Smogon Masters IV - Round 1 [Thread D]

a fairy · Aug 31, 2026

Art by Blazenix

Welcome to the fourth edition of Smogon Masters! This is a Swiss bracket, Bo3 tournament with each set consisting of ORAS OU, SM OU, and SS OU. Players will decide which metagame to play first (with the higher seed choosing come Top Cut), then the loser picks a different generation for the following game. If both players cannot agree on a metagame to play first, each round will have a default generation randomized at the start of each round. After several rounds of the Swiss bracket, all players with 2 or fewer losses will be advanced onto a single elimination, Bo3 bracket which will culminate in a grand finals where we'll crown our winner of Smogon Masters III and the purple trophy

! Last year's Masters was won by c0mp joining the esteemed company of MichaelderBeste2 and Empo, do you think you have what it takes to join the pantheon?

Rules & Tournament Format

General Tournament Rules

This is a tournament that will employ the standard rulesets for ORAS OU, SM OU, and SS OU, being a Best of Three with one game of each tier.
Smogon Masters III will be a Swiss tournament with a to-be-determined Top Cut size depending on signups.
- Players will be automatically dropped when they hit three losses as they are no longer in contention for top cut. Players who achieve top cut scores before the end of Swiss will not be matched up for the remainder of the Swiss rounds.
- Players will be assigned a random opponent out of the pool of players with the same record as them each round, although on rare occasions, players may face someone with a better/worse record to avoid having more than 1 bye in any given round. Players will not face the same opponent during the Swiss portion of the tour.
Matches are to be played on Pokémon Showdown!. If you can't agree on which server to play on, the Smogtours server is the default option.
Saving replays is required and must be posted in each winpost starting in the second round.
There are no extensions due to the nature of a Swiss tournament, so please get your games done on time. This will be removed for the single elimination Top Cut stage of the tournament.
The hosts for this tournament are a fairy, cala_aa, ego, vmnunes, and Zac.

In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent, or if hosts determine an activity win was earned based on public contact. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.

For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.

Host discretion will be applied for all unplayed games. This means that an activity win will not be automatically granted if you post, and a lack of post does not automatically result in a coinflip.

This tournament uses a Swiss format, where everyone plays until they lose three times, or until Top Cut begins after Round 10 (or 11). The Top Cut will be single elimination and based on a 32-player bracket, although this may vary depending on the tour's player count. All matches will be a Best of 3, involving ORAS OU, USUM OU, and SWSH OU.

This tournament is expected to fall into of the following sizes:
384 - 512 players = 10 rounds of Swiss, 32 person Top Cut with varying numbers of byes
513 - ~978 players = 11 rounds of Swiss, 32 person Top Cut with varying numbers of byes
~978 - 1024 players = 11 rounds of Swiss, 64 person Top Cut with varying numbers of byes

Byes will be awarded based off of seeding which will be calculated by the following tiebreakers: fewest number of losses, highest opponent's resistance, highest opponent's opponent's resistance.

Opponent's resistance is defined as the average win% of a player's opponents expressed as a decimal, for example:

I have a record of 3-0
My R1 opponent's record is 0-3
My R2 opponent's record is 1-2
My R3 opponent's record is 2-1
My opponent's resistance is (0 + 1/3 + 2/3)/3 = 1/3 = ~0.33
This value has a hard coded minimum of 0.25

Opponent's opponent's resistance is the average of each of a player's opponent's resistances, and is calculated in a similar manner.

If players are still tied after these, their seeding will be determined by a coin flip.

There will be no substitute slots this year, instead week 1 will last for 2 weeks; substitutes will be allowed to signup for the duration of week 1 and come Sunday, inactive players will be replaced on a first-come first-serve basis.

Players who achieve a Top Cut-qualifying record before the final round of Swiss will be removed from the Swiss rounds. They will be seeded in brackets depending on when they qualified.