The World Cup of Pokémon X - Sign Ups - Read Posts #476, #492, #505

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M Dragon

M Dragon

The north wind
is a Community Contributoris a Metagame Resource Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 10th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 17 Championis a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
One year ago, team Brazil took home the title, after defeating team Usa East. Today, we begin a new quest to determine which of our fiercely competitive nations will outlast all the others in a tournament like no other.

Everything on-site will be ready to go soon, and before we move into the details of this years tournament, you may want to check out the following:
Make sure you read through and understand all of the rulings listed below, as well as all of the general tournament rules.


Registration

The system utilized last year worked well, so we will be using it again. We will not be releasing a list of teams prior to signups; instead, we will allow people to sign up, and then base teams off of who signed up and for what. This allows us to ensure that the teams list is representative of the signups, and that there will be a good balance in the tournament. Ultimately, we don't expect too much deviation from last years team list, but it could happen.

To sign up for this tournament, use the following format: If you do not sign up in this manner, we will delete your post.

Pokémon Showdown Username(s):
Tiers:
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility):
Nationality (Weak elegibility):
Other Eligibility (if applicable):
Click to expand...

Pokémon Showdown Username(s): The nickname you use in Pokemon Showdown.

Tiers: The tiers you want to play (RBY, GSC, ADV, DPP, BW, XY).

Country / State of Residence: You are currently living in that country/region.

Nationality: You were born in that country/region, or you are a citizen of that country/region.

Other Eligibility: One of your parents was born in that country/region AND the TD team feels you as a user have displayed enough pride for this specific country/region to justify eligibility. This determination is HIGHLY subjective. It is the weakest elegibility.


Team Captains

Team Captains will be responsible for assembling the roster, promoting the tournament through their team through IRC or other means, ensuring their team is completing battles and subbing battlers in and out as necessary. If there is an issue with a team we will approach the captain to resolve it. Include with your sign up post whether you would like to be considered to be a Captain. One week today, June 6, 2015, we will announce the final team list and the Captains for each team.

If you are relatively new or not known well by me, you probably should avoid signing up for captain. We have given some relatively new players captaincy in the past and it has had some pretty poor results, so we will be sticking to our veterans that we know and trust. Being captain has nothing to do with your skill, it is all about leadership and trustworthiness. The captain is not required to actually battle in the tournament.


Format

This year's World Cup will continue with the same format than last year, but this time adding RBY OU and GSC OU. This format best combines the individual and team aspect of the World Cup.

5 ORAS OU, 1 BW OU, 1 DPP OU, 1 ADV OU, 1 GSC OU, 1 RBY OU (Bo3)
1 Captain, 1 Co-Captain maximum, 5 Substitutes
(equals to maximum 17 players/team, including 10 starters + 5 subs + 1 captain + 1 co-captain)
Note that captains and co-captain cannot play unless they are also included as a starter or as a sub, so only 15 players can play.

Team Formation

After captains have been announced, there will be another one week period in which the captains have to hold tryouts / scout users to assemble their team. This will be the time period where the most activity is required from the captain, an ideal candidate would be on IRC every day and getting the opinion of well respected members of their team on potential roster spots.

Final rosters are to be submitted on or before June 15th, 2015. All rosters should include the team name, captain name, starting 10 players and 5 subs as well as the team flag. The captain does not have to be on the playing roster at all. We understand that two weeks is a long time to wait before the start of Round 1, but please take advantage of this time. It is to be used to form the roster, make teams together, test those teams, etc. By the start of Round 1, all teams should be at the top of their game. Don't just sit around until the first round starts and then start training.

You are allowed up to 1 non playing assistant captains.

We acknowledge that certain people don't perform as expected, so you are allowed to replace 1 assistant captain with another during the tournament if you feel either of your choices haven't performed as expected.


Flags

Our wonderful artists all worked very hard on the flags last year, and we would like to maintain continuity by keeping them. If a new team is made, or you seriously don't like your flag, it's the team's / captain's responsibility to contact artists. We encourage you to wear these flags with pride!


Simulator

Pokemon Showdown is the main simulator (except for GSC), but Pokemon Online can be used if both players agree.


IRC

IRC is a major part of this tournament. You may be left behind on a lot of the community aspect of the tournament if you don't use it, so don't miss out! Join us in #wcop on SynIRC (irc.synirc.net) for continuous World Cup of Pokemon chat. This channel will make it easy to find your opponents and discuss the tournament. If you have a problem connecting to IRC, please refer to this page for instructions on how to get there. If you still can not connect, the easiest way to do so is by using mibbit.

Further, each team is encouraged to create their own IRC channel for team use. If you want to try out for a team, it is a good idea to sign onto their channel and get to know everyone there. These channels are the heart of this tournament (and an endless source of entertainment!).


About new teams

This year, if there are new teams wanting to join Wcop, they will have a chance to play in the Wcop.
In the case all 16 teams that played in the last wcop want to join this one, then the team that ended last will have to defend his spot in the wcop.
If more than 1 new team want to join, then there will be a small playoff between the new teams, and the winner of that playoff will be the team that gets the chance of getting a spot in wcop.
The format of these games will be a bo3: 1 ORAS game, and 1 tier chosen by each team (which could be ORAS again)

Not every new team will be accepted.


Conclusion

Alright, with all that out of the way, we expect a great tournament this year. Let the World Cup of Pokémon X begin!
 
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On Team Eligibility

In order to sign up for a team you MUST qualify for one of the following conditions:

Strong eligibility:
You are currently living in that country/region.

Weak eligibility:
You were born in the team's country/region.
Was your strong elegibility in a past WCOP and you played at least 1 game.

Weakest eligibility:
One of your parents was born in the team's country/region AND the TD team feels you as a user have displayed enough pride for this specific country/region to justify eligibility. This determination is HIGHLY subjective.

Note that each team is allowed up to a maximum of 2 players using the weakest eligibility on the entire roster (for team captains).

Your main eligibility is the strong eligibility, and you are allowed to state weak / weakest as eligibility, but this doesn't necessarily trump your strong eligibility.

Weak / weakest eligibility trumping strong eligibility is entirely up to host discretion, and if we feel people are "playing the system" by lying / jumping around, we'll have no problem stating you only qualify for your strong eligibility.

Also, just to be clear, you MUST actually post to say you are signing up. If you don't post, you won't get to play. If you don't post on your own account stating specifically that you are signing up to captain, you won't get to be captain. I am stating this now so you are all aware of it explicitly when I deny certain people captainship / spots on teams because they didn't sign up.

I know in the past we have allowed teams to sub in players who haven't signed up, but we aren't allowing that this year. You get 5 subs and it is the team's (captain's) responsibility to ensure those subs are active as well.

Although it's pretty obvious what users qualify for what teams (especially since we know the tournament circuit very well), some cases may be dubious and will therefore be heavily scrutinized by the TD team. If it's discovered you lied about your team eligibility to join a team at any point, you will immediately be removed from the tournament. Please, don't put yourself at risk to let this happen -- only sign up for the teams you are qualified for. Players are strongly encouraged to sign up for the country/region that they live in and/or were raised in, since after all, the whole fun of WCoP is showing pride and representing the country/region you love!

Note that if it is proven that you lied to get on a team, you will be banned from next wcop.

To all you Americans, please use this masterpiece made by Jackal and Iconic to determine your eligibility:

HlooE.png


Metro is NY + NJ.

On Team Loyalty

This became a huge issue last year with players flopping from team to team to create 'superteams', which greatly detracted from the spirit and integrity of the tournament. We have decided to implement a new 'loyalty rule' to prevent this kind of behaviour, with specifics for each of the 3 levels of eligibility:

If you play for a team in this World Cup and use the weakest eligibility, you MUST play with them the next year, assuming that team is still in existence. Should it not be in existence, you will default to the most relevant eligible team (entirely at the TD team's discretion). This means that should you choose this weakest eligibility, your choice of team for ALL future WCOPs is removed. To further clarify, if you use this weakest eligibility to join a team (you're locked in future) but in the future that team is not there, you will most likely be defaulted to your current location and you won't get to pick another team based on the weak or the weakest eligibility.

If you play for a team and use the weak eligibility, you MUST play with them the next year, assuming that team is still in existence. Should it not be in existence, you will be allowed to choose your replacement team based on any qualifying eligibility.

If you play for a team and use the strong eligibility, you MUST be play with them the next year, assuming that team is still in existence and you are still in that location. If you can provide believable proof, however, that you are not currently in that location (and that this move is not temporary), then you will have the opportunity to ask the TDs to change your eligibility to another team. Note this is a request and not a given. Additionally, should your former team not be in existence, you will be allowed to choose your replacement team based on any qualifying eligibility.

This year we will lock people into teams. Basically, if you played in last WCop with your Weak or with your Weakest elegibility and you played at least 1 game, you will be locked in that team in the this WCop.

So, in essence, whatever team you choose to join this year (assuming you qualify for multiple teams) will be the team you're locked into the next Wcop if you play at least 1 game. The purpose of this is to prevent players from switching teams each year in accordance to the strength or weakness of their team at that given point in time, thus preventing the formation of the aforementioned 'superteams'. We encourage players to choose their teams wisely based on potential teammates and team pride.

We understand special cases may arise, and they will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the tournament team.

I will add a list of locked players soon.

On... Continental teams

This rules applies to continental teams. If a player has 2 strong elegibilities, one of those being a continental team (this is the case for people from Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, France, UK and USA Metro), then the regional team has preference over the continental team. For example, a french player can only join team Europe if team France does not want him.
If the player has a weak elegibility in the continental team and a strong elegibility in the regional team (ex: the player lives in France but was borned in Sweeden). Then the player can choose between the continental team and the regional team.

Note that a player will not be able to switch from the regional team to the continental team in the next Wcop, or from the continental team to the regional team, unless the strong elegibility the player is using changes. For example, if a french player played last year in team France and this year is moving to Italy, he can would be elegible to play in team France (weak elegibility), in team Italy (strong elegibility) and in team Europe (strong elegibility). However if the he played in team Europe, he is locked in that team, because his strong elegibility did not change.

~ M Dragon

On... Sportsmanship

Note the sportsmanship infraction may be used liberally this WCoP, and any unsportsmanlike conduct on the forums, in #wcop / #pokemon / any of the semiofficial tier channels, or in opposing wcop team channels (I won't infract for you being a dick in your own wcop team channel unless the situation is so extreme I feel I absolutely have to make an exception (consider basically any masterclass interaction ever)), will be grounds for an infraction. We encourage you to play semi-aggressively, but don't be a masterclass.

~ Aldaron

On... Scheduling Matches

I'm sure plenty of you have come across coin flipping / who to activity drama while scheduling matches. I'm here to reduce the arbitrary element associated with some of these decisions. It is entirely your decision to adhere to these STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS, but note that if you choose not to, I'll most likely ignore any pleading from your end and default you to a coin flip, regardless of what you claim is your irc or forum activity. By signing up for this tournament, you are agreeing to this condition, that adhering to what I outline will protect you from coinflips / activity and that not adhering to it will subject you to coinflips / activity regardless of your proposed justification.
YOU MUST ACTIVATE YOUR VM WALL IF YOU WISH TO PLAY IN THIS TOURNAMENT. THIS IS HOW ALL OFFICIAL SCHEDULING WILL BE HANDLED.

Once that round's thread is posted, you have up to 48 hours to contact your opponent ON HIS VM WALL and mention your timezone and exactly what dates, what time ranges you are available, and where you will battle. Note that the default accepted sim and server is the official server on Showdown. You must provide at least 3 different time ranges at least 48 hours from the timestamp of your message, with at least 2 that are 24-hours apart from each other. The minimum and maximum length for 1 time range is 30 minutes, and the minimum difference between the 3 required time ranges is 3 hours. If you give 3 time ranges that stick with this policy, you can give any additional time ranges at any time you please.

NOTE THAT THIS SCENARIO INVOLVES RESPONSE DYNAMICS; THERE IS SOMEONE WHO WILL CONTACT FIRST AND SOMEONE WHO RESPOND...THESE REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT FOR BOTH OF YOU TO ASSUME TO YOU CAN BE FIRST CONTACTS...WHOEVER CONTACTS FIRST IS THE FIRST, AND THE OTHER DEFAULTS TO THE RESPONDER. THIS SHOULD BE OBVIOUS BUT SOME OF YOU ARE DUMB.

Once your opponent has contacted you, you now have up until 72 hours after the round's thread has been posted (NOT after your opponent's message) to respond with times that are good for you. What this means is that if both of you spend the maximum time contacting and responding, you should have back and forth collaboration at a maximum of 72 hours after the round has been posted, with both parties given an additional 24 hours to prepare for the battle should it be scheduled as soon as required. If none of the opponent's proposed time ranges are good for you, you must respond with alternative time ranges.

The first opponent now has X hours to prepare for the battle (if the second opponent agreed to some time) or 24 hours to contact a TD if, for whatever reason, this second set of time ranges does not suit the first opponent. Note this should be an absolute last measure and that more often than not, the TDs will likely force one (or both) sides to sub out.

Once a time is agreed upon, please make a message on your opponent's vm wall between 10 minutes and 1 second before the agreed upon time and say you are ready to battle and then get to agreed upon location (regardless of whether or not your opponent sends you a response vm). Please protect yourself by making this message, as it makes decisions much easier. You will be required to be wait for your opponent for the duration of the time range.

If neither of you contact each other before 48 hours after the thread has been posted, you're both opening yourself up to a potential coin flip. If I look at the situation, I might just determine I'm going to sub both of you out, coin flip you, or whatever based on however I'm feeling at that moment. Don't leave yourself and your team vulnerable to this.

Just because at anytime one of the responders does not respond within the given range does not give you automatic activity win credentials. If they don't contact at all on your vm wall up until 48 hours before the end of the round (note, I'm not going to take irc or sim messages as evidence due to how easily they can be doctored...so if you want to protect yourself, stick to the vm messages), then you obviously have activity win justification. Note to team captains, if one of your players does not contact all his opponents before 48 hours before the end of the round, I will FORCE a sub, no questions asked. You WILL contact your opponent in a timely manner. However, if they do contact you at all after the suggested response time and before 48 hours before the end of the round, you are required to respond before 24 hours before the end of the round with 2 1-hour time ranges at least 1 hour apart before the end of the round. The opponent, since he did not stick to the proposed response schedule, WILL BE REQUIRED TO PLAY AT ONE OF YOUR NEWLY SUGGESTED TIMES, so you have the advantage here. This obviously puts a bit of an emphasis on the last 48 hours of each round (as is standard operating procedure for most of our official team tournaments anyway), so I will try my best to keep the last 48 hours of the round as close to the majority of the weekend for as much of the world as I can.

If you follow all of these guidelines, you will a.) most likely get your match done with minimal issue or b.) protect yourself and your team from an undue coin flip or activity decision. Yes, I hate activity decisions in official tournaments. Yes, I will do my best to prevent activity decisions in the playoffs (the qualifying round is fair game however and I will have no problem issuing an activity call here), but don't push your luck.

Here is an example of how following this would work:

Round 1 thread is posted June 7, 2015 at 10:00PM. Its deadline is June 14, 2015 at 11:59PM. User A and User B are matched up. User A contacts User B on his vm wall on June 9, at 9:00 PM (47 hours after the thread was posted, so ok), and gives 4 time ranges: June 10, from 7:00-7:30 PM (22 hours after the timestamp of his message, which is only ok so long as at minimum 3 of the other proposed time ranges adhere to the requirements), June 11, from 9:00-9:30 PM (48 hours after the timestamp of his message, which is ok), June 12, from 6:00-6:30 PM (69 hours after timestamp of his message, so ok, but only 21 hours after the earliest time range that is 48 hours after the timestamp), and June 12, from 9:00-9:30 PM (72 hours after the timestamp, so ok, and 24 hours after a legal time range and 3 hours after another legal time range). The June 11 and both June 12 time ranges satisfy the requirements, so User A can propose his first June 10 time range as well. User B responds on June 10, at 8:00 PM (23 hours after User A contacted him, so ok), and picks June 11, at 9:00 PM to battle, which is ok because it is 24 hours after his own response.

You'll note I made most of my response ranges multiples of 24 hours, but also included 24 hours. This means I expect you to be able to check Smogon at least once a day. If that is not feasible, you put yourself at risk.

~ Aldaron

On... Disconnecting and timing out drama

Ah, the big beefcake. I'm going to go ahead and put this out there: we reserve the right to judge any individual match on a case by case basis, regardless of assumed precedence set. If you don't like that, you are welcome to not play. Be aware of this.

Also, to protect yourself as much as possible from DCs and timer issues, play on Showdown (because it has an at least semi reliable system of rejoining after a DC) and make a gentleman's agreement to not hit timer and not be hour a move dicks.

That said, here is the main way we will probably handle DCs / timing out:

To handle all DC cases...you're gonna submit your teams before the match. Eo and Oglemi, who are not playing nor affiliated with any team, will manage this team submission form. You don't have to submit, but if you do, you protect yourself from the opponent taking a win. If you do DC (and you can't rejoin the battle) and you haven't submitted your team, your opponent will have the right to take the win. Yes, I'll most likely make a judgment call if he is on his last turn with 1 pokemon at 5% and paralyzed and with you at 6 100% health pokemon, because the only way to lose this is to misclick multiple times. However, if you're at 6 100% pokemon and your opponent is at last pokemon 10% needing to crit flinch you 6 - 12 times for the win, I'll give him the win if you DC and haven't submitted your team.

I know people like philip7086 will beg me "to use common sense for a judgment call" for all cases and I would normally agree, but I am giving you all a 100% out by allowing you to submit your team. Basically, submit your team, and protect yourself and your team from any and all DCs. It's a simple procedure that removes almost all subjectivity from a decision regarding a DC. Unlike with the scheduling restrictions, all you have to do is submit the team your are using at anytime before the match takes place, and you'll have 100% protected yourself. Read this rule and understand this now before you join the tournament. Since I'm stating this now, I'm basically going to ignore you if you DC, didn't submit a team, and "had a guaranteed win." Expect it. Also note that I'm going to let the PLAYER (not the team), decide whether he is going to take the win or go another route (replay same moves, replay different teams, etc.).

To further ensure no funny business, if, in the case of a DC replay, there is any concern from either party about funny business, both parties have the right to request a screenshot of the current Pokemon's stats in battle. This is irrelevant for Showdown as you can simply rejoin a battle there, but PO allows you to see the currently out Pokemon's stats if you scroll over it with your mouse. Just hit PrntScrn (windows) while scrolling over it if requested by your opponent, preferably with proof that it is a screenshot of that actual battle (consider including the opponent's request in the battle screen in the screenshot).

Regarding time outs, they are a bit more complex, specifically because some timeouts are due to DCs. The best we can do for this scenario is say that there is some number between 1 minute and 2 minutes (which we will not publicize) that we will set as a limit for timing out, and if you timeout with more than that limit time remaining, we'll assume it is a DC, whereas the opposite is a true timeout. A true timeout defaults to a loss, while the DC timeout is prone to the DC rules (did you submit or not).

~ Aldaron

On... Actual Teams

Teams have not been set in stone yet, but it is likely they will be the same as last year with the possibility of a few changes. This means that, although very unlikely, some players may not qualify for any team. As a completely arbitrary example, let's say Canada was removed, then a Canadian fellow whose parents are 102381923124th generation Canadian farmers wouldn't be eligible for any team. In this case, he will be allowed to try out for the country/region they feel most closely associated with at the discretion of the TDs.

Alright now that's all settled go ahead and sign up! If you have any questions we strongly recommend coming to #wcop on IRC to ask them because this thread is only for player applications. We look forward to a great tournament, and as the Great Jackal once said...

fight.for.your.COUNTRY!
 
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Pokémon Showdown Username(s): GoaoTwo
Tiers: ORAS OU
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): Brazil
Nationality (Weak elegibility): Brazil
Other Eligibility (if applicable):
 
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Pokémon Showdown Username(s): H-C
Tiers: BW
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): France
Nationality (Weak elegibility): Belgium
Other Eligibility (if applicable): EUROPE

edit : supporting tomahawk as captain
 
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Pokemon Showdown Username: Navy
Tiers: ADV OU / DPP OU / BW OU / ORAS OU
Country / State of residence: New Jersey U.S.A.
Nationality: Puerto Rican
Other Eligibility (if applicable): Latin America!
 
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Pokémon Showdown Username(s): blarajan
Tiers: ORAS OU / BW OU / DPP OU / ADV OU
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): Maryland (US EAST)
Nationality (Weak elegibility): India (ASIA)
Other Eligibility (if applicable): - N/A

signing up as asia captain
 
Pokémon Showdown Username(s): Alomomola
Tiers: Plat, almost Diamond
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): Camping your lane
Nationality (Weak elegibility): East
Other Eligibility (if applicable): Sometimes I play top lane
 
Pokémon Showdown Username(s): King Tsunami, VoD Leader Ravenn
Tiers: all
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): Georgia, USA
Nationality (Weak elegibility): Indian
Other eligibility: My ancestors were forced to labor under the scorching heat of the sun because of British colonial rule, so I should be eligible for UK.
 
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Pokémon Showdown Username(s): Omfuga
Tiers: ORAS OU
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): New Jersey (Metro/US east)
Nationality (Weak elegibility): Egyptian Citizen. Both of my parents were born/raised there. (Afrabs)
Other Eligibility (if applicable): N/A
 
Pokémon Showdown Username: Marcoco
Tiers: ORAZ OU, XY OU, BW OU
Country / State of Residence (Strong elegibility): LA / Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Other Eligibility (if applicable): Usa East (Weak elegibility)

PS: Kael / Robert / Skywallker for LA captain
 
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