Tournament Little Cup World Cup - Announcements and Administrative Decisions

[Xayah]

In this thread, any important announcements and other decisions made by the hosts of the Little Cup World Cup will be announced.

Weekly Schedule

Week 1
NA East vs. NW Europe
NA Central vs. Asia
Europe vs. Latin America
NA West vs. France

Week 2
NA Central vs. Europe
NA East vs. Latin America
Asia vs. France
NW Europe vs. NA West

Week 3
France vs. NW Europe
Latin America vs. Asia
Europe vs. NA East
NA West vs. NA Central

Week 4
Latin America vs. NA West
Asia vs. Europe
NW Europe vs. NA Central
France vs. NA East

Week 5
NA East vs. NA Central
Europe vs. NW Europe
NA West vs. Asia
France vs. Latin America

Week 6
Europe vs. NA West
Asia vs. NA East
NW Europe vs. Latin America
NA Central vs. France

Week 7
Latin America vs. NA Central
Asia vs. NW Europe
NA East vs. NA West
France vs. Europe

 

[Xayah]

Regions and Managers
[Note that this is updated in a subsequent post]

For our first announcement, we have decided on the full list of regions and their respective managers! (Roster sizes have yet to be decided.)

Asia-Pacific - Serene Grace
North America West - Melon
North America East - Coconut
North America Central - Corporal Levi
South America - ggggd
Northwest Europe - LilyAC
France - majaspic22
Europe - Fille

Eligibilities

Any player that has both a primary and a secondary eligibility will be able to choose for which team they want to play.

Northwest Europe consists of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Europe consists of every European country bar France and those included in Northwest Europe. This means that players from France or one of the countries in Northwest Europe are not eligible to play in Europe, unless they have a secondary eligibility in a different country.

Mexico is included in North America West.

Oceania is included in the Asia-Pacific region. Africa is also included in this region, but the lack of signups from this continent means this doesn’t impact the tour in any way.

For the division of North America, see the map below

Divisions

Regional Reasoning

We understand that several countries and regions wanted their own teams. We don’t have the playerbase nor the time for a play-in process like the official WCOP, and we were forced to make some compromises to yield a competitive tournament where teams will share some non-arbitrary geographic connection. Below is the reasoning behind what I expect to be our three most controversial decisions. I am willing to further justify it with any of you, but keep in mind that this decision is not subject to change.

• France - decisions regarding which regions were separated from Europe and which ones weren’t were highly subjective and very tough to make, and several countries were brought up for their own teams. Ultimately, the hosts believe that France has more potential as standalone regions than others as they have shown to have more recently successful and active players.
• Northwest Europe - Both Benelux and the United Kingdom pushed for separate teams from the rest of Europe. While we felt both had decent justification and the playerbase to warrant their own team, we didn’t feel comfortable expanding the field past 8 teams and players from both regions expressed interest in a combined team.
• South America vs. Brazil - Brazil had probably the strongest claim to regional independence of any country in the tournament. However, given the very low number of signups from the rest of South America, and our desire to have every country included in some team, we have included all of Latin America together. It will be left up to ggggd how Brazilian to make his team.
• Canada grouped with Central - This team is also known as North America Flyover. Canada doesn’t have the playerbase for its own team, and we decided that grouping Canada regionally (western Canada with western US, etc.) would become confusing and arbitrary. It was decided that Canada and Central US share enough cultural similarities to make this grouping work, and players on both sides of the border supported this decision.
• Mexico grouped with NA West - The Mexican playerbase has expressed more interest in joining with the NA West team and since neither NA West nor South America will suffer balance issues from getting or not getting Mexico, this decision was made.

 

[Xayah]

After further discussion with the managers, the format of this tour has been decided.
The tournament will be played over 7 weeks with each team facing every other team once. It will be played in 6 slots (SM LC (Bo1) / SM LC (Bo1) / SM LC (Bo1) / XY LC (Bo1) / BW LC (Bo1) / DPP LC (Bo1)). After this group stage, the top 4 teams will advance to the semifinals.

Each manager will be selecting 11 players from their region to make up their team. The deadline for both full rosters and Week 1 lineup is Sunday November 25th at 11:59 pm EST, although managers are encouraged to submit earlier. Remember that signups close one day earlier, on Saturday November 24th!

 

[Nineage]

Re: North America division

We have received reasonable complaints about our division of North America. While the division was done in the interest of competitiveness and was seen as our best option, we made a mistake in our priorities while drawing the regions. All relevant managers have agreed to a new division of North America, and we hope it can be seen as a compromise. I take full responsibility for the mistakes in the earliest division, but this should not serve as precedent to petition for re-division of any other region.

The new regions are as follows:
North America West (captain: Melon)
North America Central (captain: Corporal Levi)
North America East (captain: Coconut)

The new regions will follow this map.

Re: Europe division

There have been complaints about the lack of an Italy team and the formation of NW Europe as a region. While the spirit behind these complaints is valid, we still don't believe there was a more valid division available at the time we made regional divisions, so there is no grounds to walk back our division process. There would be no viable way to afford Italy a team now, and we don't feel we should move any part of Northwest Europe back to the main European team.

Result: The Europe division remains as originally planned.

 

[Xayah]

Re: Sand Rush

Sand Rush has been banned from BW LC and this will be in place during week 1 of LCWC, as it was done before the start of the week.

 

[Xayah]

Re: Gen 5 Move Incompatibilities

It was recently brought to our attention that Download Porygon is legal on the simulator with moves that shouldn't be legal in Generations 4 or 5. The appropriate people have been made aware of this glitch. The general issue is that level 5 genderless Pokemon should not have access to level-up moves in generations 4 or 5 while using abilities that they did not have access to in generation 3. Anyone caught abusing this glitch (which as far as we know only extends to generation 4 and 5 Download Porygon) will forfeit the match.

It is worth noting that simulator glitches, including move compatibility issues, will generally not result in an auto-forfeit under general Smogon tournament rules. Since this glitch was caught in advance of it being a problem, we feel comfortable suspending this rule in this specific situation, since all managers have been made aware ahead of time that abusing the incompatibility will result in a forfeit.

 

[Xayah]

Re: vooper vs Kurukaito

vooper and Kurukaito scheduled for 8 pm GMT on Kurukaito's wall. Vooper was there 8 minutes in advance and posted on Kurukaito's wall to say so. Kuru did not show up for the scheduled time. Vooper's manager Serene Grace contacted the French manager majaspic22 but did not receive a response until vooper had to leave, about 25 minutes after the scheduled time. Vooper returned later, around 11 pm GMT, looking for a sub, but none was given.

Verdict: Activity win to vooper

 

[Xayah]

Re: Pinch Berries

Enigma, Micle, Custap, Jaboca, and Rowap Berries have been released today. They will not be legal in Week 6, but are allowed to be used starting Week 7.

 

[Nineage]

RE: Tiebreaker

It has come to the attention of the hosts that the originally planned measures for a 3rd-place tiebreaker are resulting in a situation where teams are forced to choose between putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage or compromising the integrity of the tournament. Instead of a tiebreaker, the first seed (NW Europe) should have been able to select their opponent during the first round of playoffs. Unfortunately, neither host foresaw this circumstance and we take full responsibility for the mistake. We have decided to retroactively apply this ruling change.

While we understand that making a change now results in the loss of a day of tournament time and walks back on the result of one already-played match, we feel that making this is still the best solution for 3 reasons:

1. Neither team is put at a competitive disadvantage by this change since the alternative results in completely luck-based games (in which both players attempt to lose, which could involve clicking the x button more quickly than the opponent).
2. Less time is wasted on this change than waiting for tiebreaker games to be "played", so despite the negative optics, the tour can continue in a reasonable way.
3. No players will be in a compromising situation and the integrity of the tour will be preserved as much as possible given previous decisions.

Both managers involved have agreed to the retroactive change. This was a mistake on the part of the hosts, and we hope that a quick fix will prove better than waiting to see the extent of the consequences.

Result: The tiebreaker rules have been changed. NW Europe, as the number 1 seed, will choose their opponent for the first round of the playoffs. The other team will receive the number 3 seed. The results of already-played tiebreaker games will be nullified. The playoffs will be posted as soon as NW Europe picks an opponent.

 

[Xayah]

Re: mad0ka vs. Shrug

Shrug was informed on Monday that his tournament opponent could not play over the weekend. He waited until 72 hours had passed from the time of the original post to respond, in violation of tournament scheduling guidelines. No evidence has been presented to the hosts that Shrug, finding himself unable to play during his opponent's proposed times, contacted the opposing manager, his opponent, or the hosts to seek an accommodation.

Shrug was also active on Discord during his opponent's available time periods. This in no way constitutes grounds for an activity loss - being active on Discord does not mean that a player should be available to play an important tournament match that requires a more stable internet connection and, presumably, team preparation. Shrug cannot be penalized for ignoring his opponent's Discord tags. However, his Discord activity reveals that there were no extenuating circumstances that would have prevented him from replying to his opponent's VMs or seeking accommodations within a reasonable time frame.

Likewise, trash and mad0ka's attempts to tag Shrug and Coconut on Discord cannot be constituted as a significant effort to get the match done. However, they do indicate that there was no coordinated effort by West to avoid playing the match. Furthermore, at this point in the scheduling process, the onus was on Shrug to make the next move. While it is reasonable that Shrug could not make any of the times originally given by his opponent, he did not make a reasonable effort to propose alternative times since he had already been informed that no time on the weekend worked for his opponent. At this point, Shrug should have (if possible) made time during the week or contacted someone while leaving enough time for a fair substitution to be made or an extension to be granted.

It would be unreasonable to fault Shrug for not being available during the week given that his activity follows scheduling guidelines. It would also be unreasonable to fault him for missing a scheduled time when he never agreed to the time that West claims he scheduled. However, Shrug can be faulted for (1) not responding to his opponent's VM within the alotted time and (2) never providing a legal availability timeframe (given that he knew his opponent wasn't free at the times he indicated), seeking a substitute/double substitute, or contacting anyone for an extension. Shrug has failed to cross the threshold of minimal effort to schedule the match.

Two independent tournament directors and a tier leader have also expressed agreement with this decision.

Result: mad0ka is given the activity win.