Smogon VGC Tournaments Feedback Thread

zee

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VGC Leader
I had been meaning to make a thread like this for a while. Basically I just want a centralized place where we can discuss how Smogon VGC tournaments work, how people feel about them, and what could change

Some current topics for discussion:

Circuit Autoqualifiers - The autoqualifying method won’t be removed for this season, but do people think it’s too broken or are most people happy with it? If we keep autoqualifiers for future circuits, should circuit winners autoqualify to the next similar to how the official world championships operate?

Tournament Calendar - How do people feel about the circuit tournaments in terms of timing and variety? Should we add more tournaments?

Third Team Tour - Right now we have NPA and Classics as our two team tournaments. Personally I think this is plenty for a section that isn’t primarily a smogon metagame, but if people have interested an additional team tour, this would be the place to talk about it. Side note, but NPA feedback should be kept out of this thread, there will likely be separate avenues to discuss that tournament when the time comes.

Of course these are just the ones I’m thinking of, if you have any talking points feel free.
 
In my opinion the auto qualifier should stay, most of the players who win tours already qualify by having enough Championship Points anyways and they allow players who start playing the circuit later in the season to have a chance to qualify. I am indifferent to the circuit winners qualifying, usually the winners have shown enough commitment to the circuit and it would be nice having them play in the next playoffs, however I don't like allowing a player who might not have shown commitment to the circuit that season instantly qualify for playoffs.

The timing for tours has felt fine to me, the only major overlap I can remember was ladder tour+fall seasonal which did not feel that bad. I looked at the circuits for a few other sections and most of them had 5-6+the invitational which is what we have right now. If we were going to add a sixth tour I believe that the best route would be adding a cup (cups are single elimination bo3 tours) and just posting the signups for each of the tours a week earlier. A lot of other tiers had some sort of classics for their circuit, I don't love the idea of a classic for the circuit but if we have a lot of interest it could be cool as a for fun tour.

Two team tours is fine, I don't know what we would do for the third one anyways since winter league is too close to NPA imo.

I noticed that a lot of other circuits have their playoffs in December/January, is that something that anyone is interested in? It could be nice having the playoffs at a different time than worlds to make it easier for any worlds players that qualify, however I'm indifferent to this.
 
One thing that I think everyone should be able to agree is unhealthy is counter-teaming. I haven't actually seen this happen before (meaning people are sensible) but even the fact that people COULD and there's nothing against the rules for that makes me a little uneasy.

I suggest that during sign ups, players should lock a team and send an OTS with their "in". Then in Round 1, list the OTS of everyone. If you still want to keep the team change for Top Cut or something like that, thats fine.
 
One thing that I think everyone should be able to agree is unhealthy is counter-teaming. I haven't actually seen this happen before (meaning people are sensible) but even the fact that people COULD and there's nothing against the rules for that makes me a little uneasy.

I suggest that during sign ups, players should lock a team and send an OTS with their "in". Then in Round 1, list the OTS of everyone. If you still want to keep the team change for Top Cut or something like that, thats fine.
I entirely disagree. Counter teaming is a crucial part of round based tours and adds another layer of depth, especially in formats like Reg G that already tend to be matchup based. If you want to use just one team that's fine but you will run the risk of getting cteamed.
 
One thing that I think everyone should be able to agree is unhealthy is counter-teaming. I haven't actually seen this happen before (meaning people are sensible) but even the fact that people COULD and there's nothing against the rules for that makes me a little uneasy.

I suggest that during sign ups, players should lock a team and send an OTS with their "in". Then in Round 1, list the OTS of everyone. If you still want to keep the team change for Top Cut or something like that, thats fine.
To add on to what bigfoot said, metagames progress very fast in VGC and each of these tours can take 2 months or longer. Forcing players to lock in a team at the beginning of the tour would cause the vast majority of teams to become outdated by the end of the tour.
 
I only participate in the classics league, but I would love to see some of the formats shift for next time. Six of the eight formats were repeats, but that is probably reflective of how people feel about those formats and not wanting to change too many things to a new team tour. I think a shakeup is warranted ahead of the third one, however.

I think keeping a format from each generation is nice as a showcase of VGC over the years (save Gen 4 unless y'all're gonna get Huy, Skarm, and others to come back for one last ride). With that said, I doubt you'd find enough people excited to play 2011, but people asked for 2016 so what do I know? Regardless, 2014 and some of the other series / regulations should get a consideration if only to drum up interest from different players.
 
I only participate in the classics league, but I would love to see some of the formats shift for next time. Six of the eight formats were repeats, but that is probably reflective of how people feel about those formats and not wanting to change too many things to a new team tour. I think a shakeup is warranted ahead of the third one, however.

I think keeping a format from each generation is nice as a showcase of VGC over the years (save Gen 4 unless y'all're gonna get Huy, Skarm, and others to come back for one last ride). With that said, I doubt you'd find enough people excited to play 2011, but people asked for 2016 so what do I know? Regardless, 2014 and some of the other series / regulations should get a consideration if only to drum up interest from different players.

just a personal take, I don't think 6/8 of the formats last year being identical was a bad thing, but I definitely agree every format should have time in the spotlight at some point. We have CG, VGC 22, Gen 7, Gen 6, Gen 5 locked for 5/8 slots imo, which leaves us 3 slots to play around with unique ideas. I think having a different BW format would be a cool idea, and I'd definitely like to see 2014 be featured since we left it out 2 years straight.

The biggest question is: "When do we stop having all 3 Gen 7 slots?" (I don't have a good answer, but imo almost any idea is worth discussing!)
The whole point of Classics is to play old formats in a fun team tour environment, and to an extent I think its worth sacrificing a bit of popularity to rotate in formats that haven't been featured in a long time.

Classics will have a custom avatar prize for the winning team this year which will significantly boost popularity; but regardless it may also be worth considering expanding to 10v10 simply for the possibility of more featured formats at once.
 
just a personal take, I don't think 6/8 of the formats last year being identical was a bad thing, but I definitely agree every format should have time in the spotlight at some point. We have CG, VGC 22, Gen 7, Gen 6, Gen 5 locked for 5/8 slots imo, which leaves us 3 slots to play around with unique ideas. I think having a different BW format would be a cool idea, and I'd definitely like to see 2014 be featured since we left it out 2 years straight.
Oh I'm sorry if it came across that I thought it was a bad thing. I only played 2013 so I couldn't have been more content. I thought it was great y'all are doing a great job :row:

I only mentioned it to argue in favor of rotating formats.
 
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