Welcome to Cycle 4 of Smogon's Official Ladder Tournament. Please make sure to read the rules of the tournament carefully. If your sign-up post does not follow the rules explained below, it will be deleted. This Cycle will run for 8 days + 6 hours and will end on Friday, October 10th, 11:59 AM Eastern time. Do note that we are adding 6 more hours to each cycle. This is done to accommodate for players in different timezones, as having every cycle end on the same time will give an unfair advantage to players in a certain timezone planning to rush to the top.
Here are the specifics:
1. The hosts of this tournament are myself, Haunter and Bloo. We will be using the regular Pokemon Showdown XY OU ladder for this tournament, not a new one. This will ensure maximum activity and competition.
2. The qualification period for the OLT will run for a total of 64 days with 8 day cycles, which is 2 months to put things into perspective. After each 8 day cycle, the top 8 accounts that appear on the leaderboard (using ELO) at the end of the cycle with the sign-up criteria explained in #3 below will qualify for the playoffs of the OLT, which will be a 64 man, best of three, double elimination tournament. The tournament is not seeded. Pairings for the qualified 64 are randomized. The ladder is not reset after each cycle, only alts are (meaning you create new alts after each cycle).
We are currently in CYCLE 4, which means that after 8 days [ending on Friday, October 10th, 11:59 AM Eastern time], the top 8 accounts that signed up for this tournament following the proper sign-up criteria explained in #3 below will be qualified for the eventual playoffs of the OLT.
3. In order to sign-up for the OLT, FOLLOW THE SIGN-UP FORMAT BELOW AND REGISTER YOUR FRESHLY MADE ALT(S) ON POKEMON SHOWDOWN USING THE FORMAT BELOW:
[LT3#] ForumNameHere - the "#" denotes a letter of your choosing, and "ForumNameHere" obviously denotes your forum name. You are allowed up to 3 alts total for this cycle, each of which must follow the aforementioned format.
Here's an example sign-up post for you all to follow:
YOU MUST SIGN UP WITH YOUR FRESHLY MADE ALT BEFORE STARTING BATTLES WITH IT. Your alt must be registered on the day of sign-ups or onwards to prevent people from registering an account beforehand and laddering with it to gain and unfair advantage. It's very easy to check when an account was registered and we will be checking to make sure people comply. You will be allowed to include 2 to 3 alts in your sign-up for each cycle. You will not be allowed to edit these alts after you include them in your initial sign-up for any given cycle.
4. Since there is a possibility we will need substitutes for the tournament, we'll take the 9th and 10th people in each period (so 16 total) and randomize them as subs for the 64 man tournament. If you qualify as #9 or #10, you are still able to participate in other cycles and try to qualify for the top 8 of a given cycle.
5. Once you make the top 8 and qualify (this does not mean making the top 8 at any given point during the cycle, it means being in the top 8 at the end of the cycle), you’re qualified for playoffs. You are free to ladder any other week you wish. However, making the top 8 more than once won’t give a player anything other than personal satisfaction and bragging rights. If a person qualifies again during a week after their initial qualification, the newly qualified account will be skipped and the next unqualified account will be selected from the leaderboard to participate in the tournament.
6. To quote Aldaron here, the intent of the project this time is increase ladder activity and quality. If we set up set time periods that were always Monday - Sunday, we estimated we would primarily see activity boosts at the end. By shifting, we hope it, even on a minor level, helps spread activity which in turn translates to a more spread increase in activity, as opposed to just on the weekends.
7. In the case of one person having more than one account in the top 8 during any given cycle, their highest ranked account will be the one to qualify and the duplicates will be skipped. Let's say one person in the top 8 holds positions #1, #2 and #3 on the ladder during cycle 1 with the alts he signed-up with. In this scenario, #1 will be the only account of theirs to qualify and #2 and #3 will be skipped over because they are the same person as #1. In this same scenario, position #4 on the ladder will be the second qualifier of the cycle and so on.
8. Given that this is a ladder tournament, many of you are likely thinking there are ways people can cheat the system. We are aware of these issues and have been working with Zarel to monitor and patrol instances of cheating. Any person found cheating will be subject to strict punishments.
9. As with all official tournaments, there will be a trophy given to the winner of the OLT. The trophy will be well-earned. The qualifying period requires an estimated minimum of 50 wins with the playoffs having 64 at least "OK to good players" (so a non arbitrary, good field), followed by a best of three, double elimination. That's arguably harder than most of the official tournaments we have in place today.
We are confident that having an Official Ladder Tournament will be a big boon to the entire competitive aspects of the Smogon community and are excited for its launch.
Good luck to everyone! Again, this is Cycle 4 of Smogon's Official Ladder Tournament. Please make sure to read the rules of the tournament carefully. If your sign-up post does not follow the rules explained below, it will be deleted. This Cycle will run for 8 days + 6 hours and will end on Friday, October 10th, 11:59 AM Eastern time.
