As many of you are aware, we planned to have 2 team tournaments this year in our schedule to try and make up for the losses in our official representation this year. I'd like to open a public discussion with some focus on a new idea Minority came up with and see if we want to give it a shot. The obvious suggestion right now is to simply copy the ongoing Snake Draft's format and just slap Ubers tiers in it, but we aren't sure if it really adds all that much excitement, and would come with identity issues against the UPL. SPL and Snake differ in both represented tiers and drafting style, but UPL and USD would only change in drafting style. We're more interested in a new or unique tournament, if we can find one that reasonably works for us.
The current name for this new tournament idea is "Most Wanted" and it operates on a bounty system with some unique twists and roles not seen in any other tournaments, so it's likely to be heavily experimental in nature. Here is the (current) full ruleset:
It's to be expected that the birth of a new tournament format will take some time to get used to, but I recommend trying to understand the ruleset before making quick judgements. Some things to note is that the size of the tournament in terms of teams, slots, and roles are all variable and will likely be finalized after signups conclude. If you are interested in this tournament and wish to voice that in this thread, please cover if you would want the games to be best of one or best of three.
Here's a mock visual version of the tournament for added perspective. Note that this only covers the BW pool.
Feel free to post your thoughts, even if its a simple answer. Minority is willing to answer questions on the format if need be. From a player perspective, the burden of knowledge isn't too high - you can sign up, decide where you play, win and pay little attention to the grand scheme of things, but Captains will want to know their way around this. The important thing here is that the new tournament (whatever is chosen) is accepted and players actually want to participate in it. If interest is low in general for a team tournament (which I highly doubt) then we can simply move on with the individual tournaments we have scheduled already. It also won't count for circuit points, so its just for community benefit!
The current name for this new tournament idea is "Most Wanted" and it operates on a bounty system with some unique twists and roles not seen in any other tournaments, so it's likely to be heavily experimental in nature. Here is the (current) full ruleset:
Victory:
• The first team to achieve 150,000 bounty by the end of a given week is the winner
• If two teams manage to achieve 150,000 bounty by the end of the same week, the team that exceeds by a higher margin is the winner
• If no team achieves 150,000 bounty by the end of Week 7, the team with the highest bounty upon the conclusion of Week 7 is the winner
Bounty:
• Bounty is held by each individual player
• A team’s bounty is equal to the sum of all its player’s bounties
• A player’s starting bounty is determined by prior UPL standing:
o Their final auction or retention price not to exceed 30,000
o Managers = 20,000
o Official Assistant Managers = 15,000
o UPL Hosts = 10,000
o All Others = 2,000
Team & Player Quantities:
• There will be ten (10) starting teams
• Each team will have exactly seven (7) players
• The total number of initial players will therefore be seventy (70)
Team Roles:
• There are three team roles, and each team will have exactly:
o One (1) Captain. The captain is responsible for developing a draft plan, coordinating with the host, and leading their team to victory, among other responsibilities.
o Four (4) Hunters. Hunters are players who participated in the prior UPL as players, managers, official assistant managers, or hosts, and have an initial bounty associated with them.
o Two (2) Freelancers. Freelancers were not officially associated with the prior UPL and will have a starting bounty of 2,000. Freelancers also have special Assassin Status privileges and limitations outlined later
• All players, including the Captain, are expected to play in this tournament.
Team Formation:
• Teams will be formed though a snake draft.
• Snake draft order will be from lowest Captain starting bounty to highest, and randomly selected for equal values
• Completed teams will not exceed a combined starting credit value of 75,000
Tier Support:
• The tiers supported in the tournament will be identical to those supported in the prior UPL
• Only strict generation tiers will be supported. This means no special tiers such as Best of Three Smogon Tour, etc.
• All battles will be best of one or three (community decision)
Tier Registration:
• At signup, players will register for exactly three (3) of the supported tiers
• Before the start of each week, captains and players will decide on what tiers they play
• Players may freely change between tiers every week, but may only play tiers that they registered for in their signup post
• Tiers that receive less than six (6) entrants in a given week will be declared dead and will removed for the remainder of the tournament. Any remaining players registered in a tier that is declared dead must swap their registration for one of the remaining active tiers
• A given team may not register more than three (3) players in a given tier, unless there is an extremely unlikely circumstance in which the above rules require it
Benching:
• All players are expected to play all weeks; however, a team may bench no more than one (1) player per week
• A player may not be benched for consecutive weeks
• A player that fails to complete their matches will be considered an effective bench for that week
• A player or players that cause two or more benches in a given week will have half their current bounty transferred to the highest valued player that is not on their team
Matchups:
• Weekly matchups are determined by a player’s bounty before the start of the week
• Players in a given tier for a given week will be sorted by ascending bounty, and matched against their closest neighbor, top to bottom
• Two or more players with equally close neighbors will have their matchups with said neighbors randomly determined
• In the event that an odd number of players register for a tier, the lowest bounty player will be required to select an alternative tier in which they are registered. If no alternative tier with an odd number of entrants is available, said player will be benched that week
• If a player would be matched against someone with a 50% or greater difference in their bounty and that difference is greater than 5,000, the higher value player will be given Assassin Status for that week
• A freelancer that picks up a third win or a fifth win will be given Assassin Status that may be used in a week of their choosing
Assassin Status:
• A player with Assassin Status may challenge any player registered in the tier in which they hold Assassin Status
• Victories with Assassin Status automatically eliminate the losing player
• A freelancer with Assassin Status is automatically eliminated from the tournament if they lose the matchup from their Assassin Status
• Matchmaking priority is given to Assassin Status Freelancers, followed by Assassin Status Captains / Hunters, followed by the standard matchmaking via player bounty
Bounty Transfer and Player Lives:
• A winning player takes 50% of their opponent’s current bounty
• Bounty will not be split into denominations lower than 500, and the quantity of transfer will always be rounded up
• The minimum transaction of bounty is 2,000
• Players will start with three (3) lives
• A life is lost for every week that player loses
• Players that lose their third life are eliminated for the remainder of the tournament
• Captains or Hunters that are reduced to 0 bounty after any loss are automatically eliminated from the tournament
• When a player eliminates another player, they receive 100% of their remaining bounty
• The first team to achieve 150,000 bounty by the end of a given week is the winner
• If two teams manage to achieve 150,000 bounty by the end of the same week, the team that exceeds by a higher margin is the winner
• If no team achieves 150,000 bounty by the end of Week 7, the team with the highest bounty upon the conclusion of Week 7 is the winner
Bounty:
• Bounty is held by each individual player
• A team’s bounty is equal to the sum of all its player’s bounties
• A player’s starting bounty is determined by prior UPL standing:
o Their final auction or retention price not to exceed 30,000
o Managers = 20,000
o Official Assistant Managers = 15,000
o UPL Hosts = 10,000
o All Others = 2,000
Team & Player Quantities:
• There will be ten (10) starting teams
• Each team will have exactly seven (7) players
• The total number of initial players will therefore be seventy (70)
Team Roles:
• There are three team roles, and each team will have exactly:
o One (1) Captain. The captain is responsible for developing a draft plan, coordinating with the host, and leading their team to victory, among other responsibilities.
o Four (4) Hunters. Hunters are players who participated in the prior UPL as players, managers, official assistant managers, or hosts, and have an initial bounty associated with them.
o Two (2) Freelancers. Freelancers were not officially associated with the prior UPL and will have a starting bounty of 2,000. Freelancers also have special Assassin Status privileges and limitations outlined later
• All players, including the Captain, are expected to play in this tournament.
Team Formation:
• Teams will be formed though a snake draft.
• Snake draft order will be from lowest Captain starting bounty to highest, and randomly selected for equal values
• Completed teams will not exceed a combined starting credit value of 75,000
Tier Support:
• The tiers supported in the tournament will be identical to those supported in the prior UPL
• Only strict generation tiers will be supported. This means no special tiers such as Best of Three Smogon Tour, etc.
• All battles will be best of one or three (community decision)
Tier Registration:
• At signup, players will register for exactly three (3) of the supported tiers
• Before the start of each week, captains and players will decide on what tiers they play
• Players may freely change between tiers every week, but may only play tiers that they registered for in their signup post
• Tiers that receive less than six (6) entrants in a given week will be declared dead and will removed for the remainder of the tournament. Any remaining players registered in a tier that is declared dead must swap their registration for one of the remaining active tiers
• A given team may not register more than three (3) players in a given tier, unless there is an extremely unlikely circumstance in which the above rules require it
Benching:
• All players are expected to play all weeks; however, a team may bench no more than one (1) player per week
• A player may not be benched for consecutive weeks
• A player that fails to complete their matches will be considered an effective bench for that week
• A player or players that cause two or more benches in a given week will have half their current bounty transferred to the highest valued player that is not on their team
Matchups:
• Weekly matchups are determined by a player’s bounty before the start of the week
• Players in a given tier for a given week will be sorted by ascending bounty, and matched against their closest neighbor, top to bottom
• Two or more players with equally close neighbors will have their matchups with said neighbors randomly determined
• In the event that an odd number of players register for a tier, the lowest bounty player will be required to select an alternative tier in which they are registered. If no alternative tier with an odd number of entrants is available, said player will be benched that week
• If a player would be matched against someone with a 50% or greater difference in their bounty and that difference is greater than 5,000, the higher value player will be given Assassin Status for that week
• A freelancer that picks up a third win or a fifth win will be given Assassin Status that may be used in a week of their choosing
Assassin Status:
• A player with Assassin Status may challenge any player registered in the tier in which they hold Assassin Status
• Victories with Assassin Status automatically eliminate the losing player
• A freelancer with Assassin Status is automatically eliminated from the tournament if they lose the matchup from their Assassin Status
• Matchmaking priority is given to Assassin Status Freelancers, followed by Assassin Status Captains / Hunters, followed by the standard matchmaking via player bounty
Bounty Transfer and Player Lives:
• A winning player takes 50% of their opponent’s current bounty
• Bounty will not be split into denominations lower than 500, and the quantity of transfer will always be rounded up
• The minimum transaction of bounty is 2,000
• Players will start with three (3) lives
• A life is lost for every week that player loses
• Players that lose their third life are eliminated for the remainder of the tournament
• Captains or Hunters that are reduced to 0 bounty after any loss are automatically eliminated from the tournament
• When a player eliminates another player, they receive 100% of their remaining bounty
Teams & Victory:
- The first team to achieve 200,000 bounty by the end of a given week is the winner
- If two teams manage to achieve 200,000 bounty by the end of the same week, the team that exceeds by a higher margin is the winner
- If no team achieves 200,000 bounty by the end of Week 7, the team with the highest bounty upon the conclusion of Week 7 is the winner
- Teams will be formed though a snake draft
- Draft order will be randomly assigned
- There will be exactly eight (8) starting teams
- Each team will have exactly seven (7) players
- The total number of initial players will therefore be fifty-six (56)
- Bounty is held by each player and a team’s bounty is equal to the sum of all its player’s bounties
- A player’s initial bounty is determined by draft position
- IB = 27,500-(X)(500) where X is # of draft position -1
- All captains will start at 20,000
- Only strict generation tiers will be supported. This means no special tiers such as Best of Three Smogon Tour, etc.
- All battles will be best of one
- At signup, players will register for exactly three (3) of the supported tiers
- Captains may not submit lineups with more than three (3) players in a given tier per week
- Players may freely change tiers every week, but may only play tiers that they registered for at signup
- Tiers that receive less than four (4) entrants in a given week will be declared dead and will be removed for the remainder of the tournament. Any players registered in a tier that is declared dead will be allowed to swap their registration for one of the remaining tiers
- A team may bench no more than one (1) player per week
- A player may not be benched for consecutive weeks
- A player that fails to complete their matches will be considered an effective bench for that week
- A player or players that cause two or more benches in a given week will have half their current bounty split between the highest valued players that are not on their team
- Weekly matchups are determined by a player’s bounty at the start of the week
- Players in a give tier are sorted by bounty and matched against their closest neighbor top down
- Two or more players with equally close neighbors will be randomly determined
- In the event that an odd number of players register for a tier, the lowest bounty player will be required to select another tier in which they are registered. If no alternate tier with an odd number of entrants is available, said player must be benched that week
- A player with Assassin Status may challenge any player within the tier they selected
- Victories with Assassin Status automatically eliminate the losing player if the victor had higher bounty at matchup
- A player with Assassin Status is automatically eliminated from the tournament if they challenge a player with a higher bounty and lose
- Assassin Status can be gained in the following ways:
- If a player would be matched against someone with a 50% or greater difference in their bounty and that difference is greater than 5,000, effective the current week
- Upon a fourth win and a sixth win, effective the following week
- The winning player takes 50% of their opponent’s bounty
- Bounty will not be split into denominations lower than 500, rounded up
- The minimum bounty transaction is 1,000
- Players start with three (3) lives
- A life is lost for every game a player loses and players that lose all lives are eliminated from the tournament
- When a player eliminates another player, they receive 100% of their remaining bounty
It's to be expected that the birth of a new tournament format will take some time to get used to, but I recommend trying to understand the ruleset before making quick judgements. Some things to note is that the size of the tournament in terms of teams, slots, and roles are all variable and will likely be finalized after signups conclude. If you are interested in this tournament and wish to voice that in this thread, please cover if you would want the games to be best of one or best of three.
Here's a mock visual version of the tournament for added perspective. Note that this only covers the BW pool.
Feel free to post your thoughts, even if its a simple answer. Minority is willing to answer questions on the format if need be. From a player perspective, the burden of knowledge isn't too high - you can sign up, decide where you play, win and pay little attention to the grand scheme of things, but Captains will want to know their way around this. The important thing here is that the new tournament (whatever is chosen) is accepted and players actually want to participate in it. If interest is low in general for a team tournament (which I highly doubt) then we can simply move on with the individual tournaments we have scheduled already. It also won't count for circuit points, so its just for community benefit!
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