Amazing artwork made by vmnunes
Primarily reusing last year's OP, originally stolen from Fc
The Draft League subforum is ready to announce the schedule for the 2025 calendar year! The schedule will show tours in the 2025 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 other format 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 other format 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 
ORAS III: 5th January - 30th March (Type B), hosted by a fairy and iPetBigfoot
DPP I: 19th January - 30th March (Unofficial), hosted by Hacker and EndlessGadgets 
Spring 
Spring Seasonal II: 16th February - 22nd June (Type A), hosted by Happygate & Thomas18 
NatDex II: 2nd March - 11th May (Type C), hosted by takuaa & jscurf 
Ghosting Tour: 20th April - 29th June (Unofficial), hosted by RauVGC & TwentyTwan 
Summer 
SS III: 18th May - 10th August (Type B), hosted by scionicle & Delta4 
Low Tier III: 1st June - 10th August (Type C), hosted by ultraplayer & toastrgophr
BW I: 27th July - 28th September (Unofficial), hosted by Monai & goldmason 
Autumn 
Autumn Seasonal III: 17th August - 21st December (Type A), hosted by Princess Autumn & Happygate 
NatDex Ubers II: 31st August - 9th November (Type C), hosted by abriel & theuncultured 
USUM III: 28th September - 21st December (Type B), hosted by vmnunes & ? 
SS NatDex II: 19th October - 28th December (Unofficial), hosted by ? & ? 
Draft League Championship III 
29th December - 1st February 2026, hosted by ?
Team Tournaments 
(These will NOT count towards the circuit)
Draft League World Cup 2025: 1st December 2024 - 16th February, hosted by goldmason, Freya, olivia, and adorluigi 
Draft Champions League III: 1st June - 14th September, hosted by Vertigo, goldmason, and scionicle 
Draft Farm League II: 22nd June - 5th October. hosted by Hacker and OdinRM 
Tournament Information
Unless stated otherwise below, all tours will consist of the following: 8 Pokémon per draft, battle pools of 4 players, with all 3-0 or 2-1 players advancing to the single elimination bracket. All games are best-of-one.
Type A
Spring/Autumn 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. There will be a redraft for the top 32 players.
Type B
ORAS/USUM/SS III: Standard individual tours, SS being played with the post-DLC Galar Dex.
Type C
NatDex Ubers II: 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, and Hidden Power are banned.
NatDex II: Classical SV NatDex but in draft form. Z-Moves, Terastallization, and Hidden Power are banned.
Low Tier III: Draft's take on RU, what happens when you ban the best Pokémon in standard draft?
Unofficials
DPP: Generation 4 draft, based off the format being pioneered by EndlessGadgets and jeronipuff.
Ghosting Tour: Have you ever wanted to go back to 2016 where everyone was being ghosted? Now you can, in an officially sanctioned manner! Each team will consist of 2-3 players who will be allowed to ghost one another during battles.
BW: Generation 5 draft.
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.
More unofficial tours may be added as the year progresses.
Changes from 2024
The circuit has undergone a major shake up, while no tours have been cut, they've been reorganised so that there is less of a dead spot at the end of the year, while also avoiding overlap with other similar community events. To achieve this, we've done the following:
- The two major team tours have also been spaced equally apart so that neither bleeds into the other.
- Both seasonals have been pushed back 2-3 months to account for the championship not taking place till the start 2026. This ensures that we have as minimal overlap as possible between our 4 flagship tours throughout the year.
- SS will be running before USUM this year so that there is on extra chance to test the newly revamped SS board prior to next DCL.
- NatDex Ubers has been moved to run alongside DCL as it's our smallest tour and also the one with the smallest overlap with the DCL playerbase.
2025 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, Hacker, a fairy, ultraplayer, vmnunes, and abriel) 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 throughout the year. 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.
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, Hacker, a fairy, ultraplayer, vmnunes, and abriel) 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 throughout the year. 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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