Grand Slam - Administrative Decisions

[jake]

In this thread you will find decisions pertaining to Grand Slam IX. You can find general tournament rules here.

Below are all previous Grand Slam administrative decisions threads and links to pertinent rulings:

Grand Slam VIII Administrative Decisions

-- Intentionally forfeiting​

-- Unplayed finals​

Grand Slam VII Administrative Decisions

-- Ghosting discovered during round 1​

-- Scouting bot​

-- Tiers locked for playoffs​

-- Systemic cheating in Ubers Open​

Grand Slam VI Administrative Decisions

-- Grand Slam playoff size​

-- Collusion​

Grand Slam IV change from top 8 to top 12

 

[jake]

RE: Tier shifts

As always, tiers are locked at the start of each round. There is a lot going on right now with DLC dropping, but each round of the tournament must be played in the state of the tier at the start of the round. Bans, drops, new moves etc are implemented in the following round. All bans and tier shifts will be noted in this thread for ease of access.

 

[jake]

The DLC is out, and this is how it will affect your Grand Slam IX run:

UU Open:

Round 1 will not have any of the newly released Pokemon or moves, as per the ruling above. In the following rounds, all NFE Pokemon (barring Chansey, who has been banned) and new moves are legal.​

RU Open:

Indeedee-M has been banned from SS RU, and cannot be used in Round 1. (The round was posted after the decision was made.) In addition, Chansey is not allowed due to being banned by a higher tier.​

NU Open:

Indeedee-F and Porygon2 have been banned from SS NU, and cannot be used in Round 1. In addition, Chansey is not allowed due to being banned by a higher tier.​

PU Open:

While Round 1 has not yet started, the following Pokemon have been recently banned from PU and will not be allowed when Round 1 begins, per decisions one and two:

• Basculin
• Gourgeist
• Gourgeist-Large
• Gourgeist-Super
• Hitmontop
• Magneton
• Scyther
• Silvally-Bug
• Silvally-Electric
• Silvally-Grass
• Silvally-Psychic

In addition, Chansey and Porygon2 are not allowed due to being banned by a higher tier.​

LC Open:

While Round 1 has not yet started, Scyther and Tangela have been banned from LC and will not be allowed when Round 1 begins.​

Lastly, tier shifts based on OU usage are scheduled to happen on July 1st, per this announcement. These shifts happen in the middle of the week, meaning they will not impact the tournament until the round following. I'll post a brief summary of the changes here when they happen.

Please let me know ASAP if anything in this thread is not correct.

 

[Perry]

RE: Silvally-Water

Silvally-Water has been banned from PU. Following this ruling from Grand Slam VII, the tiers are locked for playoffs and therefore Silvally-Water will be legal to use in PU throughout the remainder of this tournament. Furthermore, players should challenge their PU games using the SS OU format.

 

[Perry]

RE: Drampa, Toxicroak and Vikavolt

These Pokémon were banned from NU last Sunday. As mentioned in the previous decision re: Silvally-Water, tiers are locked for playoffs and therefore these bans will have no effect whatsoever for this tournament.

 

[Perry]

RE: Klinklang and Bouffalant

PU banned these two Pokémon earlier today. They remain legal to use throughout Slam IX playoffs for said tier.

 

[Perry]

RE: Lycanroc-Dusk

Lycanroc-Dusk has been banned from UU following the latest suspect test results. It will remain legal to use throughout Slam IX playoffs for said tier.

 

[Perry]

RE: April's Tier Shifts, Grand Slam X

As you all know by now (I hope...), tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact UU, RU and NU Opens by their next round. As such, we are not updating our SmogTours server until the next Monday. However, if you are playing on the main PS! server please pay attention to the fact that you must challenge your opponent using the OU format if you are playing for either of the UU or RU Opens, and use the RU format to play for the NU Open.

tl;dr: play on smogtours, otherwise challenge your opponent to an OU game if you are playing for UU or RU Open and challenge your opponent to a RU game if you are playing for NU Open.

 

[Perry]

RE: Smogtours' Update

Our PS! server has been updated today and, as such, the UU, PU and LC Opens are all up to date for you to play in your current round. However, considering how the RU and NU Opens are still in their first round, you still have to challenge your opponent to an OU game (if you are playing for the the RU Open) or RU game (if you are playing for the NU Open), both on PS! Main server and on tours.

And yes, someone messed that up today

 

[kjdaas]

RE: May's Tier Shifts, Grand Slam X

As you all know by now (I hope...), tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact PU Open from its next round and onwards. As such, we are not updating our SmogTours server until Monday. However, if you are playing on the main PS! server please pay attention to not use Arctovish, Sandslash-Alola, Aurorus and Vanilluxe for these weeks matches.

 

[Perry]

RE: CBU

CBU has been tournament banned due to ghosting. They will be disqualified from the Grand Slam X playoffs.

 

[Finchinator]

Re: April Tier Shift,

Tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact UU, RU and NU Opens by their next round. As such, we are not updating our SmogTours server quite yet. However, if you are playing on the main PS! server please pay attention to the fact that you must challenge your opponent using the OU format if you are playing for the RU Open.

 

[Finchinator]

Following the imbalance in signup numbers for this edition of Grand Slam, the TD team has determined it is necessary to make an adjustment to the point values awarded towards playoff qualification.

Opens will award 1 point per win until the round of 32 (round of 48 in a tour size with a round robin final). Wins from this point onwards in the Opens will award 2 points (+3 to the winner of a round robin finals).

We determined that this would be an appropriate way to scale points as we recognize that Opens with a much larger tour size should still award more points than a smaller sized Open for a same place finish, but it should do so without unduly weighting tournaments with an overwhelmingly large number of signups overall.

 

[Finchinator]

RE: Obstagoon

Obstagoon has been banned from RU. However, it will remain legal to use for the remainder of Round 4 of the RU Open. As such, the Smogtours server will not be updated until next Monday. If playing on the main PS! server, please make sure to challenge your opponent in the UU format.

 

[Merritt]

RE: Vullaby

LC is currently suspect testing Vullaby. As usual for retests with Pokemon who have been banned, Vullaby is not legal to be used in LC games for Grand Slam playoffs unless it is unbanned following the conclusion of the suspect vote.

The same goes for PU, which is suspect testing Araquanid. It will not be legal to use for Grand Slam playoffs unless it is unbanned following the suspect vote.

Bringing an illegal mon will result in a loss for the player who brings it. An administrative decision post will be made if either Pokemon is voted to be unbanned.

 

[Amaranth]

RE: bulufan14

After concluding an extensive investigation that revealed new evidence, the TD team has been able to determine that bulufan14 is an alt of a permabanned user. The alt will be banned and disqualified from Grand Slam XI playoffs.

The tiebreak is suspended and all other players are admitted into the playoffs, with seeding determined by their Win% as normal.

Round 1 will be posted in the next few hours.

 

[Merritt]

RE: Guzzlord

Guzzlord has been quickbanned from PU. However, it will remain legal to use for the remainder of Round 2 of the Grand Slam playoffs. As such, the Smogtours server will not be updated until next Monday. If playing on the main PS! server, please make sure to challenge your opponent in the NU format.

 

[Finchinator]

Re: May Tier Shift,

Tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact ongoing opens by their next round. Please be mindful of this in particular when playing UU Open’s first round, where the new drops are still not allowed.

 

[Merritt]

Re: Oricorio Pom-Pom and Diglett

Oricorio Pom-Pom was banned from SV RU and Diglett was banned from SV LC. As these bans happened prior to the round going up, these pokemon will be banned in Round 2 of the RU and LC Opens respectively. Bringing a banned Pokemon will result in forfeiting that game.

 

[Merritt]

Re: Pokemon HOME

Pokemon HOME has (finally) released. Newly legal Pokemon and moves will not be usable until the beginning of next round. Usage of Pokemon or moves that are only available after Pokemon HOME's release during the current round will result in forfeiting that game.

The Smogtours server will not be updated until next week to help account for this.

 

[Merritt]

Re: June Tier Shifts

Tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact ongoing opens by their next round. Just like with the release of Pokemon HOME, the smogtours server will not be updated with these changes, but games played on the main server must be played in an appropriate tier (generally one up, i.e. play UU games in the OU format).

 

[Merritt]

Re: July Tier Shifts

Tiers are locked at the start of each round. This means that today's shifts will only impact ongoing opens by their next round. Smogtours will not be updated until next week to account for this.

 

[Finchinator]

Re: Grand Slam Round 1 deadline,

Prior to round 1 of Grand Slam playoffs going up, the TD team was made aware of a complete schedule incompatibility lasting for the duration of the expected round 1 timeframe as well as the standard extension period, meaning the players would not be able to play for the first week and a half.

In order to avoid an activity win in playoffs, as well as lacking sufficient alternative solutions* , the TD team decided to allow for a longer than usual round 1 duration of 2 full weeks rather than an extra long extension to put all playoff participants on equal footing timewise.

*bringing up the next highest seed would result in a tiebreak, by the end of which the scheduling incompatibility would no longer exist, altering seeding to avoid this incompatibility is something we're unwilling to entertain

This allows for everyone to have the full two week period to prepare for all 5 formats in the first round of the playoffs and it makes up for the lost time as the round does not get up until later on Monday due to the host's IRL conflicts until late on Sunday.

Result: R1 of Grand Slam's playoffs deadline will be August 6th rather than July 30th.

 

[Finchinator]

Re: Grimmsnarl,

It was banned via suspect test early today and playoffs did not go up until later today. It will not be allowed in Grand Slam playoffs in NU.

 

[Theia]

re: Gastly

Gastly was banned from Little Cup before round one of the LC Open was posted, but Smogtours did not update properly for the ban. Gastly is illegal for round one of the LC Open.