Tournament Doubles Premier League 9: Format Discussion

[Actuarily]

Art by GenOne​

The time for everybody's favorite tournament has begun! Before we start any of the real fun stuff, we have some details to iron out, as always. This thread is a place for the community to voice their opinions about the DPL format.

Link to last year's thread for reference:

Here are some questions that are up for debate:

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
Obviously the number of teams depends on manager & player signups, but generally speaking we're looking at somewhere around 6 or 8 teams (Last year we had 10 manager signups & ~119 player signups). Do remember that the more teams means that the tournament goes on longer. A 6 team tournament would have a 5 week regular season, and an 8 team tournament would likely have a 7 week regular season. The tournament is slated to start the 5th of March, meaning if the tournament runs longer than a 5 week regular season, there will be some significant overlap with DLT & Doubles Classic.

Secondly, if it were a 6 or 8 team tournament, how many teams should make the playoffs? If only top 3 make playoffs, remember that this would mean a bye for the top seed.

2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?
Last year we had 6 teams with 6 slots, with the tiers being 2x SS, 1x DUU, 1x SM, 1x XY, 1x BW. Some felt that this was too small and not featuring enough tiers, while others thought that this was the right size to keep the tournament prestigious. Realistically the tiers eligible for the tournament would be SV DOU, SV DUU, SV DUbers, SV Doubles LC, SS DOU, SM DOU, XY DOU, BW DOU, and ADV DOU.

3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
Self-buying is when managers buy themselves, allowing them to play in one of the slots. Previously we've allowed managers to self-buy for 15K credits, but since managers are almost always good players in their own right, this could be considered too little.

4. Should we allow co-managers?
Previously we have limited teams to just one manager, however there has been some interest shown in co-managing. We would likely limit this to a max of two managers per team, and make it optional. If co-managing and self-buying is allowed, it is almost certain that only one manager would be allowed to self-buy. Should there be some sort of small credit charge to have a co-manager to offset the potential advantages?

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
As of right now, we do not know the exact dates for Pokemon Home other than "Spring". If Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament, it would obviously cause a lot of changes to occur for all current generation slots, with many new pokemon added. How should this be addressed? The DOU Forum Mod team has thought of three potential choices, with others up for consideration:
A) Tour is locked to SV pre-home, as even once Pokemon Home is released, there will likely need to be quickbans and meta development before it is DPL ready.
B) SV slots are post-home once Pokemon Home is released, as this would be a fun way to explore the new metagame.
C) SV slots are kept at pre-home for a couple weeks (1-3 perhaps?) then change to post-home, to allow for meta development and quickbans to occur before it is played in DPL.

As always, if you have any other items you'd like to discuss regarding DPL 9, feel free to post them.

 

[kaori]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?

8 teams with 8 slots. DWCOP showed that we have enough players to fill that number of player slots with a high level of play, and we usually get some singles players signing up for DPL that don't do DWCOP.

2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?

8 slots with 3x SV 1x SS 1x SM 1x XY 1x BW 1x DUU. I don't think ADV, DUbers, or DLC have the player base necessary to fit in this tour. DUU has a history with the tour already and has more players.

3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?

Self-buying should stay, and 15k seems fair. I think this very rarely makes teams too good and still requires you to draft well and manage well even if a manager would have potentially gone for more.

4. Should we allow co-managers?

I don't think the tour is big enough to warrant any co-managers. I wouldn't be opposed, but there would also need to be one head manager appointed to take charge and have final say on things. I think co-managers are only really needed in tours with a ton of slots that have different player bases, not for a subforum PL. If they got implemented I don't think you should be able to self-buy both. Nothing is stopping anybody from adding a co-manager in an unofficial capacity to their Discord and getting free help, so a charge to offset the advantages seems pointless.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?

A) Tour is locked to SV pre-home, as even once Pokemon Home is released, there will likely need to be quickbans and meta development before it is DPL ready.

No, not being able to play the new format would suck

B) SV slots are post-home once Pokemon Home is released, as this would be a fun way to explore the new metagame.

Decent second choice, would be very fun but I lean towards C.

C) SV slots are kept at pre-home for a couple weeks (1-3 perhaps?) then change to post-home, to allow for meta development and quickbans to occur before it is played in DPL.

I like this most, but only 1 week so that a quick ban slate could be made and voted on. Anything else is excessive to me.

 

[big pichu]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
I feel like SV is very large, with previous tourneys having a lot of sign-ups, so I'd like more teams. I feel like there's enough exciting players that are active right now in SV to justify a larger amount of players.


2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?
DUU goes kinda hard and I want to push for SV DUU right now, especially since it has its own circuit. I feel like I like having an alternative SV meta in too since most people probably have familiarity with SV to some extent.


3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
dunno but yeah sure why not
I don't think it's really that much of an advantage unless someone has co-managers.

4. Should we allow co-managers?
What kaori said is incredibly smart and I agree. I also think two strong players being paired up pre-draft feels like an advantage since someone's pulled out of the drafting pool, but I'm not 100% what the historical evidence says.
EDIT: I'm sold on co-managers if there's only 1 self buy, that's excellent.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
I think C is the most solid option, with maybe 1 or two weeks for quick bans. B is the most wacky fun option though. I'm really conflicted here.

 

[Idyll]

6 Teams, 8 Starting Slots. I think after last year's DPL and the previous DWC, it should be clear that we do indeed have the playerbase to support such a format, with players from other formats also showing interest in participating in our teamtours. I'm not sure about 8 teams AND 8 starting slots; even if we consider last DWC, I think a major draw to participation in that tour is the regional ties and already formed connections within the teams, which DPL lacks. I do think it's possible but I believe 6 and 8 is more sensible at the moment, with 8 and 8 being a possibility that I'd personally like to see still.

The format should be:

SV / SV / SV / SS / SM / XY / BW / SV DUU

On 3x SV - this is our marquee format, so we should feature and develop it as much as possible. At the moment, this is the format that is the most welcoming for relatively newer players due to the attention and resources currently being dedicated to it. At the same time, it is in our best interest to maximize the metagame development of this format, not only because it is new but also because it features a newly updated banlist. If Home gets added mid-tournament, the need for development will significantly increase and, of course, everyone will be interested and excited over it—regardless of concerns over quality of play in a new format, we should still push through with using the Home format as DPL presents itself as the best way to establish a high quality Post-Home metagame, which is in the best interest of the community at large. The development of a new metagame has to start somewhere, after all.

On having every Oldgen - They are all in the official 2023 Doubles Circuit, in Classic and Homefield. Excluding any one of them over any other format would not make sense when these formats are already within our official tournament infrastructure and should thus be prioritized. This is not to mention that the four formats have quite established metagames already.

On the last slot - To preface, this is between DLC, DUbers, DUU, and ADV.

I believe DLC in DPL will always be a controversial topic within our community, for non-Pokemon reasons, and should thus not be our primary choice. Personally, I think these reasons are valid; DPL is for the DOU community.

According to people I have interacted with, DUbers is just not that playable as a metagame. I personally don't see the game quality being that high.

Personally, I believe this is only a discussion for having either ADV or DUU for the slot. I personally like ADV more, and relatively speaking, it's also a bit more developed. However, I believe DUU should take the last slot because it currently has an established, though unofficial, tournament infrastructure within our community in the DUU Circuit. It only makes sense to develop that metagame further when we're giving it that kind of support and attention. There's also the fact that we're already having ADV played out in ALT PL; too much ADV can kill a person, you know?

 

[GenOne]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?

No strong opinions since I wasn't here for last DPL but I like 8 teams with 8 slots, top 4 make playoffs. Obviously this is dependent on having enough signups for 8 teams, but I think we will especially given DWCOP signups this year. 6 teams would be fine too though if others feel strongly about stricter player limits.

2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?

8 slots 100%. Too many relevant tiers would be left out if we didn't go with 8.

Slots should be:

1. SV
2. SV
3. SV
4. SS
5. SM
6. XY
7. BW
8. DUU

Every tier from BW and newer has a good player base and is considered a competitively active old gen. Current gen DUU should always have representation in DPL imo. I have nothing against DUbers, DLC or ADV DOU but the other tiers I listed take priority imo

3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?

Keep self-buying. 15k is fair. At best, its a slight discount for managers who are also top-value draft picks, and even then they have to do double duty of managing a team while also doing their own prep and playing. And not all managers are top-value draft picks worth 15k.

4. Should we allow co-managers?

No strong opinions on this.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?

Option C is best, Option B is ok, Option A would be kinda lame.

I think a buffer to quickban any broken element is the best way to preserve the tour's spirit of having high-quality, competitive games without stopping us from using DPL to incubate good metagame delevopment for post-home SV DOU.

 

[Fangame10]

I will only say that I would like to have some kind of option to have a co-manager regardless of how its implemented, as someone who works 1pm to 10pm (-6) most days, if I wanted to manage I often have to miss most of my teammates games and if someone doesn't show up I won't be available to sub anyone in. Maybe even just picking a player from the pool to act as a co-manager would be fine, just someone else in case I can't handle everything

 

[qsns]

I don't feel strongly on 6 teams vs 8 teams but we should absolutely be having 8 slots. WCOP showed that we have the playerbase to not have a 6x6 and still have quality games. 3x SV is something I value highly for the first DPL of the gen and missing out on an oldgen while they're all still in circuit seems weird. I'm glad some people are enjoying Dubers but I've seen polarized opinions on it (this is probably my least favorite doubles metagame of all time), and DUU has been quite fun and deserves a spot in an 8 slot tour.

Comanagers being able to sub people in should be a must, it's unrealistic to expect someone to be on 24/7 in case of a player missing. I think these can just be a few players chosen by managers after the draft, though. I don't think it's worth the hassle to balance the pricing of 2 people guaranteed at x price on a team.

edit: i've seen people talk about only being able to buy 1 of 2 comanagers but i'd rather not take people out of the player pool

C = B > A for Pokemon Home options.

 

[Z Strats]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?

I heavily want 8 teams. Not only does it help our growing player base with the start of a new generation, it makes the tour not the shortest lower tier pl and avoids the awful bye week. 8 is Just a great number for these tours and we have the player base for it. As someone who argued for the less inclusive option last year I can definitely say I was wrong about that. People just need to give these newer players a shot which I think we have seen recently. We see new people outperform expectations all the time and if they care more than some of the better players (which a lot do) then there's a good chance they'll actually be better picks anyway. I also think it will reward better drafting and have managers actually have to figure out who the good tryhard cheaper picks will be.

2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?

8 slots. It fits the tiers that should be in the tour for sure and leaves 1 wildcard slot. The tiers that should be a lock are 3x SV DOU, 1x SS,SM,XY,BW and then either 1 more SV DOU slot, 1 DUU slot, 1 ADV slot or 1 Doubles LC slot. I don't really have much of a preference of what gets picked. I think an extra SV might be too much SV and could lead to some really lopsided on paper games (maybe make the slot # determined by price tag). I think DUU is super underdeveloped right now but it usually has some interest among the community. I think ADV is growing and fits really well thematically with the tour, but it might have the lowest interest of the options. Setting any controversy aside I think Doubles LC has a pretty good sized following and is the most fleshed out tier of the options aside from SV DOU, but it would be a little weird to have a tier that as of right now doesn't feel like a DOU community tier in this tour, all the threads for DLC and stuff are still in the LC forum for example.


3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?

Self buying for 15k has been fine, remember the Manager is going to support the the team for 0k either way so the manager is essentially just spending 15k on a pure player that offers no support.

4. Should we allow co-managers?

With 8 slots yes we definitely should. There were some issues in DWCOP regarding managers being unavailable at certain times which led to almost every team essentially appointing a co-manager that could make decisions if they were gone. This game is a hobby and managers can be busy, 8 slots is a lot of to take care of and a lot to draft prep for so if someone wants a co-manager I don't see any reason why we should deny them one, every other tier allows them. As Kaori said nothing is going to stop someone from being an unofficial co-manager if they want anyway so I see no reason to not let them actually be part of the team. The rule should definitely be that only one Manager can be self bought though.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?

Locking the tour to pre-home is very dangerous for engagement as the majority of people stop caring as much about a tier when there's a newer current meta available. If home drops early in the tour and we locked the tour to pre-home a lot of people would be playing a meta they don't care about as much. I would avoid this at all costs unless it gets added during the last week of regular season and playoffs would be a completely different tier. I think my preference would be C but make it only one week, any longer would be bad in my opinion. This would also require council to be really proactive when it comes to quickbans though. B is fine if a one week wait isn't preferred.

 

[Actuarily]

I will only say that I would like to have some kind of option to have a co-manager regardless of how its implemented, as someone who works 1pm to 10pm (-6) most days, if I wanted to manage I often have to miss most of my teammates games and if someone doesn't show up I won't be available to sub anyone in. Maybe even just picking a player from the pool to act as a co-manager would be fine, just someone else in case I can't handle everything

I think that regardless of whether there’s a co-manager, similar to DWCOP, managers can appoint someone on their team to be delegated the power to make subs if the manager isn’t available.

 

[Teals]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
I think there should be 8 teams, with top 4 making playoffs. Obviously having more teams can make the tournament less "prestigious" as you might be allowing in "less talented players." However, the DOU playerbase is incredibly small, especially when compared to something like OU. Among the playerbase there are plenty of players that are relatively equal in playing ability. That being said I think DOU can afford to have 8 team slots. This also will allow for uprising players to have a shot at getting drafted, and I think that would bolster the community and grow interest in the format.
Having the top 4 teams make playoffs feels like a no brainer to me if there happens to be 8 teams. Having one team be inactive for a week can cause interest in the tour dwindle.



2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?
I think there should be 8 slots because yeah, so many relevant tiers. I think dou formats should be the prime choices here, as that is how SPL is ran as far as I'm aware. This would also allow for 3 SV slots. With this being the brand new generation I think it's important to build the hype around it. 2 SV DOU slots doesn't feel like enough (as much as I dislike gen 9 lol) I also think ADV DOU is a legitimate tier and should be embraced by the scene and this would be a good way of doing that, following after the adv money tour. In my opinion slots should be:
SV DOU
SV DOU
SV DOU
SS DOU
SM DOU
XY DOU
BW DOU
ADV DOU


3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
Absolutely. Would be lame to restrict people to one of two roles. 15k sounds fair. If it worked in the past I don't see a reason to change it.

4. Should we allow co-managers?
I think if the majority of people want it then sure. I don't really see the harm in it. I do feel however that there should be a small charge to have a co-manager because yeah, it could provide some advantages. How much that should be, I'm not sure.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
I think option 2 or 3 are what should happen. I'm more privy to the idea of option 2 as I feel playing with the brokens is best way of finding them and acknowledging them. However option 3 does have its merits.

 

[Mizuhime]

The correct answers

not going to type a novel, but just echo the statement of esteemed user kaori instead :)

 

[zoe]

For clarification, this isn't an official stance taken by the mod team and is just my personal opinion., this is also the one thing I care about since the consensus seems to be for 8 teams.

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
I think I prefer 8x8 due to the fact that DPL is supposed to be the largest community event of the year and it generally only lasts about 7 weeks just doesn't feel right, I would much prefer the longer length for DPL and think it wouldn't throw too much off. For playoffs we should 100% do 4 for 8 teams and 3 for 6, 3 teams for 8 will still have the bye, and 4 for 6 is too many.

2. How many slots should each matchup have? What tiers should be played?
No strong opinion on this other than we should do 8 slots in order to prevent cutting a lower tier and still have all oldgens.

3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
Yes and 15k is a fine amount, no opinions otherwise.

4. Should we allow co-managers?
DPL should include co-managers without a doubt in my opinion. The main (and obvious) benefit of co-managers is how they just make things 10x easier for everyone mainly with exponentially less "manager isn't online and a sub needs to be made" situations. There is also what was said about about co-managers being needed for 8 slots in order to lessen the workload on drafting, lineups, and just general help but I'm not going to rehash that, I just agree that if we do 8 slots (which we totally should) co-managers are a necessity. I know someone in doucord said something about drafting managers post-draft out of a pool or something but I couldn't find the post in here so I'm not going to comment on that out of fear of misunderstanding or assuming something that isn't being said. I just think co-managers have minimum downsides due to the fact every team gets a co-manager, while the positives heavily outweigh the negatives regardless, so I wholeheartedly support them in DPL. Also making it so managers can only self buy once is the correct way to go about it and what pretty much every subforum PL does with co-managers.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
No strong opinion.

 

[Yoda2798]

The host for this year's DPL will be DaAwesomeDude1 bunnyy, after doing an excellent job hosting DWCOP!

Dates-wise, the plan is for manager signups to go up on the 12th and last a week, then player signups will go up on the 19th and last for just under two weeks, right up until the draft. The draft will take place during the weekend of 3rd-5th March (exact time and day to be determined), with week 1 starting on the 5th March. Hope this helps.

 

[Fangame10]

The host for this year's DPL will be DaAwesomeDude1 bunnyy, after doing an excellent job hosting DWCOP!

dad1 will not host dpl

 

[Z Strats]

One thing I want to bring up that hasn't been brought up yet is adding tier lock to DPL. In tours with tier lock players signups also have a "tiers not played section" and any tier someone puts down in that section they cannot play during the regular season, this was mostly done to combat price tanking. DOU has never really had a problem with price tanking and I don't think it will but there's another good part of tier lock which is making sure a manager doesn't even think about getting/asking you to play a different tier than you put in tiers played. An example of this is Spurrific who wants to play BW but also doesn't want a situation where a manager gets him for a bit more with hopes that he could slot into SM or SS if needed, which does happen. I know other people have felt this way in the past, and I think it's just a good thing to have to avoid any confusion, and to make sure players play and are wanted in the tier they signed up for, along with guaranteeing no price tanking shenanigans happen. The cost of adding tier lock is managers needing to do a bit more draft prep to make sure they don't grab a bunch of players who decided to lock themselves out of tiers if they want a more flexible team. I personally don't think that is enough of a con to not add tier lock (if anything my opinion is making managers have to draft plan better is a good thing) but am curious if anyone disagrees.

 

[fespy]

Please don’t make DPL two weeks longer

 

[Éric]

ik im a noname in doubles but im not new to smogon tours at all so i wanna give my two cents here as someone whos gonna be undrafted anyway

3. i dont see a reason not to self buy tbh, its pretty lame when you wanna manage but if you do you cant play. however, managers tend to be pretty broken bc its players thatd go for 30k ish just being lower, allowing them to have a much better draft than they should. i think being a locked 15k doesnt help, bc 15k is way too low for a standardized price. almost all the other smogon pls customize their manager prices to the manager pool (as in, in lc for example, youd have shrug and lilyac at 20k each, while having jc and hsowa at 5k and 8k or something). this system works everywhere so i dont see a reason why not to use it. in any case, 15k seems way too low, maybe using a standardized price that changes with the manager pool could be good (ie if all managers are goats its 20k, if all are bad its 5k etc)

4. again, all the other smogon pls have comanagers, i dont see why cant this one have them. it takes pressure off of one person a ton, it really does help both the manager and the team as a whole, having two people to rely on instead of one

5. theres just no way people would care and want to play pre home if home drops, this tour would be dead if that happened. sacrificing a bit of the competitive aspect (maybe, its not even guaranteed that post home is worse than prehome) for hype and meta development isnt that good imo

 

[Amaranth]

perhaps a nuclear take but aside from the very elite, "established" dou players aren't that good and the players one tier down, the would-be 3ks, can easily rise up to the challenge and compeltely smash tournaments like dwc/dpl. having more slots and more teams to give more of these players a shot is GREAT

im thinking of eragon, ratpacker etc. who knows how many more of these are out there who can just be bought for 3k and go near undefeated

the "elitist" push is silly in general and especially when the people going for it aren't even elite to begin with. 8x8 only real format

 

[Chloe]

Please don’t make DPL two weeks longer

If there's one thing douers hate it's playing dou

 

[jcbc]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
8 teams of 8 slots + 2 subs minimum is the most desirable. And of course make it 4 teams into playoffs.
2. What tiers should be played?
This is honestly the main question i wanted to answer and the one that made me want to do this post (not that i think the others are less important of course). I believe giving the main gen strong representation is key so giving it 3 slots is imperative if you ask me. After that there would go oldgens from 8-5 which makes a total of 7 slots already used. This would leave one slot only to be picked if we go with the 8 slots that pretty much everyone is suggesting. I am here to promote doubles LC for that slot, Doubles LC is the most fresh yet solid option if you ask me for many reasons. It brings a very new metagame to a lot of the spectator of the DPL but also to some of the players seeing new mons and strategies be used and very different type of games. However this doesn't mean it has no playerbase, we have very strong established players around like Acehunter1, Voltix, GasaiYunoSan or even myself which all have experience of some sort with other DOU metagames so it wouldnt be a case of "i'm wasting money solely for this slot and it won't help other slots", furthemore other mainstaples of DOU such as Actuarily, Z strats, JRL, Tenzai or qsns (all of these have passed by the council of DLC at some point) or Demantoid, Akaru Kokuyo, Stax or umbry to name a few have played or still play doubles LC. Some topics that got mentioned already above about Doubles LC are the playerbase which i already went by (but i will add that the implementation of doubles LC is also good for the tournament as it brings people from the LC community to signup. The thread being under LC subforum is something that got mentioned about DLC as a con for it to be used in a slot and i just want to clarify if that is the way it is, is because originally the tier got createed under the Little Cup community but we are more that loving to fuse more and more with the doubles community and everyone is welcome to join and play our tier. Is an enjoyable tier and a lot of the DOU players that have played it have stated it that way.
In my opinion slots should be:
SV DOU
SV DOU
SV DOU
SV DLC
SS DOU
SM DOU
XY DOU
BW DOU
Of course i have nothing against ADV DUU or DUBERS community at all.
3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
Yes, credits on managers should be decided based on who's the manager being the minimum price 5k and the maximum 20k (not counting building help into the formula).
4. Should we allow co-managers?
Definetly, co-managers give a strong help throughout seasons to managers in many aspects.
5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
This is an easy one in my opinion since as Éric well mentioned, playing a dead metagame is never fun so i would transfer the SV slots inmediatly to post-home metagame to not have slots playing a dead metagame.

 

[ratpacker]

Team DUU for 8th slot and SV instantly becomes post-home or 1-week buffer max

 

[DaWoblefet]

1. How many teams should we have? How many should make playoffs?
6 teams, 8 starting slots is my preference, but I don't have huge opinions one way or another.

2. What tiers should be played?
3x SV, 1x SwSh, 1x SM, 1x XY, 1x BW, 1x DUU; alternatively, 4x SV, 1x SwSh, 1x SM, 1x XY, 1x BW.

I think 3x SV should be mandatory. There's already a huge emphasis on oldgens in DPL, which makes it a lot harder to give newer players a chance when you haven't been playing for years and years. 3x SV gives managers more incentive to branch outside of established players. You might even be able to argue 4x. I think DUU has some precedence for its inclusion relative to the other tiers, but it's undeniably one of the most volatile with early gen tier shifts and whatever Home will do to it. I don't think Doubles Ubers should be considered; it's not DUbers in the traditional sense of a bunch of Uber Pokemon fighting each other. Doubles LC isn't even popular enough to have received a ladder. I will continue to disparage ADV because of mechanics and damage formula inaccuracies; it can of course be fun, but it's more in the realm of Partners in Crime than an actual DOU metagame. DUU makes the most sense of the 4 to include to me, but 4x SV is fine too.

3. Should we allow managers to self-buy? How many credits should it cost?
No, they should not be allowed to self-buy. Managers should be focused chiefly on managing their team, doing things like resolving scheduling conflicts, evaluating which player to play in which tier for the week, helping teambuild / prepare for matches, etc. Any top DOU player who manages and self-buys has such an enormous advantage in the draft, because they get a top-tier player for a mid-tier cost. If managers are allowed to self-buy, it should come at much steeper cost than what it is currently, perhaps 40% of their budget or more. You could try to concoct some elaborate system based on previous DPL records to try to make it scale based on presumed player skill, but then you have to develop that system and presumably have all, or at least the majority, of the managers agree to it. But of course, any manager aiming to self-buy wouldn't agree to it.

4. Should we allow co-managers?
If managers can't self-buy, then sure. If managers can self-buy, then you are introducing real problems. There would be no reason not to adopt players like SMB, emforbes, Nails, or anyone else likely to go for more than 15k as a "co-manager" and instantly get an advantage in the draft. I don't see how you could reasonably restrict this either. Suppose you make only 1 of the two co-managers able to play, or maybe you delegate one of the two as an "assistant" manager, who can do everything a manager can do except play. If fangame wants to be manager, he could just have SMB sign up as "manager", list fangame as co-manager / assistant manager, but then fangame would do all the real managing. It's still a free 15k buy. You can have one or the other here, but you can't have both.

5. How should we handle SV slots if Pokemon Home is added mid-tournament?
I don't know if there's been formal discussion on this yet, but there's a good chance Showdown won't even have support for pre-Home validation once Home drops. If so, move legality especially will be really hard to enforce, since it wouldn't be done at the teambuilder level. It'd be really dumb to have to constantly check if some new set you want to use includes moves that were only available through Pokemon Home. I assume the penalty would be assigning losses if a player was found to have done so on their team, even if the otherwise unusable move wasn't used during the game.

Even if Showdown did support pre-Home validation, I think it would be best to immediately move to post-Home. We could potentially delay DPL by a week if necessary to account for initial tiering decisions (I assume we'll receive the usual round of freeing -> quickbans).

 

[jcbc]

Doubles LC isn't even popular enough to have received a ladder.

This isn't technically true, we actually had requests of people asking for this ladder to occur (paraplegic the last tier leader was one of these people for example). But having enough games every month consistently was not something i was able to demonstrate to occur and thus it got never created but if a ladder got created it would get games 100%.

 

[DaWoblefet]

This isn't technically true, we actually had requests of people asking for this ladder to occur (paraplegic the last tier leader was one of these people for example). But having enough games every month consistently was not something i was able to demonstrate to occur and thus it got never created but if a ladder got created it would get games 100%.

It's a shame Doubles LC wasn't able to demonstrate consistent activity for a ladder, but I think that just shows that the tier isn't that popular. That's not to say Doubles LC is bad or people don't enjoy it; BW DOU doesn't have a ladder either, and I still like it a lot! My point is that Doubles LC, lacking a ladder, is clearly less popular than other tiers in competition for a DPL slot. You can in fact field six players of the tier, as you kindly pointed out in your post, but every tier can provide lists of players like this. We're looking here for a best option among several good options, and my point is I don't think Doubles LC is the best option, same as Doubles Ubers or ADV DOU.

 

[PandaDoux]

Just writing to say one thing: i think ADV DOU is gonna have more signups and a better playerbase than ORAS/BW probably, ADV DOU recently has grown a lot thanks to the ADV DOU cashprize tournament and people will be more familiar with it than with ORAS/BW since lots of people have already played couple games of ADV and tried to build some teams, which is not the case of ORAS & BW DOU. ADV DOU is also in the Ancient lower tier tournament, which means that it's gonna grow even more before the tournament starts.

All i wanted to say is that you should consider ADV DOU as a slot and not forget it instantly because "it's an old gen older than ORAS/BW so it is less developped" because that is probably not true, i don't know a thing about ORAS & BW tho but ADV DOU is not an unknown field at all.

edit: another suggestion would be 10 slots 8 teams instead of 10 teams 8 slots if we have enough signups