Announcement Potential 2026 AAA Circuit

[UT]

Hello friends and coworkers, I am here with a modest proposal of establishing an AAA Circuit for 2026 and wanted to get public feedback on interest and, if there is interest, what some of the details should be. At this time I am not sure of any potential prize, but if people think it needs one / have ideas I am all ears for that.

Tours that would very likely be included

• The existing AAA Seasonal and Open in the OM circuit (they would count for both circuits, yes this is legal unless we ever get a ribbon which seems unlikely for next year at least)
• AAA Grand Slam: three Opens (UU / Ubers / Doubles) that feed into a bo3 playoff
• AAA Classic: three Cups (ORAS / USUM / SS) that feed into a bo3 playoff
• SV AAA ladder tour: everyone loves a ladder tour
• Something to do with NatDex (more in the next category)
• AAAPL (not actually part of the circuit since it won't award points, but obviously an important part of our tour schedule)
• Circuit Champs - top 8 or 16, format to be discussed below

Other tours that could be considered

• Given the success of integrating NatDex into AAAPL, I would like to see NatDex AAA somewhere in our circuit as well. The two most logical things are steal one (or both?) of the existing NatDex AAA tours and double dip, or add a NatDex Cup to Grand Slam, but I am also open to other ideas.
• Additional SV AAA tours: stuff like Swiss, Majors, uh...other tours? I forget all the tour formats. Currently we have "only" three SV AAA tours in the likely category.
• Additional other types of tours: stuff like Homefield, uh...other tours? What else do people like.
• A second AAA team tour? Sounds like overkill to me espeically given the overlap with OMPL and OMCL but still worth floating.

Questions for the community

• Is there interest in an AAA circuit in the first place? Or should we "just" consider adding one or two more stand alone tours to help feature the non-SV AAA metas and call it a day. For example, I can see myself hosting a ladder tour and Classic even if not part of a larger tour.
• How would we handle playoffs? All current gen? Bo3 with current gen locked and each player picks one? Or is playoffs just too complicated with this many potential metas?
• How many tours is too many? Not enough? Ideal?
• Point structure will be tbd based on number of tours / how we want to handle oldgens / etc.
• I would like to hear prize ideas if anyone has any; ribbon / CA are definitely out of the question year one, but what else could we do to incentivize participation?

Any other questions / comments / concerns / feedback? Fire away!

 

[Betticus IV]

Personally would love to see natdex open/ssnl included in circuit (which one can actually sign up for RIGHT NOW)

Ladder tour definitely should happen either way even without circuit, was super fun and led to multiple current staple aaa tour players, including myself, get their start. I personally think classic should not count towards a larger circuit if both are to go through, as circuit should mainly focus on current gen. Would still be super fun to try it out however.

Slam/Playoffs for circuit should be current gen, I think with 5 metas to choose from -> OU, UU, Ubers, Doubles, Natdex. I like this the most as it makes play offs a bo5 series, so more games to be watched/played and doesn't leave us with 3/4 metas. Higher seed picks g1 meta and loser picks the next meta no repeats. Playoff size I think should be determined by player interest, if there is enough to support 16 after the first few opens let's do it over 8.

Personally don't think there is a need for a second team tour, as it sounds like a schedule like this would already be pretty packed with all the ideas so idk if we need OMPL, CL, PL and a second one to satiate aaa in a team tour environment.

As for a year one circuit prize, I have liked how team tours in OM section have started using likes/banners as an incentive, similarly can use discord color/roles. If feasible maybe the little trophies that pop up in your signature? But other than that idk what else you could rlly offer.

 

[AM]

• Given the success of integrating NatDex into AAAPL, I would like to see NatDex AAA somewhere in our circuit as well. The two most logical things are steal one (or both?) of the existing NatDex AAA tours and double dip, or add a NatDex Cup to Grand Slam, but I am also open to other ideas.
• Additional SV AAA tours: stuff like Swiss, Majors, uh...other tours? I forget all the tour formats. Currently we have "only" three SV AAA tours in the likely category.
• Additional other types of tours: stuff like Homefield, uh...other tours? What else do people like.
• A second AAA team tour? Sounds like overkill to me espeically given the overlap with OMPL and OMCL but still worth floating.

Natdex probably won't make too much sense in the Grand Slam Cup unless a new additional AAA meta comes up, or Betticus proposal for 5 formats. I think Swiss format is garbage on this site, genuinely, with just the flaky nature of how players can be regarding scheduling and commitment. Majors I think is whack too but that's an issue with the pools format, since eventually if you're so down you're out there's no reason to really commit to playing rest of your games out.

Homefield is a meme format that shouldn't really ever reward circuit points assuming the circuit is being designed for a year end playoffs in the SV format. Second team tour is overkill.

Everything that is non SV AAA should either not be giving points or made to be C type tours like the Grand Slam (under the assumption it's only an UU/Ubers/Dubs format). Ladder tour should be type A.

 

[porcupine21]

I would love to see a doubles AAA tournament of some kind included here if there is more support, seems like an intriguing format that is a little underexplored(?) really happy if we get more natdex too!!

 

[UT]

Okay team, I have tried to draft up a rough draft for the 2026 Circuit:

SV Ladder Tour - January
SV Open - March
Classic (ORAS / USUM / SS) - April
NatDex Seasonal - May
SV Seasonal - July
Grand Slam (UU / Ubers / Doubles) - September
Last chance tour (SV again? homefield? some other format?) - October

Champs - December

Questions for the community:
Is this a good spread of tours / repersentation / spacing? What would you like to see changed if anything?
How do we do champs for this? All SV AAA? Include the other AAAPL metas? Or is champs just not viable here and we pivot to a tour schedule with no overarching circuit?
Where do we put AAAPL? Summertime is my first thought, but that likely would overlap with the NatDex and / or SV seasonal. Or, if we ditch champs, we can easily make some more space in here.
What should last chance be, or is it unnecessary?

Open to any and all feedback, especially from anyone that is considering playing in this!

 

[UT]

Okay team, I think we're going to punt on a full circuit this year and just run the tours that people want. Which will at minimum include AAAPL, the AAA Open and Seasonal in the OM circuit, and...AAA Ladder tour!

The main question I have for y'all about ladder tour, which I want to start in the next week or so, is how do we want to do cycles? Previously, we have done two week-long cycles where the top 8 each cycle qualified for playoffs. Do we want to do four cycles where it's only top four? Do we want shorter-than-week cycles so they may end at different times (morning, evening, weekdays, etc) to cater to different time zones?

Give thoughts or I will make the decision based on my own vibes and nothing else.

 

[porcupine21]

Okay team, I think we're going to punt on a full circuit this year and just run the tours that people want. Which will at minimum include AAAPL, the AAA Open and Seasonal in the OM circuit, and...AAA Ladder tour!

The main question I have for y'all about ladder tour, which I want to start in the next week or so, is how do we want to do cycles? Previously, we have done two week-long cycles where the top 8 each cycle qualified for playoffs. Do we want to do four cycles where it's only top four? Do we want shorter-than-week cycles so they may end at different times (morning, evening, weekdays, etc) to cater to different time zones?

Give thoughts or I will make the decision based on my own vibes and nothing else.

My TZ of IST is kinda ass for ladder and even though I doubt I’ll be pushing the top 10 it would be nice to see cycles catering to different time zones!

 

[O1V7O2X9O]

I like the idea of 4 cycles offset from each other by 6 hour gaps to cater for different timezones and schedules

 

[Betticus IV]

i think week long cycles r best, since last time it was done nobody rlly played the first week anyway and grinded the week of deadline, so this just streamlines/makes cycles naturally more competitive.