YAHALLO AMIGOS! I hope you're all having fun basking in the glow of enlightenment inside. It's been a while since we've done a top 10, but Eo came up with a fire idea for one in the STours discord. So, here we are. As you can see by the title, this time we will be taking a different approach, and instead of analyzing players, we will be reviewing the top 10 worst host / TD decisions of all time. These decisions will be ranked based on how ridiculous they are; the impact of these decisions on the tournament as a whole will also be factored in. I will be ignoring any scandal involving ghosting and (mostly) everything involving World Cup eligibilities, since the rules and culture were just so different then that it's hard to include them on the list. I hope this thread will educate the masses on the "Wild West" of Smogon, and make them appreciate our current TD team more, who, at the very least, have not committed any of these crazy blunders.
Honorable mention #1:
Rodriblutar's Cancering being Rewarded
Rodriblutar was drafted by Isa and the Classiest in SPL IX. He told the team that he would rather not play for them, so Isa refused to admit him into the channel. Isa didn't report him for cancering, though, instead choosing to keep him banned from the channel so that he could sell him back at mid-season. He was then informed that he could not do that, so the Wolfpack tried to trade for Rodri instead. The trade was nullified, though, because the comments made by Rodri earlier in the season made it seem like he was in fact, cancering. If this was the case, why wasn't he just banned? Despite all of this as well as a massive outcry from the masses in the Smogtours discord, the Wolfpack ended up trading for him at mid-season anyway; he would proceed to do well and win SPL. This situation was relatively murky in the grand scheme of things compared to the other decisions on this list, so I'll leave it off for now.
Honorable mention #2 symphonyx64, the Player-turned-SPL-host
This is definitely a bizarre one. After the SPL IV host, Fabbles, abruptly resigned, the TDs were in a dire situation. Every active TD was already in SPL, so they had to find someone to host the tournament. They decided on symphonyx64, who was a player on the Tigers. It is unclear to me whether the decision was mutual between the TDs and the Tigers, but I find it hard to believe that tennisace would just willingly give back a player he selected. He obviously picked him for a reason; symphonyxy64 was deemed to be better than the other available options by the Tigers. The Tigers legitimately were just downgraded through no fault of their own. As insane as this decision was, due to the fact that symphonyx64 was only 4k and the fact that the TDs were clearly in a bit of a bind, this decision just barely misses the cut.
10. M Dragon Turning a Loss into a DRAW!?
This is one of the strangest decisions I've ever seen. "199 Lives beat M Dragon originally -- and both of them posted in the thread confirming that this occurred." ??? LOOOL At this point, surely the match is decided. How on earth could someone possibly change the result after both parties confirmed it in the thread? This entire scenario just continues to get more weird, and there are so many questions I have to ask. The primary one of these is...why did 199 lives play him in the first place? And, did he think that the rematch was going to count for SPL? I have a hard time believing someone would just forfeit a win because his opponent allegedly suffered from some lag, but anything's possible I guess. The main issue here is that the replay never should have been given any legitimacy to begin with. They both finished the original game AND posted the result in the thread; how on earth could you possibly make this into a dead game, even if M Dragon did win the recreation. I don't see how that matters at all. This decision's ludicrous nature and the absolute insane precedent that comes with it earns it a spot on this list; however, it only affected one match during the regular season, so in terms of impact, it falls a bit short of the other controversies on this list.
9. ABR to the Afrabs
I said I would be ignoring World Cup eligibility controversies, but this one deserves a spot on the list. By World Cup 2016, the eligibility rules had become pretty strict. The TDs and hosts had finally decided to implement IP checking in order to determine if x player was eligible for x team. This came on the heels of Zamrock forging a Mongolian passport and being allowed to play for Asia the year before, as well as US West putting together the least Western lineup possible; this is without even mentioning the fact that TheEnder was allowed to play for US East because he lived on the Eastern side of Norway. Despite these new rules, the hosts decided that ABR, a man who lives in America and has spammed the word "FREEDOM" alongside an American flag on countless occurrences during World Cup, was allowed to play for the Afrabs. This is because ABR, who is Jewish, had just so happened to be taking a trip with his family to Israel for a month or so. How on earth this extremely brief stay made him enough of a Middle Eastern resident to qualify him for Afrabs is anyone's guess. The fact that such a prominent player was allowed to play for a team he should have never been eligible for is definitely a black mark for the TDs and hosts who were running WCoP 2016.
8. SPL V Mid-season Auction Starting Before Signups Were Closed
At 7th place, we finally have our first SPL V controversy. Don't worry...there will be way more. This is the GOAT tour, after all. As you can see from the above screenshots, Oglemi did not close the SPL V signups thread until the auction had already begun. This is absolutely nonsensical. I don't really know who dropped the ball on this, because this is the only SPL where this mistake has occurred. This blunder is obviously problematic because managers will obviously craft their mid-season plans based on the identities of the individuals who sign up for the auction. And keep in mind, this is the OLD mid-season format. Anyone who wasn't in SPL already could sign up, even if they didn't sign up originally. A lot of powerful names signed up for mid-season every year, and not locking the thread almost certainly skewed some of the auction's results. The primary ones that come to mind are the purchases of Tiba and Atticus, both of which we will get to in a little while...
7. SPL V Manager Vote for LC's Inclusion
Back-to-back SPL V decisions? You bet. SPL V had a rather strange format; being the first team tour of XY, it included XY OU with BW lower tiers, as opposed to just nuking them all together. The last slot in the tour was either going to be BW LC the king of variance itself, RBY OU. Both sides had compelling arguments, but only one side had the LC legend known as blarajan. He famously wrote over 10000 words in support of his tier to try to get it into SPL. Normally, the TDs would just decide this slot. However, this was the Wild West. For whatever reason, the managers were allowed to VOTE on the tier they wanted to include in SPL. This obviously one glaring flaw with this method: the managers will simply vote for whichever tier benefits their team the most. If a team, such as the Cryonicles for example, who had the aforementioned blarajan, already had a standout LC retain, they would obviously vote for LC to be in; the same is obviously true for RBY as well. The same could also apply if a manager thinks they have a hidden gem for one of those tiers. There's also obviously the issue that jerks could easily influence the vote, as managers would likely try to help their friends out if they themselves had no real stake in the decision. You can't possibly just have 10 heavily biased people decide an outcome like this. It's pretty nonsensical. And to top this whole scenario off, blarajan ended up going 11-0 in LC and his team came within 2 games of winning the trophy. Classic.
6. Mid-season Retains in SPL
Whoever decided to allow mid-season retains in SPL is insane. There's at least a case for infinite retains, and there's definitely one for retain trades as well. Mid-season retains are just nonsensical, though. Nowadays, they should actually be allowed, since mid-season eligibility rules were changed. Back in the Wild West, though, anyone could sign up for mid-season; it wasn't just a bunch of undrafted scrubs. This obviously created a lot of problems with retain value, since you could easily pick-up a stellar player for far less than he would be worth in the normal auction, and then retain him for multiple years afterwards. Keep in mind that, back then, the retain fee was only an additional 3k every year, so you could conceivably buy an amazing player for under 10k and retain him for a long time. The most noteworthy example I can think of here is Tiba, who went for only 8.5k despite being the best RBY player on the site at the time, as well as being an amazing GSC player. The Ruiners retained him in SPL VI and SPL VII, getting way too much mileage off of the fact that they were able to pick him up at mid-season. The one case where a mid-season retain was justifiable was actually in the case of Tesung, who was a complete random before reyscarface drafted him at mid-season. That being said, under the old rules, there were simply too many good people going far below market value at mid-season, so allowing them to be retained was simply illogical. The fact that this was a problem that impacted almost every SPL up until the rule's removal in SPL VIII earns it a relatively high spot on this list. The only thing preventing it from being higher is the extremely low standard set by the next four decisions on the list.
5. The RBY Bo3 Fiasco
Unbelievably, in 2023, we have a new entry on this list. I honestly never thought this list would ever get updated, but here we are. The Wild West set a really high bar to clear, after all. It all started when johnnyg2 decided to open Pandora's box by making a thread about DPP possibly becoming Bo3. Many thinking gen players pointed to RBY being bo3 as an argument in their favor. This then led to the hilarious conclusion of the TDs making RBY bo1 instead. At this point, many RBY mainers as well as those less versed in Smogon history clamored about how this was one of, if not the worst TD decision of all time. I scoffed at this laughable suggestion; at that point, the decision certainly was not crazy enough to land on this list. The decision did lead to an insane storm of drama, however, one that could rival any throughout Smogon's illustrious history. The RBY mainers and the BKC drones went to war for hours upon hours; many prominent RBYers threatened to boycott SPL in retaliation. Former TD Amaranth even made a post that implied that this decision could threaten the very fabric of Smogon itself. The TDs attempted to stand strong in the face of the never-ending assault against them, including Finchinator, who, despite not being a TD, received an immense amount of backlash with regards to his supposed involvement in the decision. They did manage to hold the fort down for a couple of days....
However, the RBY community had one more trick up their sleeve. They contacted chaos himself in an effort to have him reverse this decision. For whatever reason, chaos seemed to be on board with their pleas. However, the TDs were not willing to commit fully to reversing the decision, instead choosing to institute a "gentleman's agreement" clause into RBY for SPL 15. It was at this point that i became willing to put this decision on this list LOL The TDs decided that RBY would default into a bo1, but both players could agree to a bo3 beforehand if they wished. The main problem I and many others saw with this is that it genuinely just harms the better player. Logically, why would some random 3k RBYer want to play someone like Troller or Nails in a bo3 when they could play them in a bo1 and have a better chance of winning? It would probably have caused the prices of the better RBYers to come down, and flies in the face of one of the main arguments for bo3 RBY, which is that bo3 helps ensure the better player wins more often. Almost no one was happy with this decision; the RBY mainers were somehow even more upset and the people like me who were fine with bo1 found it to be a rather baffling decision as well.
The story is not over quite, yet, however. After the TDs were faced with an onslaught of harassment with regards to their most recent decision, they knew they had to get back to the drawing board. The RBY community would simply not stop until bo3 RBY was restored to SPL. One user in particular named Sabelette absolutely refused to succumb to the might of the TDs, creating thread after thread in an attempt to rally the community and combat the evil forces that were destroying her favorite tier. With the help of chaos, Sabelette managed to effortlessly destroy the TD team and force them to reverse their decision.
I have been on this site for quite a long time, but I do genuinely mean it when I say that this could be the lowest point in the history of the TD team. Reversing this decision in this fashion really just destroys the legitimacy of the entire institution. The TDs were just soundly defeated by some random RBY player with a Sandshrew avatar.....I'm honestly in sheer disbelief that, in 2023, a decision has managed to crack the top 5 on this list....IT'S HIGHER THAN MIDSEASON RETAINS LOL THAT'S INSANE!
4. SPL V Draft Reset
Now, we get to the big 4. Good GOD LOL These are all absolutely absurd. In the SPL V draft, Bloo was considered, without question, to be the best player available. He was the first nomination, and LonelyNess and the Ruiners engaged in a bidding war for her services. After a back-and-forth battle, the Ruiners won out, snatching Bloo for 35k. It is at this point that things got a bit...messy. LN was very upset at the events that had just unfolded, and started complaining about his inability to bid.
[13:04:42] <@LonelyNess> I didn't get to bid
[13:04:51] <@LonelyNess> what in the fuck i didn't get to bid
[13:05:16] <@LonelyNess> I typed in !bid 35.5
[13:05:20] <@LonelyNess> and it did not go
[13:05:23] <@Funkasaurus> its !35.5
Miraculously, after having upbid Bloo ALL THE WAY to 34.5k, he had FORGOTTEN how to bid properly. The strangest part of this claim is that, if you look at the log, you will not see any mention of the phrase "!bid 35.5". It's pretty clear that LonelyNess had just fucked up, or maybe his internet had disconnected. Either way, this was his loss. As per SmogTours tradition, it was now time to meme LN. Everyone started mocking him, joking about resetting the auction since it was only the first nomination.
It was here that the insanity set in. Oglemi, apparently spurred on by the SmogTours chants, actually decided to RESET THE AUCTION!
[13:05:59] <&Oglemi> !reset
[13:05:59] <+SPLbot> All details have been reset.
This decision was obviously insane, and the crowd went into a frenzy following this absolutely unjustifiable move.
Bloo was then nominated again, and the Ruiners once again picked her up. Only this time, they had to spend 40k, as opposed to the 35k they had spent on her originally. The team had been robbed of 5k for absolutely no reason. This was absolutely criminal. As terrible as this decision was, though, at least it was a spur-of-the-moment live reaction. That alone is enough to keep it below the other nonsensical decisions on this list.
3. Manager Vetoes in SPL
The idea to implement a manager veto system in SPL has to be one of the most ludicrous notions ever conceived. Managers could vote on various decisions in SPL and overturn them if they received a supermajority. This is obviously one of the most flawed ideas ever. Every manager is trying to win, so obviously they will all simply vote for whatever outcome benefits their team, regardless of whether or not that decision is the fair one. Manager vetoes were a prominent part of SPL, and one of them actually almost ended up screwing me over. In SPL IV, The Sharks picked up some filler character with the final pick in the draft. However, they wanted to change their pick to me almost immediately after making that selection. Fabbles ruled that this was allowed, but The_Chaser opposed, and tried to get a manager veto supermajority in order to overturn this decision. He was just barely unsuccessful, and so, I was allowed to play. I went 10-0 that season, by the way. As you can see, these decisions can shape the course of an entire season, and the fact that this rule was allowed to exist in SPL for so long is mind-boggling. The rule was finally nuked halfway through SPL V with the infamous make vs. Majin controversy. The two never played, and the hosts awarded make with an activity win. The managers all opposed this and conducted a manager veto, which was successful. After LonelyNess came out and admitted that he only vetoed the decision to spite the Sharks, and also claimed that his jerk could manipulate any manager veto they wanted due to the fact that so many of them were managers in SPL V, the TDs and hosts FINALLY REALIZED that manager vetoes were absolute insanity, and nuked the system. The fact that this rule was so illogical in the first place as well as the fact that it impacted multiple decisions, and could have impacted many more, earns it a high spot on the list.
2. The Hugo OST
Now, we get to the Big 2. I think almost everyone would agree that this one and the decision that occupies the #1 spot on the list are the two worst decisions ever. Back when gr8astard was just a random PO player, he entered the OST. He was defeated by Double01, who got his fair share of luck, early on in the tour. As we all know, OST is not a double elimination tour, so this should have been the end of the line for Hugo. However, Earthworm had other plans...You see, OST has a prediction tournament, and the deadline for predicting the round had not passed yet. Why does this matter? Well, it shouldn't have...but for some insane reason, Earthworm decided to let Hugo replay his game because of this??? LOOOL It makes so little sense that I can't think of a single way to defend it. There's no doubt in my mind that if this happened a year later, when Hugo was a sensation, he definitely would not have been allowed to replay his series. However, what's the harm in letting some random PO scrub replay his Round 2 series? Well, the consequences turned out to be absolutely massive, as Hugo would go on to innovate the metagame with sets like HP Bug + Icy Wind Keldeo and absolutely smash everyone to earn his first individual trophy.It could have been even worse for the TDs, but luckily I lost to Aqualouis again despite getting the replay because of the Hugo precedent haha... This is easily one of the top 2 worst tournament decisions in the history of Smogon; it defies all logic, and makes sense from absolutely no angles. What's keeping it from 1st? Well....you'll see.
1. Atticus, the Manager, Signing up for Mid-season
The infamous Atticus decision will go down in history as the worst host / TD decision of all time. It's so ridiculous that just thinking about it boggles the mind. Atticus was a manager on the Raiders, who were near the bottom of the table by the time mid-season rolled around in SPL V. Naturally, he didn't want anything to do with the team anymore, a feeling that I'm sure any manager who has managed a terrible team can resonate with. However, once you sign up to manage a team, you're committed to it for the rest of the season. Well, normally you would be anyway. See, not only was Atticus allowed to quit his team, but he was also ALLOWED TO SIGN UP FOR MID-SEASON????
This entire post makes so little sense that I really can't believe it's not a meme. The justification for the decision is almost as ridiculous as the decision itself...WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WERE NO ULTERIOR MOTIVES?? LOL I mean, I guess technically, that part is not a lie. The motives were not ulterior at all, honestly. THEY WERE COMPLETELY OUT IN THE OPEN!! HE WANTED TO QUIT HIS GARBAGE TEAM AND PLAY SOME GAMES FOR A GOOD TEAM INSTEAD LOL This is just so absurd; I really can't believe it, man. And of course, this decision backfired in the biggest way possible. Atticus was bought by the Sharks, and he proceeded go to 6-0 in DPP OU. To top it all off, he EVEN WON THE TROPHY LOOOL Oh my god. Meanwhile, his former team was left in the dust, finishing dead last in SPL V.
Perhaps the craziest thing about this decision is that there was hardly anything resembling a public outcry against it by the Smogon community. As someone who was very involved with SPL at the time, I hardly remember any complaints; many others around at the time don't either. If this happened today, there would be about 500 memes in the SPL thread and Oglemi would have been flamed to hell and back until he resigned. God knows what we were doing back then.
Honorable mention #1:
Rodriblutar's Cancering being Rewarded
Rodriblutar was drafted by Isa and the Classiest in SPL IX. He told the team that he would rather not play for them, so Isa refused to admit him into the channel. Isa didn't report him for cancering, though, instead choosing to keep him banned from the channel so that he could sell him back at mid-season. He was then informed that he could not do that, so the Wolfpack tried to trade for Rodri instead. The trade was nullified, though, because the comments made by Rodri earlier in the season made it seem like he was in fact, cancering. If this was the case, why wasn't he just banned? Despite all of this as well as a massive outcry from the masses in the Smogtours discord, the Wolfpack ended up trading for him at mid-season anyway; he would proceed to do well and win SPL. This situation was relatively murky in the grand scheme of things compared to the other decisions on this list, so I'll leave it off for now.
Honorable mention #2 symphonyx64, the Player-turned-SPL-host
This is definitely a bizarre one. After the SPL IV host, Fabbles, abruptly resigned, the TDs were in a dire situation. Every active TD was already in SPL, so they had to find someone to host the tournament. They decided on symphonyx64, who was a player on the Tigers. It is unclear to me whether the decision was mutual between the TDs and the Tigers, but I find it hard to believe that tennisace would just willingly give back a player he selected. He obviously picked him for a reason; symphonyxy64 was deemed to be better than the other available options by the Tigers. The Tigers legitimately were just downgraded through no fault of their own. As insane as this decision was, due to the fact that symphonyx64 was only 4k and the fact that the TDs were clearly in a bit of a bind, this decision just barely misses the cut.
10. M Dragon Turning a Loss into a DRAW!?
This is one of the strangest decisions I've ever seen. "199 Lives beat M Dragon originally -- and both of them posted in the thread confirming that this occurred." ??? LOOOL At this point, surely the match is decided. How on earth could someone possibly change the result after both parties confirmed it in the thread? This entire scenario just continues to get more weird, and there are so many questions I have to ask. The primary one of these is...why did 199 lives play him in the first place? And, did he think that the rematch was going to count for SPL? I have a hard time believing someone would just forfeit a win because his opponent allegedly suffered from some lag, but anything's possible I guess. The main issue here is that the replay never should have been given any legitimacy to begin with. They both finished the original game AND posted the result in the thread; how on earth could you possibly make this into a dead game, even if M Dragon did win the recreation. I don't see how that matters at all. This decision's ludicrous nature and the absolute insane precedent that comes with it earns it a spot on this list; however, it only affected one match during the regular season, so in terms of impact, it falls a bit short of the other controversies on this list.
9. ABR to the Afrabs
I said I would be ignoring World Cup eligibility controversies, but this one deserves a spot on the list. By World Cup 2016, the eligibility rules had become pretty strict. The TDs and hosts had finally decided to implement IP checking in order to determine if x player was eligible for x team. This came on the heels of Zamrock forging a Mongolian passport and being allowed to play for Asia the year before, as well as US West putting together the least Western lineup possible; this is without even mentioning the fact that TheEnder was allowed to play for US East because he lived on the Eastern side of Norway. Despite these new rules, the hosts decided that ABR, a man who lives in America and has spammed the word "FREEDOM" alongside an American flag on countless occurrences during World Cup, was allowed to play for the Afrabs. This is because ABR, who is Jewish, had just so happened to be taking a trip with his family to Israel for a month or so. How on earth this extremely brief stay made him enough of a Middle Eastern resident to qualify him for Afrabs is anyone's guess. The fact that such a prominent player was allowed to play for a team he should have never been eligible for is definitely a black mark for the TDs and hosts who were running WCoP 2016.
8. SPL V Mid-season Auction Starting Before Signups Were Closed
At 7th place, we finally have our first SPL V controversy. Don't worry...there will be way more. This is the GOAT tour, after all. As you can see from the above screenshots, Oglemi did not close the SPL V signups thread until the auction had already begun. This is absolutely nonsensical. I don't really know who dropped the ball on this, because this is the only SPL where this mistake has occurred. This blunder is obviously problematic because managers will obviously craft their mid-season plans based on the identities of the individuals who sign up for the auction. And keep in mind, this is the OLD mid-season format. Anyone who wasn't in SPL already could sign up, even if they didn't sign up originally. A lot of powerful names signed up for mid-season every year, and not locking the thread almost certainly skewed some of the auction's results. The primary ones that come to mind are the purchases of Tiba and Atticus, both of which we will get to in a little while...
7. SPL V Manager Vote for LC's Inclusion
Back-to-back SPL V decisions? You bet. SPL V had a rather strange format; being the first team tour of XY, it included XY OU with BW lower tiers, as opposed to just nuking them all together. The last slot in the tour was either going to be BW LC the king of variance itself, RBY OU. Both sides had compelling arguments, but only one side had the LC legend known as blarajan. He famously wrote over 10000 words in support of his tier to try to get it into SPL. Normally, the TDs would just decide this slot. However, this was the Wild West. For whatever reason, the managers were allowed to VOTE on the tier they wanted to include in SPL. This obviously one glaring flaw with this method: the managers will simply vote for whichever tier benefits their team the most. If a team, such as the Cryonicles for example, who had the aforementioned blarajan, already had a standout LC retain, they would obviously vote for LC to be in; the same is obviously true for RBY as well. The same could also apply if a manager thinks they have a hidden gem for one of those tiers. There's also obviously the issue that jerks could easily influence the vote, as managers would likely try to help their friends out if they themselves had no real stake in the decision. You can't possibly just have 10 heavily biased people decide an outcome like this. It's pretty nonsensical. And to top this whole scenario off, blarajan ended up going 11-0 in LC and his team came within 2 games of winning the trophy. Classic.
6. Mid-season Retains in SPL
Whoever decided to allow mid-season retains in SPL is insane. There's at least a case for infinite retains, and there's definitely one for retain trades as well. Mid-season retains are just nonsensical, though. Nowadays, they should actually be allowed, since mid-season eligibility rules were changed. Back in the Wild West, though, anyone could sign up for mid-season; it wasn't just a bunch of undrafted scrubs. This obviously created a lot of problems with retain value, since you could easily pick-up a stellar player for far less than he would be worth in the normal auction, and then retain him for multiple years afterwards. Keep in mind that, back then, the retain fee was only an additional 3k every year, so you could conceivably buy an amazing player for under 10k and retain him for a long time. The most noteworthy example I can think of here is Tiba, who went for only 8.5k despite being the best RBY player on the site at the time, as well as being an amazing GSC player. The Ruiners retained him in SPL VI and SPL VII, getting way too much mileage off of the fact that they were able to pick him up at mid-season. The one case where a mid-season retain was justifiable was actually in the case of Tesung, who was a complete random before reyscarface drafted him at mid-season. That being said, under the old rules, there were simply too many good people going far below market value at mid-season, so allowing them to be retained was simply illogical. The fact that this was a problem that impacted almost every SPL up until the rule's removal in SPL VIII earns it a relatively high spot on this list. The only thing preventing it from being higher is the extremely low standard set by the next four decisions on the list.
5. The RBY Bo3 Fiasco
Unbelievably, in 2023, we have a new entry on this list. I honestly never thought this list would ever get updated, but here we are. The Wild West set a really high bar to clear, after all. It all started when johnnyg2 decided to open Pandora's box by making a thread about DPP possibly becoming Bo3. Many thinking gen players pointed to RBY being bo3 as an argument in their favor. This then led to the hilarious conclusion of the TDs making RBY bo1 instead. At this point, many RBY mainers as well as those less versed in Smogon history clamored about how this was one of, if not the worst TD decision of all time. I scoffed at this laughable suggestion; at that point, the decision certainly was not crazy enough to land on this list. The decision did lead to an insane storm of drama, however, one that could rival any throughout Smogon's illustrious history. The RBY mainers and the BKC drones went to war for hours upon hours; many prominent RBYers threatened to boycott SPL in retaliation. Former TD Amaranth even made a post that implied that this decision could threaten the very fabric of Smogon itself. The TDs attempted to stand strong in the face of the never-ending assault against them, including Finchinator, who, despite not being a TD, received an immense amount of backlash with regards to his supposed involvement in the decision. They did manage to hold the fort down for a couple of days....
However, the RBY community had one more trick up their sleeve. They contacted chaos himself in an effort to have him reverse this decision. For whatever reason, chaos seemed to be on board with their pleas. However, the TDs were not willing to commit fully to reversing the decision, instead choosing to institute a "gentleman's agreement" clause into RBY for SPL 15. It was at this point that i became willing to put this decision on this list LOL The TDs decided that RBY would default into a bo1, but both players could agree to a bo3 beforehand if they wished. The main problem I and many others saw with this is that it genuinely just harms the better player. Logically, why would some random 3k RBYer want to play someone like Troller or Nails in a bo3 when they could play them in a bo1 and have a better chance of winning? It would probably have caused the prices of the better RBYers to come down, and flies in the face of one of the main arguments for bo3 RBY, which is that bo3 helps ensure the better player wins more often. Almost no one was happy with this decision; the RBY mainers were somehow even more upset and the people like me who were fine with bo1 found it to be a rather baffling decision as well.
The story is not over quite, yet, however. After the TDs were faced with an onslaught of harassment with regards to their most recent decision, they knew they had to get back to the drawing board. The RBY community would simply not stop until bo3 RBY was restored to SPL. One user in particular named Sabelette absolutely refused to succumb to the might of the TDs, creating thread after thread in an attempt to rally the community and combat the evil forces that were destroying her favorite tier. With the help of chaos, Sabelette managed to effortlessly destroy the TD team and force them to reverse their decision.
I have been on this site for quite a long time, but I do genuinely mean it when I say that this could be the lowest point in the history of the TD team. Reversing this decision in this fashion really just destroys the legitimacy of the entire institution. The TDs were just soundly defeated by some random RBY player with a Sandshrew avatar.....I'm honestly in sheer disbelief that, in 2023, a decision has managed to crack the top 5 on this list....IT'S HIGHER THAN MIDSEASON RETAINS LOL THAT'S INSANE!
4. SPL V Draft Reset
Now, we get to the big 4. Good GOD LOL These are all absolutely absurd. In the SPL V draft, Bloo was considered, without question, to be the best player available. He was the first nomination, and LonelyNess and the Ruiners engaged in a bidding war for her services. After a back-and-forth battle, the Ruiners won out, snatching Bloo for 35k. It is at this point that things got a bit...messy. LN was very upset at the events that had just unfolded, and started complaining about his inability to bid.
[13:04:42] <@LonelyNess> I didn't get to bid
[13:04:51] <@LonelyNess> what in the fuck i didn't get to bid
[13:05:16] <@LonelyNess> I typed in !bid 35.5
[13:05:20] <@LonelyNess> and it did not go
[13:05:23] <@Funkasaurus> its !35.5
Miraculously, after having upbid Bloo ALL THE WAY to 34.5k, he had FORGOTTEN how to bid properly. The strangest part of this claim is that, if you look at the log, you will not see any mention of the phrase "!bid 35.5". It's pretty clear that LonelyNess had just fucked up, or maybe his internet had disconnected. Either way, this was his loss. As per SmogTours tradition, it was now time to meme LN. Everyone started mocking him, joking about resetting the auction since it was only the first nomination.
[13:05:24] <@little_gk> we might as well just reset
[13:05:26] <%Solace> it's just ]v[ajintupacz
[13:05:26] <%Stone_Cold22> liez
[13:05:29] <%negres> reset
[13:05:29] <%negres> reset
[13:05:30] <%tab> yes reset pls
[13:05:30] <%BAIKA> idiot
[13:05:32] <@tennisace> yeah reset
[13:05:33] <@little_gk> it's the first bid
[13:05:33] <@Nachos> reset
[13:05:34] <@LonelyNess> why would I lie
[13:05:34] <@Funkasaurus> RESET
.
[13:05:37] <+kd24> its !35.5
[13:05:38] <%Snunch> its only fair, first player
[13:05:39] <%Solace> lmao
[13:05:40] <%Snunch> should reset
[13:05:41] <+reyscarface> reset please
[13:05:41] <+kd24> i say let LN
[13:05:41] <%BAIKA> why did you type in !bid
[13:05:41] <&Eo> omg lol
[13:05:43] <@yondie> RESET
[13:05:44] <+kd24> put his bid in
[13:05:44] <%BAIKA> retard
[13:05:47] <@yondie> RESET
[13:05:26] <%Solace> it's just ]v[ajintupacz
[13:05:26] <%Stone_Cold22> liez
[13:05:29] <%negres> reset
[13:05:29] <%negres> reset
[13:05:30] <%tab> yes reset pls
[13:05:30] <%BAIKA> idiot
[13:05:32] <@tennisace> yeah reset
[13:05:33] <@little_gk> it's the first bid
[13:05:33] <@Nachos> reset
[13:05:34] <@LonelyNess> why would I lie
[13:05:34] <@Funkasaurus> RESET
[13:05:37] <+kd24> its !35.5
[13:05:38] <%Snunch> its only fair, first player
[13:05:39] <%Solace> lmao
[13:05:40] <%Snunch> should reset
[13:05:41] <+reyscarface> reset please
[13:05:41] <+kd24> i say let LN
[13:05:41] <%BAIKA> why did you type in !bid
[13:05:41] <&Eo> omg lol
[13:05:43] <@yondie> RESET
[13:05:44] <+kd24> put his bid in
[13:05:44] <%BAIKA> retard
[13:05:47] <@yondie> RESET
It was here that the insanity set in. Oglemi, apparently spurred on by the SmogTours chants, actually decided to RESET THE AUCTION!
[13:05:59] <&Oglemi> !reset
[13:05:59] <+SPLbot> All details have been reset.
This decision was obviously insane, and the crowd went into a frenzy following this absolutely unjustifiable move.
[13:06:02] <%Stone_Cold22> lols
[13:06:02] <+Earthworm|Away> LOL
[13:06:03] <+kd24> YEAHHH
[13:06:03] <%tab> lmao yes
[13:06:03] <+kd24> YES
[13:06:04] <+kd24> YES
[13:06:04] <+kd24> Y ES
[13:06:05] <@Funkasaurus> LOL
[13:06:06] <%negres> ROFL
[13:06:06] <%gr8astard> lmao
[13:06:07] <%Solace> LOL
[13:06:07] <+reyscarface> YES
[13:06:08] <@tennisace> oh my god
[13:06:08] <%panamaxis> what.
[13:06:08] <%BAIKA> are you serious
[13:06:08] <%gr8astard> lgi
[13:06:11] <@Nachos> LMFAO
[13:06:12] <&Oglemi> !showall
[13:06:12] <@tennisace> hahahahahah
[13:06:02] <+Earthworm|Away> LOL
[13:06:03] <+kd24> YEAHHH
[13:06:03] <%tab> lmao yes
[13:06:03] <+kd24> YES
[13:06:04] <+kd24> YES
[13:06:04] <+kd24> Y ES
[13:06:05] <@Funkasaurus> LOL
[13:06:06] <%negres> ROFL
[13:06:06] <%gr8astard> lmao
[13:06:07] <%Solace> LOL
[13:06:07] <+reyscarface> YES
[13:06:08] <@tennisace> oh my god
[13:06:08] <%panamaxis> what.
[13:06:08] <%BAIKA> are you serious
[13:06:08] <%gr8astard> lgi
[13:06:11] <@Nachos> LMFAO
[13:06:12] <&Oglemi> !showall
[13:06:12] <@tennisace> hahahahahah
Bloo was then nominated again, and the Ruiners once again picked her up. Only this time, they had to spend 40k, as opposed to the 35k they had spent on her originally. The team had been robbed of 5k for absolutely no reason. This was absolutely criminal. As terrible as this decision was, though, at least it was a spur-of-the-moment live reaction. That alone is enough to keep it below the other nonsensical decisions on this list.
3. Manager Vetoes in SPL
The idea to implement a manager veto system in SPL has to be one of the most ludicrous notions ever conceived. Managers could vote on various decisions in SPL and overturn them if they received a supermajority. This is obviously one of the most flawed ideas ever. Every manager is trying to win, so obviously they will all simply vote for whatever outcome benefits their team, regardless of whether or not that decision is the fair one. Manager vetoes were a prominent part of SPL, and one of them actually almost ended up screwing me over. In SPL IV, The Sharks picked up some filler character with the final pick in the draft. However, they wanted to change their pick to me almost immediately after making that selection. Fabbles ruled that this was allowed, but The_Chaser opposed, and tried to get a manager veto supermajority in order to overturn this decision. He was just barely unsuccessful, and so, I was allowed to play. I went 10-0 that season, by the way. As you can see, these decisions can shape the course of an entire season, and the fact that this rule was allowed to exist in SPL for so long is mind-boggling. The rule was finally nuked halfway through SPL V with the infamous make vs. Majin controversy. The two never played, and the hosts awarded make with an activity win. The managers all opposed this and conducted a manager veto, which was successful. After LonelyNess came out and admitted that he only vetoed the decision to spite the Sharks, and also claimed that his jerk could manipulate any manager veto they wanted due to the fact that so many of them were managers in SPL V, the TDs and hosts FINALLY REALIZED that manager vetoes were absolute insanity, and nuked the system. The fact that this rule was so illogical in the first place as well as the fact that it impacted multiple decisions, and could have impacted many more, earns it a high spot on the list.
2. The Hugo OST
Now, we get to the Big 2. I think almost everyone would agree that this one and the decision that occupies the #1 spot on the list are the two worst decisions ever. Back when gr8astard was just a random PO player, he entered the OST. He was defeated by Double01, who got his fair share of luck, early on in the tour. As we all know, OST is not a double elimination tour, so this should have been the end of the line for Hugo. However, Earthworm had other plans...You see, OST has a prediction tournament, and the deadline for predicting the round had not passed yet. Why does this matter? Well, it shouldn't have...but for some insane reason, Earthworm decided to let Hugo replay his game because of this??? LOOOL It makes so little sense that I can't think of a single way to defend it. There's no doubt in my mind that if this happened a year later, when Hugo was a sensation, he definitely would not have been allowed to replay his series. However, what's the harm in letting some random PO scrub replay his Round 2 series? Well, the consequences turned out to be absolutely massive, as Hugo would go on to innovate the metagame with sets like HP Bug + Icy Wind Keldeo and absolutely smash everyone to earn his first individual trophy.
1. Atticus, the Manager, Signing up for Mid-season
The infamous Atticus decision will go down in history as the worst host / TD decision of all time. It's so ridiculous that just thinking about it boggles the mind. Atticus was a manager on the Raiders, who were near the bottom of the table by the time mid-season rolled around in SPL V. Naturally, he didn't want anything to do with the team anymore, a feeling that I'm sure any manager who has managed a terrible team can resonate with. However, once you sign up to manage a team, you're committed to it for the rest of the season. Well, normally you would be anyway. See, not only was Atticus allowed to quit his team, but he was also ALLOWED TO SIGN UP FOR MID-SEASON????
This entire post makes so little sense that I really can't believe it's not a meme. The justification for the decision is almost as ridiculous as the decision itself...WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WERE NO ULTERIOR MOTIVES?? LOL I mean, I guess technically, that part is not a lie. The motives were not ulterior at all, honestly. THEY WERE COMPLETELY OUT IN THE OPEN!! HE WANTED TO QUIT HIS GARBAGE TEAM AND PLAY SOME GAMES FOR A GOOD TEAM INSTEAD LOL This is just so absurd; I really can't believe it, man. And of course, this decision backfired in the biggest way possible. Atticus was bought by the Sharks, and he proceeded go to 6-0 in DPP OU. To top it all off, he EVEN WON THE TROPHY LOOOL Oh my god. Meanwhile, his former team was left in the dust, finishing dead last in SPL V.
Perhaps the craziest thing about this decision is that there was hardly anything resembling a public outcry against it by the Smogon community. As someone who was very involved with SPL at the time, I hardly remember any complaints; many others around at the time don't either. If this happened today, there would be about 500 memes in the SPL thread and Oglemi would have been flamed to hell and back until he resigned. God knows what we were doing back then.
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