Hello, in this thread I'm going to talk about why SPL should stop including lower tiers in its format for the next, and future editions. Every time a new generation of games comes out, the format has to change from one edition to the next one, and there is less room to have lower tiers be part of it; when we already have another team tour that focuses on these. Just like it happened with WCoP, changes to this tournament will have to happen sooner or later, and I believe it's a good chance to set up the bases of it.
Before getting started, I want to clarify something. I don't have anything against lower tiers nor their communities, I like playing them and I think tournaments like Slam and Snake are fun and positive to the community. Refrain from posting in this thread if all you're gonna do is complain about why your main tier is necessary and needs to be included in SPL while not providing any valid arguments.
At the moment, this is the tier list distribution for Smogon's official tournaments:
SS OU: 7/9 (SPL, OST, Smogon Tour 1, World Cup of Pokémon, OLT, Snake, Smogon Tour 2)
SS UU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS RU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS NU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS PU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS LC: 3/9 (SPL, Slam, Snake)
SS DOU: 2/9 (SPL, Snake)
USM OU: 3/9 (SPL, Smogon Tour 1, Smogon Tour 2)
ORAS OU: 3/9 (SPL, Smogon Tour 1, Smogon Tour 2)
BW2 OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
DPP OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
ADV OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
GSC OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
RBY OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
If we count Smogon Tour as one tournament, then USM OU and ORAS OU are part of 2/9 tournaments. So, besides SS OU (which is and should be the main focus of tournaments) there is not a balance between the inclusion of lower tiers and old gens, with lower tiers taking the lead. This is unfair. While removing old gens from WCoP seemed like a bad idea at first, I think most people that played it agree that it ended up being a positive change and helped creating a better team environment where everyone could work together through playing and discussing the same tier for the entire tour. The 10-slot to 8-slot change wasn't bad either, there wasn't a decrease of quality in games and as repetitive as the metagame was, it was for sure still as entertaining.
With SPL focusing on old gens, WCoP focusing on current gen and Snake focusing on lower tiers, official team tournaments would finally reach a balance that ends up positive for everyone. There is just no place to fit all the lower tiers either, with at least 2 slots for SS OU and 7 for the other gens. Some lower tiers would still be scrapped out of the tour if they were still to be included because all can't fit, just like there has been discussion about arbitrarily removing RBY from SPL's format because people don't like the tier (which I believe is still an option to this day).
Every lower tier has its own stablished community and tournament circuit now. If the lack of tournament play is a concern (when there are seasonals and the like in the Circuit Tournaments forum as SPL is ongoing), tier leaders can adjust said circuit to their necessities if these tiers don't make it into SPL.
Here is my proposal:
10 slots: 3x SS OU / USM OU / ORAS OU / BW2 OU / DPP OU / ADV OU / GSC OU / RBY OU
or
10 slots: 2x SS OU / SS DOU / USM OU / ORAS OU / BW2 OU / DPP OU / ADV OU / GSC OU / RBY OU
Considering lower tiers are out of the picture, lowering the slots to 10 seems the most factible option. 12 slots would mean that there are at least 4-5 SS OU slots, which looks like too much when we already had 4 OU players per team in what was an snoozefest metagame in Snake. WCoP already showed that more slots =/= more quality, and reducing them shouldn't be discarded as a possibility.
This is all without taking into account if DOU makes it or not. I'm including DOU because it was removed from Grand Slam some time ago (for reasons that I doubt were adressed publicly, as per tournament undirection's usual), and having it only in Snake would be unfair to their playerbase if balance is what we're looking for.
We have a brand new and pretty much unknown SS OU metagame. While the tier is still stablishing itself and this and that gets banned, with the decission of keeping the old metagame for the final stretch of Snake, until SPL this tier will only have been played "oficially" in the past Week 7 of Smogon Tour and in the Smogon Tour playoffs. Achieving an stability as soon as possible should be the goal, and for that 3 slots is the most ideal.
On a final note, regardless of this gets accepted or not, I'd wish for more transparency and incentive from the TDs on matters like these. These discussions always come out from the player side rather from them who, in the past, most of the time just took decissions without consulting anyone and enforcing them if nobody cared enough to fight for it.
Have a nice day and thanks for reading.
Before getting started, I want to clarify something. I don't have anything against lower tiers nor their communities, I like playing them and I think tournaments like Slam and Snake are fun and positive to the community. Refrain from posting in this thread if all you're gonna do is complain about why your main tier is necessary and needs to be included in SPL while not providing any valid arguments.
At the moment, this is the tier list distribution for Smogon's official tournaments:
SS OU: 7/9 (SPL, OST, Smogon Tour 1, World Cup of Pokémon, OLT, Snake, Smogon Tour 2)
SS UU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS RU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS NU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS PU: 2/9 (Slam, Snake) (was not a part of SPL XI because it barely was a real tier, and there was no room for it either way)
SS LC: 3/9 (SPL, Slam, Snake)
SS DOU: 2/9 (SPL, Snake)
USM OU: 3/9 (SPL, Smogon Tour 1, Smogon Tour 2)
ORAS OU: 3/9 (SPL, Smogon Tour 1, Smogon Tour 2)
BW2 OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
DPP OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
ADV OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
GSC OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
RBY OU: 2/9 (SPL, Classic)
If we count Smogon Tour as one tournament, then USM OU and ORAS OU are part of 2/9 tournaments. So, besides SS OU (which is and should be the main focus of tournaments) there is not a balance between the inclusion of lower tiers and old gens, with lower tiers taking the lead. This is unfair. While removing old gens from WCoP seemed like a bad idea at first, I think most people that played it agree that it ended up being a positive change and helped creating a better team environment where everyone could work together through playing and discussing the same tier for the entire tour. The 10-slot to 8-slot change wasn't bad either, there wasn't a decrease of quality in games and as repetitive as the metagame was, it was for sure still as entertaining.
With SPL focusing on old gens, WCoP focusing on current gen and Snake focusing on lower tiers, official team tournaments would finally reach a balance that ends up positive for everyone. There is just no place to fit all the lower tiers either, with at least 2 slots for SS OU and 7 for the other gens. Some lower tiers would still be scrapped out of the tour if they were still to be included because all can't fit, just like there has been discussion about arbitrarily removing RBY from SPL's format because people don't like the tier (which I believe is still an option to this day).
Every lower tier has its own stablished community and tournament circuit now. If the lack of tournament play is a concern (when there are seasonals and the like in the Circuit Tournaments forum as SPL is ongoing), tier leaders can adjust said circuit to their necessities if these tiers don't make it into SPL.
Here is my proposal:
10 slots: 3x SS OU / USM OU / ORAS OU / BW2 OU / DPP OU / ADV OU / GSC OU / RBY OU
or
10 slots: 2x SS OU / SS DOU / USM OU / ORAS OU / BW2 OU / DPP OU / ADV OU / GSC OU / RBY OU
Considering lower tiers are out of the picture, lowering the slots to 10 seems the most factible option. 12 slots would mean that there are at least 4-5 SS OU slots, which looks like too much when we already had 4 OU players per team in what was an snoozefest metagame in Snake. WCoP already showed that more slots =/= more quality, and reducing them shouldn't be discarded as a possibility.
This is all without taking into account if DOU makes it or not. I'm including DOU because it was removed from Grand Slam some time ago (for reasons that I doubt were adressed publicly, as per tournament undirection's usual), and having it only in Snake would be unfair to their playerbase if balance is what we're looking for.
We have a brand new and pretty much unknown SS OU metagame. While the tier is still stablishing itself and this and that gets banned, with the decission of keeping the old metagame for the final stretch of Snake, until SPL this tier will only have been played "oficially" in the past Week 7 of Smogon Tour and in the Smogon Tour playoffs. Achieving an stability as soon as possible should be the goal, and for that 3 slots is the most ideal.
On a final note, regardless of this gets accepted or not, I'd wish for more transparency and incentive from the TDs on matters like these. These discussions always come out from the player side rather from them who, in the past, most of the time just took decissions without consulting anyone and enforcing them if nobody cared enough to fight for it.
Have a nice day and thanks for reading.
Last edited: