Tournament AGPL VII - Format Discussion

What tier do you want to be featured in AGPL VII?

  • Keep the format the same as last year (i.e. 3 SV Bo1 + 1 SV Bo3)

    Votes: 19 41.3%
  • 2nd SM AG

    Votes: 4 8.7%
  • SS NDAG (DLC 1)

    Votes: 15 32.6%
  • 2nd SS AG

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • Wildcard

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • DPP AG

    Votes: 6 13.0%

  • Total voters
    46
  • This poll will close: .

Murphy Lawden

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Hi everyone! AGPL VII is coming in the near future and we would like to hear input on the structure of the tour and tiers selected.

We would like to do something similar to last year - 6 teams, and 10 players minimum per team (8 starters + 2 subs) with 8 slots. There will be a 5-week round robin with the top team advancing straight to finals, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams play each other for the other spot.

Like last year, AGPL VII will award a custom avatar this year as well!

Tentative Schedule

Manager and Player Signups - 16th June
Auction - 27th / 28th / 29th June
Week 1 - 30th June

This year we are planning to lock for this year's AGPL:
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SV AG (Bo3)
- SS AG
- USUM AG
- ORAS AG
- Multigen Bo3 (SV / SS / SM)

Some ideas for the remaining slot:
- 4 SV slots work fine but oversaturate the tour with SV which may not be desirable to some.
- Other formats that are being considered are SSNDAG and DPP AG but it's difficult to justify them over the former choices.
- 2 SS/SM slots is the main alternative to this but we were worried about the quality of games in this slot + that we're giving priority to SS/SM over the other old gens for no real reason.

Here is a list of the formats used in the past three AG team tours for reference:
SV AG
SV AG
SV AG Bo3
SS AG
SS AG
USUM AG
USUM AG
Multigen Bo3
SV AG
SV AG
SV AG
SV AG Bo3
SS AG
USUM AG
ORAS AG
Multigens Bo3
SV AG
SV AG
SV AG
SV AG Bo3
SS AG
SS AG
USUM AG
USUM AG
ORAS AG
Multigen Bo3

------

Discuss your hearts out! Thread should have a conclusion by 15th June at the latest!
 
:rayquaza-mega: AGPL time :summerchu:


Ok, I’ve got a few things to say about this.

I think that with the player base that we have and with AGPL being the flagship tournament, we can comfortably run 8 or 9 slots. That, of course, leaves the question what to fill the remaining 1 or 2 slots with. I agree that simply adding another SV slot would feel like too much SV in the tour. However, if we fill AGPL with 9 slots, SV and something else, I don’t think that’s a bad idea. There are a lot of up-and-coming SV players, and as a result I think it would be great to provide them with more opportunities to be a part of these team tournaments.

About the other tiers, I agree that we could change it up rather than doubling up on SS/SM slots. That being said, I don’t really think that DPP is the right play, because the “active” player base for it consists of like 4 people. It would certainly bring more attention to the tier, but I think that adding it is more catering to a niche group of people than it would benefit AGPL over something else. Moreover, I think it would cause stress for managers trying to pick up someone that can play the tier, and then also someone that can cover it as a sub. And the people also actually would have to choose to play it over a different tier.

SSNDAG (DLC 1 or later versions) on the other hand, I think would be a great addition. I know it was brought up for AGWL in 2024, and honestly I’m not sure why it was dropped. I think that SSNDAG is an iconic tier that was once a core part of AG, and it’s sad to me that we don’t see the tier out anymore. Of course, this could just be some bureaucratic thing I’m not aware of, but if it’s on the table then I think we should totally have it as a slot. We definitely have the player base to support it, even more so with the attention it has already from SSNDPL. It’s a fun change of pace, and I think it’s long overdue for a spot back in AG team tours.

Another possible idea I’d like to bring up is something akin to flex slots. We recently saw it out of UMBD, and I quite enjoyed the extra planning and strategy that came from it. I think some of the issues with it was that it would be hard to cover multiple niche slots and so some flex slots were just automatic wins/losses. I think this would be much less of an issue in AG, as it would be easy to slot in a player for SV, SS, or USUM. Of course, flex slots would require two slots and thereby take out other potential tiers. Maybe include SSNDAG as a flex slot option? That could be a solid idea. I’m not particularly vying for or against the idea of flex slots as an AGPL addition, I simply thinking that it was interesting and wanted to bring it up.

There’s one more thing I want to cover: the number of teams. We have done 6 teams for the past AGWL and AGPL, and that has worked wonderfully. That being said, I think that our player base has increased somewhat, and as a result, I know that people (myself included) have brought up having 8 teams. Compared to the number of last AGWL and the fact that AGPL would have more signups, I think we could certainly field enough players to do it. I think we could safely do 8 slots with that, making the remaining slot either SV or SSNDAG. That being said, having 8 teams would really spread out the players. I don’t know if people are particularly for or against that, but I personally think that with the numbers we have, it could result in teams being noticeable weaker than others after the auction. Of course, that’s maybe more of a manager issue, but that being said with 8 teams we also need to have 8 sets of strong managers. Oh and AG team tours have a certain trend of [redacted]… so maybe it’s not the best idea for now to spread to 8 teams when one of them could just disappear overnight.

That’s all from me for right now. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people think, and am psyched for an awesome AGPL!
 
SSNDAG (DLC 1 or later versions) on the other hand, I think would be a great addition. I know it was brought up for AGWL in 2024, and honestly I’m not sure why it was dropped. I think that SSNDAG is an iconic tier that was once a core part of AG, and it’s sad to me that we don’t see the tier out anymore. Of course, this could just be some bureaucratic thing I’m not aware of, but if it’s on the table then I think we should totally have it as a slot. We definitely have the player base to support it, even more so with the attention it has already from SSNDPL. It’s a fun change of pace, and I think it’s long overdue for a spot back in AG team tours.
i second the idea of DLC 1 SSNDAG, i signed up for SSNDPL and got to have my first look at the tier after avoiding dynamax like the plague and i have to admit it's probably one of the most competitive AG tiers and would be a genuinely great addition to this year's AGPL. with the amount of newer players this year (me included! :D), SSNDAG DLC 1 would definitely be a great choice over adding a 4th SV slot and would diversify the amount of formats in this year's AGPL. i feel like having the last slot as DPP would bring more attention to it, but with the main playerbase being very small it would be hard for every team to actually have someone who can play DPP, let alone sub
 
don't add ss ndag it's not a real tier with no info and 0 play for like 4 years straight. it would just be like 5 people who liked the tier at the time reusing builds from 2020. I think either 4 sv or contingent on signups we could include dpp in the OP and see how many people want to play it. I think since dpp is the only ag tier with proper differences not fully integrated into the circuit aside from its minitour it could be given a chance. If we do 4 sv I also think the bo3 slot could be changed to a bo1, since prepping that much sv is a lot and if we add more slots we could reduce the number of games a bit but still sv will be by far the biggest majority.
 
I would like to bring up Pre-DLC SV as a suggestion. I don’t know if this is a fully realistic option that one could see in team tournaments, but I think it makes for a pretty good option compared to others. SV before any of the DLCs (though still after home integration) is arguably the best moment for SV, as teambuilding was not as restrictive or single-minded, and playing it was a lot of fun. I think that including this solves problems in that it is not the stale meta of SV that we see now, but also is still basically our current generation of AG. In doing so we also are not forced to provide an extra tier to one of the old gens, don’t have to deal with the policy debacles of SSNDAG, and don’t have to rely on DPP which doesn’t have a real playerbase. I don’t know how plausible it is, but Murphy said they would be able to code it, and so I guess it falls now to whether or not people would approve of it. I think that the complaints of SV oversaturation come from it being now a stale meta that isn’t fun to build for, and with this slightly different meta people might enjoy it more.

e: I would like to say though I definitely prefer SSNDAG more. Icemaster’s post below gives me hope that it can surpass the issues around it regarding policy. I do think that it is the best addition we could add in terms of tier enjoyment and overall balance in AGPL.
 
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don't add ss ndag it's not a real tier with no info and 0 play for like 4 years straight. it would just be like 5 people who liked the tier at the time reusing builds from 2020. I think either 4 sv or contingent on signups we could include dpp in the OP and see how many people want to play it. I think since dpp is the only ag tier with proper differences not fully integrated into the circuit aside from its minitour it could be given a chance. If we do 4 sv I also think the bo3 slot could be changed to a bo1, since prepping that much sv is a lot and if we add more slots we could reduce the number of games a bit but still sv will be by far the biggest majority.
I wasn't gonna post on this thread but there's a lot of misconceptions here that I will clear up for Fc:
  • SS NDAG DLC 1 doesn't have any play for 4 years straight... because it hasn't existed in AGPL and other tournaments or on the sim ladders for the past 4 years. Still, there was a strong pool of players dedicated enough to signup for it in the recent SSNDPL
  • Everyone reuses builds in AG. Saying this is all people will do for this format is pure speculation and doesn't even matter! Give the format time to redevelop. And besides the SSNDPL pool has a lot of newer AG players who are trying it out for the first time and enjoying it read this thread!
  • DPP AG has a much weaker footing to be in this tour than SS NDAG DLC 1. Both are oldgens, but one was THE main AG format for a year, and has an actual playerbase. There's no reason it should get preferential format over SS NDAG DLC 1
  • Lastly I feel like Fc is operating from a philosophical standpoint or the standpoint that "it would look weird for the main AG tournament to have an 'oldgen petmod natdex spin-off' that requires a custom ruleset". I get this point and understand why you'd stand against its inclusion but you have to realise:
    1. This is AGPL - the whole point is to add formats the community will enjoy - there is no philosophical argument about whether the tier should or should not exist that is relevant
    2. SS NDAG DLC 1 is an oldgen, and should be treated as such. This is understood by the AG playerbase and everyone who was around at that time.
Here's some extra points from last time we discussed this. Read it
 
DPP AG sounds atrocious and completely ruled by Darkrai.

4SV also sounds icky, 3 is a nice number. No tour needs to have more than 3 of the same slot imo. Seems bound to feel stale at a certain point, because of the sheer amount of SV being played (esp considering there's both a full SV Bo3 and also an SV game as part of the multigen)

I think any of the other options are fine, I'm personally voting SM cause I think it sounds fun enough.
 
trshcnkorionreverse.png
Keep the format the same as last year (i.e. 3 SV Bo1 + 1 SV Bo3):
trshcnkorion.png

Just don't, 6-7 SV teams a week, same amount of games, the tier is awful currently, many players would agree with me on this, the tier is not fun enough to justify having 6 TO 7 teams and games a week, SS or SM would only have 2 games and teams a week, more than 50% of the games in the week would be SV. 3 SV BO1 + no SV in multi is the best option for SV imo.

:rayquaza-mega: 2nd SM AG: :rayquaza-mega:
This one is interesting, AGWL had enough players to make it very nice, enjoyed it a LOT, that's my favorite option.

:zacian-crowned: SS NDAG (DLC 1): :zacian-crowned:

People doesn't dislike it because the tier is bad but because "it shouldn't be there", GUYS I PREFER THIS RATHER THAN DPP OR 7 SV A WEEK. I don't play this but everyone say it's fun, the other natdex tournament with it had great signups, great potential to make strong player returns in AGPL and potentially support other old gen slots, sounds good.

:necrozma-dusk-mane: 2nd SS AG: :necrozma-dusk-mane:
As much as I love SS AG I don't think that can work, not with enough quality for it to be nice. AGWL had nice SS overall though I believe, so not against it, SM is way more popular though and I think most people would prefer to watch 2 SM rather than 2 SS.

:Unown: Wildcard: :Unown:
That's a very good one imo (If it's SS/SM/ORAS, complete trash if SV), same than oldgen bo3 but only 1 game, oldgen bo3 is my fav tier in PL, 2 oldgen bo3 would be too much but 1 old gen bo3 + 1 wildcard is very interesting, I highly support it.

:Cramorant-Gulping: Digression: :Cramorant-Gulping:

Probably by now you get that I support old gens a lot, that was AG peak era and most enjoyed AG gens, sure format rules is necessary but mons is a game before everything and the point of a game is to be fun, I prefer to see a tier that is fun rather than an unfun tier because "yes but it's the current gen". Not only referring to SV slots or SS NDAG, just as a whole, new generation people say they don't know much/at all about old gens, are we gonna forget those tiers from the past that were enjoyed so much to play current gen instead? Can't we just offer newer player who didn't know oldgen a chance to watch old gens games, or even play those? The overall playerbase decreased a lot in the last few years, overall level or hype, we were close to have USUM AG in SMPL, have you ever seen SV AG being Accepted as a tournament tier in a PL? SMPL said USUM AG would be part of the tournament, even though it got cut off it was choosen in the first place, to me it just confirm USUM AG is a very enjoyed and popular tier, way more than SV is. It's not our fault if SV is less fun than USUM, but forcing to have so much SV like the 7 games a week idea feels wrong for such reasons, we don't know who voted in the poll but anyone is allowed to vote, and that's including people who are obviously gonna be undrafted but vote SV because more SV slots = more chance for them to be drafted, since that's the only gen they know. I'm part of the ppl who would support getting an USUM AG ladder in 2025 as it's by far the most enjoyed AG gen overall, mons is a game and I'm looking at fun before everything else, old gens are more enjoyed, and waaaaay less clowned on, I don't care about "we need to have current gen > rest", I care about the people who'd play in the tour, what they want, if they want SV let it be SV, but allow old gens if that is what people want, a public poll can't show us what players want since anyone can vote, looking at what people said in this thread/disc SV isn't very supported, i'd like to see more discussions about this, or a poll sent to last year players, something like that.

:darkrai: DPP AG: :Darkrai:

The reason why I made such a huge post about old gen before the final tier, DPP is an exception, no real playerbase, we have a DPP tour every year, look at 2024 one, the number of signup was so low, almost all of them were people with less than 10 posts, very few games were played, and the ones played I can safely say they weren't has high level as what SM or SS or even SV slot are. What's the point in a slot where players are people that will probably make a lot of mistakes? that's not fun to watch. And yes a few players like JK or Bread Sandwich like this tier and play it, is this enough to make a playerbase? A metagame? clearly not, the thing is, even if we can get a player for each team, that'll just be the 3k slot end auctions, literally the slot managers don't care about as there isn't even enough people who play this on a common basis to have 1 slot/team, even DPP Ubers players don't want to signup to play DPP AG, so what do you think will happen in the auctions? Managers will draft whatever DPP OU/lower tiers player sign up and will tell them to do something, or they will draft whatever else they can for 3k, There is no chance managers spend more than 4k on their DPP slot, this tier would just make AGPL worse imo, it's a team tournament, players are supposed to work in team, not a slot being left completely alone because no one know DPP.

:cramorant-gorging: Final Point: :cramorant-gorging:

First of all, I've been told poll alone won't decide what the final tier is, it's just to consider what people like, so don't feel forced to vote for x option because you prefer it over x, like vote ndag because you just don't want SV and other options have no chance, that's not the point, vote for your favorite option, if it's less popular than like the top 1 you should really make a support post for it, that's what will matter the most when host make the final decision, if you bring strong arguments to your tier it could be selected, if you don't don't complain the selected tier is one you don't like. Also I'd like to point out that we have a WINTER LEAGUE, this tournament is a smaller one, and is the perfect occasion to try things (we tried 2 SS + 2 SM this year) like DPP, don't try new things in the biggest AG teamtour of the year. Also don't make multigen but oldgen plz, way funnier, or allow ppl to start with whatever tier they want, forced SV g1 is terrible. Finally, here is a few format options I'd like:

- SV AG
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SS AG
- USUM AG
- USUM AG
- ORAS AG
- Multigen Bo3 (SS / SM / ORAS)

---------------------------------------------------

- SV AG
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SS AG
- SS NDAG DLC 1
- USUM AG
- ORAS AG
- Multigen Bo3 (SS / SM / ORAS)

---------------------------------------------------

- SV AG
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SS AG
- USUM AG
- ORAS AG
- Wildcard (SS / SM / ORAS)
- Multigen Bo3 (SS / SM / ORAS)

---------------------------------------------------

Thanks to the few people who read it all, remember to fight against 7 SV games/week, and have a good day or night! :cramorant:
 
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SV AG
- SS AG
- SS NDAG DLC 1
- USUM AG
- ORAS AG
- Multigen Bo3 (SS / SM / ORAS)
impo this is the best option here. the critiques that SS NDAG is "not a real format" or "goes against policy" don't make any sense in the slightest to me. entro already conversed with the nd leaders and confirmed that it's up for discussion (entro tytytytyty tysmmm) and it's not like we're significantly altering the game, like artificially boosting stats or adding new pokemon, it's still the same core mechanics from the pokemon games, just bringing back old mechanics to blend with a new one in a genuinely great and fun way. from the few test games i played with swas to the samples i got from the forums back when i signed up for SSNDPL, i could tell the amount of love the tier had and how genuinely fun it was as a player. a 4th SV slot would leave a bad taste in players' mouths, a DPP slot would have an extreme playerbase issue, RL's statement on a second SS slot follows into here, and i don't really hate a second SM slot and wouldn't be entirely disappointed if that was selected, but i truly think that the best option for this AGPL would be to have SS NDAG DLC 1 as the last slot because of all the positive things it could do and the lack of a negative impact on this year's AGPL.
 
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