Amazing artwork made by vmnunes
Thanks to Fc and Ubers for letting us steal parts of the OP
The Draft League subforum is ready to announce the schedule for the 2024 calendar year! The schedule will show tours in the 2024 Circuit, unofficial tours and team tours. Please note that not all individual tours in this post will be apart of the circuit.
The circuit is a collection of individual tournaments spread throughout the year with varying classifications, generations, and formats all coming together to allow players to earn points for the final showdown - the Draft League Championship, where the top 16 performers will battle to earn the title of Circuit Champion, the Draft League Circuit Champion ribbon
and a custom avatar on PS!
Tours that are individuals but not apart of the circuit are unofficials. These tournaments will have distinctly different rulesets and formats, from trusted individuals within the community using the subforum's extensive resources. They may be added at any point throughout the year and the tiering/ruleset will not be held to as high a scrutiny as an official circuit tour. Feel free to reach out if you have a format you'd like to run as an unofficial.
Tours that are individuals but not apart of the circuit are unofficials. These tournaments will have distinctly different rulesets and formats, from trusted individuals within the community using the subforum's extensive resources. They may be added at any point throughout the year and the tiering/ruleset will not be held to as high a scrutiny as an official circuit tour. Feel free to reach out if you have a format you'd like to run as an unofficial.
Type A: Tournaments given a significant weight in the circuit, awarding the most points, we aim to have 2 per year. Doing well in Type A tournaments will be of the greatest help to a budding Championship contender.
Type B: These tours will primarily feature the 3 main past generations of draft as a format (ORAS, USUM and SS) due to their formats being not only past gens but also being far more developed than those formats in type C. While they award fewer points than type A, doing well in each tour will still be worthwhile for those aiming for the Championship.
Type C: Tours that are here will tend to revolve around less explored metagames, with the idea being to flesh them out through play testing. There is scope in future years to move some of these tours to type B if they end up flourishing (both on Smogon and in the wider draft community as a whole). This will also be the classification in which OMs and ADV/DPP draft tours will be placed if we go down those routes. Type C tournaments should be seen as a small bonus towards a Championship run.
Type B: These tours will primarily feature the 3 main past generations of draft as a format (ORAS, USUM and SS) due to their formats being not only past gens but also being far more developed than those formats in type C. While they award fewer points than type A, doing well in each tour will still be worthwhile for those aiming for the Championship.
Type C: Tours that are here will tend to revolve around less explored metagames, with the idea being to flesh them out through play testing. There is scope in future years to move some of these tours to type B if they end up flourishing (both on Smogon and in the wider draft community as a whole). This will also be the classification in which OMs and ADV/DPP draft tours will be placed if we go down those routes. Type C tournaments should be seen as a small bonus towards a Championship run.
Key: Tournament Name | Signups date | Expected Finals date | Tour Type | Host
Winter 
Winter Seasonal I: 1st January - 22nd April (Type A), hosted by Theia & olivia7 
NatDex Ubers I: 15th January - 25th March (Type C), hosted by vmnunes, Aberforth & @Nyx
Spring 
ORAS II: 3rd March - 19th May (Type B), hosted by a fairy and RoiDadadou 
NatDex I: 31st March - 9th June (Type C), hosted by TRowePrice667 & ultraplayer 
SS NatDex: 12th May - 21st July (Unofficial), hosted by Hacker & scionicle 
Summer 
USUM II: 26th May - 11th August (Type B), hosted by vmnunes & Dr. Geo 
Summer Seasonal II: 9th June - 29th September (Type A), hosted by Nyx & Happygate 
Low Tier II: 16th June - 25th August (Type C), hosted by ultraplayer & Thomas18 
Autumn 
SS II: 18th August - 3rd November (Type B), hosted by abriel & Delta4 
Genius Cup: 1st September - 10th November (Unofficial), hosted by scionicle & @SoggyDoggySage
Draft Factory: 6th October - 1st December (Unofficial), hosted by Rissoux & ComputerWhiz 
VGC: 17th November - 26th January (Unofficial), hosted by trace & RauVGC 
Draft League Championship II 
17th November - 22nd December, hosted by a fairy
Team Tournaments 
(These will NOT count towards the circuit)
Draft League World Cup 2023: 7th April - 9th June, hosted by Rissoux, Tjb145 & Theia 
Draft Champions League II: 28th July - 10th November, hosted by Theia & Vertigo 
Draft Farm League I: 9th September - 24th November, hosted by Hacker & OdinRM 
Tournament Information
Unless stated otherwise below, all tours will consist of the following: 8 Pokémon per draft, battle pools of 4 or 5 players, and 2 players maximum per battle pool advancing on to the single elimination bracket stage. All games are best-of-one.
Type A
Winter/Summer Seasonal: The only Swiss tours within our schedule. SV standard Draft with a Swiss-style schedule into a single elimination bracket. Players can reach the single elimination stage by going X-2 or better in the Swiss.
Type B
ORAS/USUM/SS II: Standard individual tours, SS being played with the post-DLC Galar Dex.
Type C
NatDex Ubers I: Lets unleash almost everything, this will be fine. The only non-8 Pokémon format in the circuit, drafts will consist of 10-12 Pokémon and have a budget of 200 points. There may be more than 8 people per draft pool. Z-Moves, Terastallization, Hidden Power and Refresh are banned.
NatDex I: Classical SV NatDex but in draft form. Z-Moves and Hidden Power are banned.
Low Tier II: Draft's take on RU, what happens when you ban the best Pokémon in standard draft?
More type C tours may be added as the year progresses.
Unofficials
SS NatDex: Hacker's personal rework of SS ND draft, introducing (most) cut moves back into a format that was largely played without them last gen. This tour will most likely feature larger draft pools to accommodate for the sheer number of Pokémon.
Draft Factory: It's like Battle Factory but for Draft League! Matchups from our seasonals and DLWC will be input into a database, which will then randomly pull matchups out, giving each player real teams that were brought to games. This will also be Best-of-Three due to its random battle nature.
Genius Cup: This is a pools into single elimination standard SV Tera Preview tour. The key exception is that we let GeniusX tier it with no restrictions whatsoever.
More unofficial tours may be added as the year progresses.
2024 Circuit Sheet
Tournament Staffing & Hosting
To run this circuit, we'll need people who are willing to staff and tier it. If this interests you, reach out to any Forum Moderator (Nyx, Rissoux, Tjb145, a fairy, Hacker, ultraplayer, vmnunes) via Smogon or Discord. Staffing tours gives you the Tournament Staff role in the Discord, as well as the potential pre-Contributor/Community Contributor badges on Smogon if done consistently well.
A reminder that this is not an exhaustive list of tours that we'll host. We may add more unofficial tours, as well as other Type C tours throughout the year. Type Cs will be announced in advance. If you'd like to host an unofficial tour, DM a Forum Moderator with an outline.
Here's a graphic with an overview of this year's calendar as it stands. The numbers refer to weeks within the year.
Attachments
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