Draft League has a brand new format and tournament, BW Cup! Games will take place in the [Gen 5] BW Draft tier on Pokemon Showdown! and there will be battle pools followed by a single elimination bracket. This is an unofficial tour which will not affect the Draft League circuit and will be hosted by Monai and goldmason.
Tournament sizes are dependent on number of total valid signups (individuals who signup, join the Discord server and are verified in the Discord #verification channel). The first 62.5% of competitors that signup are guaranteed entry, while the remaining 37.5% are randomly chosen from the remaining player pool.
Example: 350 players signup, leading to a 320 person tour. The first 219 signups are guaranteed to be in the tour and the remaining 101 spots are randomly picked from the 131 remaining signups. Substitutes are picked on a first come first serve basis from the remaining signups. Once signups are sorted, the tour will follow the structure.
Example: 350 players signup, leading to a 320 person tour. The first 219 signups are guaranteed to be in the tour and the remaining 101 spots are randomly picked from the 131 remaining signups. Substitutes are picked on a first come first serve basis from the remaining signups. Once signups are sorted, the tour will follow the structure.
- Players will be placed in draft pools sorted by their time zones. They will be tagged in announcements when the draft begins, along with the sheet for their draft pool. It's advised to read the pinned message in your pool chat to further understand rules specific to the draft (as well as the Draft Rules and Battle Rules sections of this post for bans). Lying about your timezone during drafting is prohibited. Any player found to be trying to game timezone based drafting pools to get a more favorable draft pool will face punitive action. If a different timezone is better suited towards your current situation, please reach out to the hosts to notify them.
- Once the draft ends, the hosts will release the round 1 matchups via Smogon. These will be posted to the Discord in announcements. Each round, with the exception of battle pools, will always last one week. Battle pools (if applicable) will last two.
- You have up to 90 points with which to draft 8 Pokémon. Costs are listed on your pool’s tab on the drafting spreadsheet.
- If a Pokémon is picked by someone else, you may not pick it.
- For the first round, there is a 12 hour timer. After the first round ends, there will be a continuous 6 hour timer within which you must pick, or you will be skipped, and will be required to make-up your pick when you are next online. All timers are off between 10pm-7am local time (check your pool's pinned message for local time).
- Your timer will halve every time you are skipped. It is recommended to leave picks (with backups) with your pool moderator to avoid this.
- Baton Pass can only be used for momentum, stats may not be passed (Dry Pass only)
Excadrill may not have the ability Sand Rush
Landorus may not have the ability Sheer Force- The abilities
Drizzle and 
Swift Swim may not appear on the same team - The abilities
Drought and 
Chlorophyll may not appear on the same team - The abilities
Sand Stream and 
Sand Rush may not appear on the same team - The following Pokémon have access to all of their forms (although you may only bring up to 1 to each battle):
Wormadam
Basculin
- Smogon’s
Species Clause 
applies to your draft.
- All games must be played in the [Gen 5] Draft tier on smogtours.psim.us or psim.us. Be aware that each game on smogtours starts a timer automatically and cannot be turned off.
- BW cartridge win conditions are in place; there are no ties.
- Each set is a best-of-one set.
- The following clauses apply:
- Sand Veil is banned
- Snow Cloak is banned
- Baton Pass can only be used for momentum, stats may not be passed (Dry Pass only)
- Excadrill may not have the ability Sand Rush
- Landorus-I may not have the ability Sheer Force
- The abilities Drizzle and Swift Swim may not appear on the same team
- The abilities Drought and Chlorophyll may not appear on the same team
- The abilities Sand Stream and Sand Rush may not appear on the same team
- ALL Gems are banned
- Quick Claw, King's Rock, Razor Fang and Bright Powder are banned
- Any items unreleased in BW are banned.
About Activity Decisions
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, and an extension has not been requested, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
Please note that all extension requests and activity claims must be posted to the thread, and that all of these will be judged on a case by case basis.
[Credit to the Official Smogon Tournament hosting team for the base form of this rule.]
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, and an extension has not been requested, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
Please note that all extension requests and activity claims must be posted to the thread, and that all of these will be judged on a case by case basis.
[Credit to the Official Smogon Tournament hosting team for the base form of this rule.]
Contact your opponent as soon as possible upon the round going up. Activity cases are going to be handled in a very strict manner.
When scheduling, offer as wide a swathe of time when you are available to play. 1 hour of activity on one or two weeknights is unlikely to be considered acceptable.
Schedule specifically - do not schedule for "Friday afternoon" or "Sunday morning", pick a date, a time and note the time zone, ideally as GMT offset.
If either host catches news of ghosting or some other sort of nefarious play, we reserve the right to investigate to the full limits of our ability.
When scheduling, offer as wide a swathe of time when you are available to play. 1 hour of activity on one or two weeknights is unlikely to be considered acceptable.
Schedule specifically - do not schedule for "Friday afternoon" or "Sunday morning", pick a date, a time and note the time zone, ideally as GMT offset.
If either host catches news of ghosting or some other sort of nefarious play, we reserve the right to investigate to the full limits of our ability.
SIGNUP USING THIS FORM
DRAFT BOARD
The BW Draft megathread can be found here
Additionally, there is a Smogon BW Draft Discord server!! https://discord.gg/DXPQhxeUEY
Signups close at <t:1754150400:F>
DRAFT BOARD
The BW Draft megathread can be found here
Additionally, there is a Smogon BW Draft Discord server!! https://discord.gg/DXPQhxeUEY
Signups close at <t:1754150400:F>
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