Implemented Make Round 1 of Official Tournaments 1 Week Long

[Fc]

I saw that Expulso brought this up briefly in stours cord today so I figured it would be smth worth having in writing in this forum. As it is, major tournaments usually have 2 week long round 1's due to them being the largest rounds with the most games to get done. However, with slam starting and the recent removal of RR finals this can probably be changed to be a 1 week deadline. Some opens will probably have more byes than games to be played, and waiting 2 weeks for like 20 matches just doesn't seem efficient. Smogon masters, a tournament that's swiss style so everyone is playing for the first few rounds, already has 1 week deadlines each time despite so many games needing to be played so I can see this working out just fine. If people want to consider this only for slam / classic and not for something like OST I would understand since OST eclipses every open/cup in signups by a lot, but I can even see OST being fine with a 1 week deadline. I personally find the 2 weeks a lot longer than needed every time, and feel more likely to forget a scheduled time that's like 12 days in advanace if anything which doesn't help get all the games done.

 

[Merritt]

A longer round 1 is pretty significant for substitutions, and helps reduce the number of extensions going into round 2. We're all aware of how frequently that extensions lead to more extensions, and cutting off the most likely place for those to happen is a huge benefit to keeping the tour moving. I promise we don't do 2 week rounds for no reason, it ends up helping with efficiency in later rounds and leads to more people being able to participate in the tour. Yes, we've removed one part of why we have 2 week rounds (more time to verify people who are inactive to sub them out), but the other reasons why they exist are still around.

In cases where there's a huge number of byes (my personal preference is somewhere around 25%+ byes - so half or more of the matchups in round 1) I can see an argument for having it be one week due to it being a huge momentum drain for the large number of people who aren't playing for a full two weeks. This does reintroduce the issues from above, but at least the number of extensions should be less due to fewer pairings.
also if you're forgetting about your game because you scheduled it two weeks out instead of one that's on you let's be real

 

[Fc]

having it be bye dependent makes sense, with all the other reasons if there's more to it on the backend that makes it really important then it's probably fine to keep in some cases, but if over half the people aren't playing games to start the tour then just sitting around for 2 weeks definitely can kill some hype or momentum for the tour itself and the players so it would make sense to cut. I also think if you wanna play just sign up earlier, a week + until Wednesday in a 1 week round for subs is enough, so a full week for subs doesn't seem appealing to me. The other reasons make sense tho especially if it's a lot closer to being a full bracket rather than being one where most people don't play, so it can be something that's size dependent rather than a hard rule. I just think if a lot of people don't get to play for 2 full weeks it's not as smooth of a tour.

 

[Vertigo]

As Merritt mentioned, 2-week rounds help with efficiency down the line; however, we agree that in some cases it might be unnecessary (if the tour is relatively small or if there's a high amount of byes for example). In these cases, we will let the hosts decide if a 1-week or a 2-week round is more reasonable given the circumstances.