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 2026 calendar year! The schedule will show tours in the 2026 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 IV: 4th January - 29th March (Type B), hosted by a fairy & ? 
BW II: 19th January - 30th March (Unofficial), hosted by ? & ? 
Spring 
Spring Seasonal III: 15th February - 21st June (Type A), hosted by ? & ? 
NatDex III: 1st March - 24th May (Type C), hosted by ? & ? 
Draft Roulette Cup I: 19th April - 28th June (Unofficial), hosted by ? & ? 
Summer 
USUM IV: 17th May - 9th August (Type B), hosted by vmnunes & ? 
NatDex Ubers III: 30th May - 9th August (Type C), hosted by ? & ? 
DPP II: 26th July - 27th September (Unofficial), hosted by ? & ? 
Autumn 
Autumn Seasonal III: 16th August - 20th December (Type A), hosted by ? & ? 
Low Tier IV: 30th August - 8th November (Type C), hosted by ? & ? 
SS IV: 27th September - 20th December (Type B), hosted by ? & ? 
VGC IV: 18th October - 27th December (Unofficial), hosted by ? & ? 
Draft League Championship III 
28th December - 31st January 2027, hosted by ?
Team Tournaments 
(These will NOT count towards the circuit)
Draft Winter League I: 15th December 2025 - 29th March, hosted by goldmason, ?, & ? 
Draft Champions League IV: 19th July - 1st November, hosted by goldmason, scionicle, & ? 
Draft Farm League III: 15th August - 22nd November, hosted by 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.
Given the pending release of Pokémon Champions, the formats of all SV-based tours may change.
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.
Type B
ORAS/USUM/SS IV: Standard individual tours, SS being played with the post-DLC Galar Dex.
Type C
NatDex III: Classical SV NatDex but in draft form. Z-Moves, Terastallization, and Hidden Power are banned.
NatDex Ubers III: 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.
Low Tier III: Draft's take on RU, what happens when you ban the best Pokémon in standard draft?
Unofficials
BW II: Generation 5 draft.
Draft Roulette Cup I: An explanation can be found here.
DPP II: Generation 4 draft, based off the format being pioneered by EndlessGadgets and jeronipuff.
VGC IV: Champions VGC draft, more details will be published once we know the exact timing.
More unofficial tours may be added as the year progresses.
Changes from 2025
The circuit remains largely the same as 2025, with a few small tweaks:
- USUM and SS have been swapped to their original positions again.
- NatDex Ubers has actually been moved to run alongside DCL as it's our smallest tour and also the one with the smallest overlap with the DCL playerbase.
- Given how late they are in the 2025 calendar, we've not put AAA or NatDex LC onto the calendar for now, they may return depending on how the tours go.
- DCL has been pushed back slightly to accommodate for DPL.
- DWL replaces DLWC, it will follow the same structure as DCL with the following formats
- SV
- SV
- SV NatDex
- SV NatDex
- SV Low Tier
- SV Low Tier
- SV VGC (Regulation F)
- SV VGC (Regulation F)
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 (Princess Autumn, Hacker, a fairy, ultraplayer, vmnunes, OdinRM, or scionicle) via Smogon or Discord. Staffing tours gives you the Tournament Staff role in the Discord, as well as the potential pre-Contributor/Community Contributor/Metagame Resource 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.
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 (Princess Autumn, Hacker, a fairy, ultraplayer, vmnunes, OdinRM, or scionicle) via Smogon or Discord. Staffing tours gives you the Tournament Staff role in the Discord, as well as the potential pre-Contributor/Community Contributor/Metagame Resource 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.
Last edited: