up July 10th, we wanted to work out some details for this years format.

As a refresher, last year there were six teams, with a minimum of 8 players, and 3 subs. A total of 8 tiers were played. These were:
SV Almost Any Ability (3 slots)
SV Almost Any Ability Ubers
SV Almost Any Ability UU
SS Almost Any Ability
SV National Dex Almost Any Ability
SV Almost Any Ability Doubles.

More information about the previous tour format can be found here.

With the advent of Pokebilities AAA permaladder and its continued success, the tier will be included in this years iteration of AAAPL. There are two options that come with this:

1. Replacing one of the previous slots with Pokebilities, keeping the total slot count at 8. The decision of which slot is replaced would be made through community feedback.
2. Expanding this years edition to have 10 slots, to accommodate Pokebilities without cutting any of the previous slots/metas. Additional eligible formats to fill the 10th slot include:

- SM
- ORAS
- BW
- DPP
- ADV
- SV Bo3
- Stour Bo3 (SV, SS, SM)
- Masters Bo3 (SS, SM, ORAS)
- SV STAAABmons -> (including because its the only other OM mashup with AAA in it)

If there are any other AAA related formats that players would like to see included that is not found on this list, or if there are any existing formats that players would like to see replaced, please give your opinion in the thread and consideration will be made if enough support is shown!
 
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I would like to throw in a shout for Draft AAA as well; they’ve successfully run at least two forum tours in the draft forum and it was fun as heck to play. I think it has the user base to be slotted into the tour without stretching signups.

Agree with including pokeAAA, then filling out the rest of the slots with oldgens or lower tiers is up to what the community wants.
 
My preferred format for 8 is

SV
SV
PokeAAA
UU
Doubles
SS
SM
ORAS

But I would much prefer 10 to 8, and then fit in natdex and a Bo3. We should have plenty of signups for 6 teams of 10, and 10 slot tournaments are inherently more hype as long as they aren’t 4 of the same meta. I think anything older than Oras that never got played should be deprioritized, and I was not especially enthused by AAA Ubers last year. I wouldn’t hate a STAAABmons I suppose.
 
I would like to use my immense OM influence to give AAA Draft a shoutout. It's a very fun format to play and it has a dedicated community. Integrating draft into team tournaments has also been done before across other forums and it often seems to be very well-recieved.
 
not an aaa main but just wanna share my thoughts on a lineups

SV
SV
SV
SS
SM
ORAS
Draft
PokeAAA
Doubles

if 10 slots then add uu and one of BW or Ubers

I’m really not seeing anyone talk about PokeAAA that much, which is insane because I genuinely think it should be a guaranteed lock in. Not only has it’s popularity exploded in recent months, it also has it’s own permanent ladder now. Also support aaa draft, pretty tuff
 
Lightniong said:
I’m really not seeing anyone talk about PokeAAA that much, which is insane because I genuinely think it should be a guaranteed lock in.
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Betticus IV said:
With the advent of Pokebilities AAA permaladder and its continued success, the tier will be included in this years iteration of AAAPL.
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:worrywhirl:

If we're gonna include PokeAAA, replacing an SV slot makes the most sense to me. This tier is really similar to SV, to the point where most sets you can run in AAA can see success in PokeAAA doing the exact same thing. I also think there are some things that are too restrictive in builder that maybe need to go first. (Mamo and talon in particular)

If we're doing 10 then add PokeAAA and Draft. Draft has more support in this thread alone than USUM has like anywhere.
 
Tiers I think should be included in any proposal:

At least two SV - it’s our flagship meta and not having at least two slots of it seems silly

PokeAAA - it has a successful perma ladder, seems relatively popular, and decently well balanced. And OMMs need love and this is a great place for it

NatDex - our other current gen format, also popular and well balanced, especially with Z-moves banned.

Tiers I would very strongly consider:

The lower tiers (Ubers, UU, Doubles) - our other current gen metas that have been included in the last two iterations. I’d ideally like to see all of them, especially since Doubles and to some degree Ubers pull from different player pools than normal.

Draft - I already briefly vouched for them, but to elaborate they got 180 something signups for their inaugural tour, it draws a very new player pool, and I at least found it fun as hell to build and explore lesser-used mons. It does have the downside of extending the tour an extra week to draft, but I would not consider that a dealbreaker.

SS - it’s the largest and (arguably) most well balanced of our oldgens, and we still have some active players from that era. Was also in last year

A third SV - hey, it’s an option, and helps scout new talent. We might even find another matte.

Tiers I would not strongly consider:

Any type of bo3. They’re grueling, and especially if we do multi-gen, we’re asking someone to build three different tiers with likely minimal support.

ORAS and USUM - they haven’t been in the last two iterations, and when we surveyed them, they got dead last. I don’t think that’s changed.

BW - it’s a little funnier than the other two, but I still think it’s a bad idea to include a tier that was never contemporarily played and has barely been tiered.

STAAAB - to my knowledge it has seen comparatively little development this gen, especially compared to PokeAAA, although Miss Crisis if I’m wrong please feel free to correct me

If we’re sticking with eight slots, I think the format that makes the most sense is run back last year’s but with PokeAAA over SV3 (giving us SV1 / SV2 / PokeAAA / Ubers / UU / Doubles / Natdex / SS). I would also be willing to hear out Draft over SS or a lower tier.

If we go for ten slots, I think Draft needs to be included to get the new player pool, and would likely advocate for SV1-3 / PokeAAA / Ubers / UU / Doubles / Natdex / SS / Draft.

I love the oldgens but I just don’t see a way to fit them in.
 
If we stay 8, I’d love to see
SVx2
Natdex
UU
Ubers
Doubles
PokeAAA
SS

Draft is a great option but imo we would need to go to 10 slots for that to work. A second old gen alongside that would be cool but I would like to throw out the idea of a second Natdex as well, I think it would be a really fun prospect although not sure how many Mainers we can find and how much strain it places on supports. I think it’d be fun
 
im not part of the aaa community but i would absolutely sign up to play aaa draft if it was included here. easiest path towards doing so seems to be 10 slots which for a 6 team pl is probably entirely reasonable, especially with draft pulling from a different side of the website to not worry about stretching the playerbase too thin. same format as last year with pokeaaa + draft sounds good based on the direction of this thread so far
 
i'd love to see these tiers, 8 or 10 doesnt matter to me as long as we have enough budget to get the players we need + actual talent pool :)
aaa1 + aaa2 (duh)
aaa3: lets the newer/underdog players get a shot
bo3: veteran players should be rewarded/tested with multiple generations of meta knowledge
ss: above, and makes it so theres 2 tiers where u want a ss player so ur ss slot/building matters "more"
uu: seemed fun last aaapl
ubers: same as above
rest of the tiers im really open to anything, draft as other ppl mentioned in the thread seems like a sick idea, esp how much u can customize a team in aaa.
 
porcupine21 said:
I would like to throw out the idea of a second Natdex as well
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Want to respond to clarify for other future posters, we would like to not double up any formats if expanded to 10 (ex. 2 SV UU, 2 Natdex, etc), and instead use those extra slots to explore the different aaa metas.

UT said:
At least two SV
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Forgot to say this in the OP, there will always be a minimum of 2 SV AAA slots no matter the format of 8 vs 10 slots.
 
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Posting to advocate for keeping ND AAA. The format is a pretty healthy mix of ND and OM folks and would heavily benefit from more high level games after the recent tiering changes. This tour is also likely to have higher level games than NDAMPL so that would be good. We've also collaborated a fair bit with draft in three tours now and it has been a great experience every time. The draft folks are both passionate and organized and should be heavily considered. It doesn't add any meaningful extra work for either the hosts or managers
 
Will die on the hill that pokeaaa should be included. I also do see points about old gens restricting the pool and people not having a ton of support. But I do think a a SM slot / a sv/ss/sm bo3 slot should also being included. I haven’t played natdex but if nd aaa is in ndampl then I don’t think it 100% has to be included.
Think my ideal 8 slot is:
Sv
Sv
Ss
Doubles
Pokeaaa
Ubers
Uu
Bo3 sv/ss/sm

And then 10 slot adds
A dedicated sm slot
And a nd / another sv / draft
 
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SV1 | SV2 | Ubers | UU | Doubles | ND | Poke | Draft + SS/Old Gen Bo3 | SV3/BW

Last year we had 180 sign ups, I think this year we will lose some players with "retirement" and maybe burnout with gen progression, but I think fielding the original 8 would still be quite feasible, and adding Poke + Draft is new pools which won't be an issue at all. If its not clear I think Draft is a great inclusion. Seems to have playerbase + is external, and based on what I've read in other subforum discussions the benefits seem good.

I'm pretty outspoken about disliking old gens generally, and feel free to correct me on any blatant bs im yapping about. I think the player pools tend to be static which can lead to issues having enough players especially with players in the pool slotting other tiers or just not signing up. Development also tends to have been way more complete and there usually is a lot of reusing and recycling which doesn't feel very interesting or engaging, both as spectators and in a teamcord situation where you have less teammate collab.
I think BW is an exception, because its a retro old gen and so theres plenty of fresh development to happen, and unlike any other retro old gens it had a tour relatively recently.
However SS tends to have a larger playerbase and some innovation so I can see keeping it. I also did see an idea to make a Bo3 old gen slot (probably 876) which I think is interesting as you only take up one player slot.

I also think SV3 is definitely unnecessary for a 8 slot tour, but I can maybe understand having it in a 10 slot if people really do not like the alternatives (BW). I think with SV being more stagnant than the other tiers it would be just more interesting to fit those in while possible, and any newer prospective players I think already have reasonable chances with 2 SV slots. Also Draft is in SV which kind of half hits that 3rd SV slot. So overall I prefer another tier if any of them have interest.

I'm somewhat biased for Ubers. I do agree last years games might have been less appealing than the year before with a lot more cheese? but I think we can do tiering to maybe fix some issues people have and I think the tier is unique enough while being favoured by some players to justify keeping its spot.

Also going to note here as host that if Draft were to be included we would likely be moving signups a week ahead (July 3) to accommodate for the 1 week post auction for the draft.
 
Posting as myself not mod team yada yada…

Personally I think the best route is expanding to 10, including pokebilities and draft. This is due to the facts chess laid out and I personally don’t see a reason to cut previous metas as they all had success. The only thing I personally disagree with that I’ve seen multiple times is having multiple slots be oldgen (7 downwards), which frankly I don’t see as interesting and like chess mentioned would rather see it compressed into one slot as a bo3. If there is a 10 slot expansion I also think the third SV slot is flexible, and I would like to see some form of bo3 there instead (maybe the stours/masters one I previously mentioned). That’s because I find longer series like those very interesting as a spectator.

I also think an old gen masters/bo3 would be interesting as that was something discussed as a stand-alone tour (see potential aaa circuit thread), and AAAPL could be a bit of a testing ground/proof of concept for if its interesting or not.

With all that said, my ideal line up would be:

2x SV (even 1 of these could be bo3 ngl), UU, Natdex, Ubers, SS, Pokebilities, SV Draft, Doubles, Masters/stour Bo3
 
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Don't do bo3, people think they want it until they actually have to build (and inevitably complain later on), and there are 93942032940324 versions of AAA to fill slots with anyway.

+ pokebilities aaa is an insane tier, would recommend giving it a chance over one of the oldgens
 
Hello as mentioned in the prior post Manager Signups will be up this Friday (July 3), and so this thread will be closed on Thursday (July 2).
After discussion, we will be expanding AAAPL to 10 slots, with extra slots being Pokebilities AAA, and Draft AAA. In addition, the 3rd SV AAA slot is only tentative and not locked in, and can be replaced by another tier if there is sufficient interest. In other words, these are the current tiers decided:
SV 1
SV 2
SV UU
SV Ubers
SV Doubles
SV NatDex
SV Pokebilities
SV Draft
SS
SV 3 / Other

Discussion will be open until Thursday regarding final slot, or if there are strong oppositions to the rest of the tier lineup.
 
UT said:
For "other", would it be too crazy to just hard launch ChAAAmpions? We could carry over the ability banlist and use the native mons dex and just go from there.
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Unfortunately think it would, having a slot in a team tour be a completely new and untested tier that would definitely need serious work to balance does not sounds super competitive and would not be a fun way for a team to go out on a week. Would prefer to stick with more tested metas this time around.
 
gonna just say that I think an STour bo3 slot would be super awesome. i think there are enough people that can build for SS to justify 2 slots and enough for SM to have a place in a bo3. bo3s are super fun for spectators and i think stour would be a very good inclusion
 
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