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Competitive BATTLE-BY-POST LEAGUE CIRCUIT 24 - October 2025

I wouldn't mind reffing a match. Get back into the swing of things

October Signup Queue:
pratik2007
P2X7
epicdrill
Doduodrio
Gemini Taurus
TMan87
Keriel

October Reffing Queue:
Doduodrio (all the battles)
epicdrill (1 battle)
Hyjack (at least 1 ref post/day)
TMan87 (1 battle)
Keriel (1 battle)
Toon (1 battle)
 
I would definitely like to ref for all the possible battles I could!

October Signup Queue:
pratik2007
P2X7
epicdrill
Doduodrio
Gemini Taurus
TMan87
Keriel

October Reffing Queue:
Doduodrio (all the battles)
epicdrill (1 battle)
Hyjack (at least 1 ref post/day)
TMan87 (1 battle)
Keriel (1 battle)
Toon (1 battle)
AyushKr (all the battles)
 
Paid/Approved

October Signup Queue:
pratik2007
P2X7
epicdrill
Doduodrio
Gemini Taurus
TMan87
Keriel
TheEver

October Reffing Queue:
Doduodrio (all the battles)
epicdrill (1 battle)
Hyjack (at least 1 ref post/day)
TMan87 (1 battle)
Keriel (1 battle)
Toon (1 battle)
AyushKr (all the battles)
TheEver (1 battle)
 
My turn to fire up the device!

October 2023 Entrants:
  1. ( 1-0 ) pratik2007
  2. ( 0-0 ) P2X7
  3. ( 2-0 ) epicdrill
  4. ( 0-2 ) Doduodrio
  5. ( 2-1 ) Gemini Taurus
  6. ( 2-0 ) TMan87
  7. ( 0-1 ) Keriel
  8. ( 0-1 ) TheEver
  9. ( 1-0 ) S0L1D G0LD

October 2023 Pairing Procedure
With 9 participants, there has to be a bye. Only one player has at least two losses, so Doduodrio will not battle this month (sorry that this happened to you twice, Duo).

We have 3 entrants with two wins (epicdrill, Gemini Taurus, TMan87). We pair them first, in part based on signup order.

Pairing epicdrill with either Gemini Taurus or TMan87:​
1696132048029.png
epicdrill will battle Gemini Taurus!​

We have 1 remaining entrant with two wins (TMan87). We pair him up with one of the one-win players (pratik2007, S0L1D G0LD)

Pairing TMan87 with either pratik2007 or S0L1D G0LD:​
1696132255189.png
TMan87 will battle S0L1D G0LD!​

We have 1 remaining entrant with one win (pratik2007). We pair him up with one of the zero-win players (P2X7, Keriel, TheEver)

Pairing pratik2007 with P2X7, Keriel, or TheEver:​
1696132411400.png
pratik2007 will battle P2X7!​

And our final entrants, Keriel and TheEver, will battle each other.

I'm assigning refs, one of these days we really need to come up with an automated system for that.
October 2023 Pairings!

epicdrill 2-0 vs. Gemini Taurus 2-1
Ref: TMan87

TMan87 2-0 vs. S0L1D G0LD 1-0
Ref: Keriel

pratik2007 1-0 vs. P2X7 0-0
Ref: Doduodrio

Keriel 0-1 vs. TheEver 0-1
Ref: epicdrill​

Your teams and backpacks should be sent in, and your match threads posted, by October 4th UTC time!
Please use the format "League Circuit 4 - player1 vs player2" when posting match threads!

When you post a circuit match, or when it concludes, please help us out with our bookkeeping by linking to it in this thread.

Thank you all for signing up, and have fun!
 
November 2023
To celebrate the definitely international tradition of thanking, this arena is centered on offering your opponent kind gifts for them to enjoy during the battle. Sharing is caring! Snacks, anyone?
  • Match Type - b6p3 Singles
  • Ref DQ: 36 Hours before Assist
  • Player DQ: 24 Round Hours / 72 Battle Hours
  • Species Restriction - On
  • Battle Level - 4
  • Substitution Count - 4
  • Recovery Count - 2
  • Chill Count - 5
  • Switching - On
  • Ability Count - All
  • Advanced Techniques - All
  • Technique Control - 1
  • Backpack Size - 9
  • Arena - The Grab Bag of Goodies
    Thrown into a pocket dimension left over from the Harvest, you can reach out to a few floating orbs in the shape of candy. But... huh? They don't do anything, and won't open? Try throwing them at your opponent... Oh, that worked. Oh hey, isn't it time for a celebration anyway? Quick, trade gifts and enjoy your time!
    When sending in your team and backpack, select two of the following gifts to give to your opponent.
    (No, the exact wording does not mean that your opponent's opponent, i.e. you, receive the buffs. Thank you to the BBP sickos out there for making me preemptively clarify this.)
    • When giving this gift, select one of the following sets of core stats. Every Pokemon on your opponent's team has a rank of at least 10 in the selected stats.
      (This gift can be given once per selected set of stats.)
      • Attack
      • Special Attack
      • Defenses: Both Defense and Special Defense
    • When giving this gift, select one of the below sets of moves. Every Pokemon on your opponent's team knows all of those moves.
      (This gift can be given once per selected set of moves.)
      • Clean-Up: Rapid Spin, Defog, Safeguard, Light Screen, Reflect, Taunt
      • Match-Up: U-turn, Volt Switch, Teleport, Whirlwind, Dragon Tail, Circle Throw
      • Hazards: Spikes, Stealth Rock, Sticky Web
    • Every Pokemon on your opponent's team has at least 110 maximum HP.
    • Your opponent's Pokemon have a base substitution limit of 5.
  • Example: You could gift your opponent the Defenses Ranks and the Special Attack Rank gifts, the Clean-Up and Hazard gifts, or the HP + Attack Rank gifts. Any two different gifts are a valid combination.

November 2023 Circuit Updates
It wouldn't be a new League Circuit if we didn't tinker with the rules, wouldn't it? This month, we're addressing four elements of the Circuit: Signups, Scheduling, Timer Stall, and Referee Assistance.

Signups
In the interest of reducing counter-teaming, and giving matches a longer time window, we're changing how you send in your teams.
The League Circuit has followed BBP tradition when it comes to signups and team send-ins since its inception, but this has lead to the same issues PvP has always faced in ASB and BBP: Counter-teaming. With the ability to peruse your opponents' profiles, you could build a team that specifically targets their most-trained Pokemon. The only remedy for trainers was to spend months or years cultivating a diverse roster of Pokemon and, crucially, getting lots of practice piloting that diverse team. Else, your probable send-in could still be reasonably deduced!

To alleviate this, we're changing the send-in procedure. Your team will now be sent to the moderator who posts the Circuit arena, said to be the "host moderator", each month. The same moderator will reveal all the sent-in teams in this thread, prior to pairings. This ensures that you must account for your possible field of opponents, and not just the single opponent selected for you.

If the host moderator wishes to play in the arena they are hosting, they'll hash their team with this online tool, and post that hash when they announce the arena, right here in the thread. The host moderator will then, when posting teams, also post their own team (e.g the one they hashed) so that it can be verified that their team resolves to the hash they posted.

Feel free to try to solve P=NP, decrypt their entry, and counter-team the host... But make sure that you account for your other possible opponents as well!
Scheduling
Next, we're adjusting the schedule for Circuit to account for this new sign-up procedure, as well as offering a wider time window for matches themselves.
On the 21st:
The Circuit Arena for the next month is revealed. Signups and send-ins begin — as you sign up for the Circuit, you'll privately message your team and backpack to that month's host moderator on Smogon only. We want the message timestamps to match other Smogon timestamps.​
On the 1st:
The host moderator will reveal all teams and backpacks for all on-time entrants. Any entrants failing to send in will be excused from that month's Circuit, and any entry fee they paid will be refunded. The host moderator will then make pairings. If there's an odd number of entrants, a bye will go to a random player with the most losses in their battle record. Then, each player will be paired starting with the most-winning battle records (like in the October Circuit), and leftover players will be paired down into the next "bracket" of wins. This does narrow the pool of possible opponents to counterteam, but your opponent will only occasionally be known to you for certain, which is what counts.​
By the 3rd:
Every match thread should be posted by the assigned referee by the start of this date. Matches will begin on the 3rd, rather than the 4th, since referees will be able to get their battlers' teams from the Circuit thread itself rather than from the players.​
By (typically) the 29th:
Matches will cut off at 00:00 UTC on the 29th, or for non-leap-year February Circuits, on 00:00 UTC Mar 1st. At this cutoff, they'll go to the tiebreaking procedures for judgment. This means that Circuit matches can now last up to 624 hours. This is 120 hours (five days) longer than the current 504 hour match window. Combined with this month's changes to DQ timers, we now expect Circuit to involve much less waiting than before.​
​
UTC doesn't care about Daylight Savings or similar clock-changing observances, so always be sure to check a world clock when working with UTC time.​
Timer Stall
To combat the meta-strategy of using as much of your 48-hour DQ clock as possible, employed by some players to win by percentage HP, we're resorting to a hybrid turn-time and chess-clock DQ system.
It's no secret that stalling for tiebreakers is a viable strategy in the League Circuit current. This has knock-on effects on the entire Circuit, impacting what Pokemon and strategies are viable, what constitutes "early" and "late" game, and whether or not players are excited to participate in the Circuit. We'd rather have more matches resolve a complete competitive 3v3 battle, rather than less, given that we balance most of the game around this format. With that in mind, we're widening the match window (above), and we're being more deliberate about how we allocate posting time to players.

We're giving players two pools of hours: 24 Round Hours and 72 Battle Hours. For each whole hour that passes while it's your turn to post, each time it's your turn to post, one hour is deducted from your clock. (So, you technically have 59 minutes of grace, if you're precise.) If you run out of hours in both pools, you lose the battle. This functionality replaces timer extensions, and is slightly stricter overall.

Referees will track a player's Battle Hours alongside other per-player resources, such as Technique Control.

Round Hours are spent first, and refill to full at the start of each round's Switching Phase. This means that, if you only take a total of 24 hours (and 59 minutes) to post each round, you'll never touch your Battle Hours at all.

Once your Round Hours are empty, any further hours are deducted from your Battle Hours. This is the pool that will matter for tiebreakers and possible disqualification. When a player has no remaining Round Hours and is starting to use their Battle Hours, it is expected that their opponent or ref will tag them in the thread.

End-of-month tiebreakers will now use your Battle Hours in two ways when determining a winner:
  • If one player has at least 36 more Battle Hours than their opponent, that player wins. This is the "Hour Gap" tiebreaker rule.
  • Then, the missing percent HP is compared, just as it is now. This is the "Missing HP" rule.
  • Then, if that's a tie, the player with the most remaining Battle Hours is the winner. This is the "Precise Hour" tiebreaker rule.
  • Then, if that's a tie, the player that posted least recently wins. Woe betide us if we should ever make it to this tiebreaker.
These timers might sound harsh, but they're based on how players used their time in previous Circuits, especially in matches that went to time. Our hope is that most players will be able to leisurely check their Circuit match once or twice a day, and only use Battle Hours when needed for a real-life break or a crucial round of orders.

We acknowledge that there will always be an "optimal" way to play any timer we implement. Our aim is to implement a timer that keeps the match moving smoothly, even when it is being gamed by one or both players.
Referee Assistance
To keep matches moving at a reasonable pace, we're hooking our referees up to obligatory devices that... *cough* We're going to have referees whose function is to tag in for tardy Circuit refs for single rounds, here or there, as needed.
When signing up and declaring your Referee eligibility, we'd like to have volunteers for the position of Referee Assistant. These volunteers will, if selected, be on standby for Circuit Referees to tap in for Referee Assist as needed. Circuit-related Referee Assist requests should be posted here, in the Circuit thread.

If your Referee is 36 hours or more tardy for reffing your Circuit match, you as a player can also post in this thread requesting a Referee Assist on your Referee's behalf. Unlike other venues, this doesn't result in permanent transfer of match control to the new referee. We understand that Circuit matches have a greater pressure to get things right the first time, and can involve very complicated interacts or substitutions piloted by powerful players.

We encourage Referees to use the Assist feature very liberally when overseeing the Circuit, to prioritize allowing the match to proceed smoothly. Real life happens, and there's no consequence besides counters for calling for an Assist.
 
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