YAHALLO!!!
Okay, now that I have left the general public stupefied by this wild foreign greeting, it is time to make my main point: Ties should be left as ties in team tournaments.
If two players tie (in tiers where ties are part of the cartridge mechanics such as DPP, ADV, GSC, and RBY), the battle should be left as a tie. If a series ends 6-5 with a tie game, then so be it. This situation comes up roughly once a year, so the ruling in general isn't one that has been talked about as much as it maybe should. In the past, Smogon had two different sets of tie rules. For Smogon Tours, which are live, Self-KO clause was enforced to prevent any and all ties and speed up the tournament. In team tournaments, ties were left as ties, as can be seen in the infamous Scooters vs. Sharks bloodbath that is perhaps my favorite SPL week ever. Conflict vs. Karrot was ruled as a tie, and the decision was deemed so typical that an Administrative Decisions post was not even created for it. At some point, the rules flipped entirely, and ties became automatic rematches. Most likely due to the aforementioned scarcity of this event, no one really seemed to create too much of a fuss about this rue change. In addition, DPP is now officially out of the Smogon Tour circuit, so ties are no longer part of live tournaments either.
However, I feel that in team tournaments, ties should once again roam free. My main argument here is simple: the end result of the game / series was a tie, and thus, the outcome should not be altered. Previous generations had ties for a reason, and it seems nonsensical to me to essentially eschew the cartridge mechanics and enforce our own rules. Individual tournaments can obviously be an exception to this rule, as one party is required to advance. However, in team tours, the issue at hand is much less severe, and because of that, I see no reason as to axe ties from the tournament circuit. The main concern of the TD team seems to be that they do not wish people to attempt to play for ties, and would rather them all attempt to play for a win. It is fine to have this philosophy, but personally, I do not feel that that opinion alone should be enough to circumvent a fundamental part of older generations. If a DPP game comes down to Snorlax vs. Swampert, and the Snorlax blows up, the game should be left as a tie. The same can be said for RBY series; if one game of a series ends in a tie, and the other two games are split, the series should be ruled a tie. If you wish, you can make a distinction between manually forced ties in GSC and 'natural' ties in other generations, but for practical purposes, I will consider them to be equivalent to one another, as this is a decision made solely due to logical reasons.
Now then, people will obviously call into question the effects that reintroducing ties would have on SPL and WCOP series. However, I legitimately feel that some of these concerns are overblown. We had ties for 5 years during an era of Smogon with countless instances of team tour shadiness that would put any of the events today to shame, and, at least in SPL 3, 4, and 5, I do not recall this so-called "playing for a tie" mentality to really be an issue. Ties are extremely hard to orchestrate in a game; "playing for a tie" in DPP and ADV seems almost impossible, and even in RBY the event rarely occurs (I suppose someone could theorize how many ties there would be if the outcome could benefit one's team). There are also three games in an RBY series, so there inherently remains more opportunities for one to showcase one's superior skill than other generations. In GSC, I feel as though it legitimately just becomes a mind game before the match, which we already have plenty of regardless. If a series is 6-5, and the final game is GSC, the team with a higher score would naturally be more inclined to bring a much more bulky team in order to potentially gain another win condition in forcing a tie. However, the enemy team would obviously be aware of this as well, and could easily use something like Marowak + BD Snorlax to counter this. Because both teams are aware of the potential motivations of one another, I do not really see this as an issue.
Ultimately, this decision hinges on whether you believe that wanting our community to have a "play to win mentality" is enough to essentially alter the game's mechanics. Smogon is based on following the gameplay present in the cartridge games, only changing the rules to rid the competitive atmosphere of inherently broken attributes such as the ability to put multiple Pokemon to sleep. In individual tours, ridding Smogon of ties is obviously mandatory. However, for team tournaments, I do not feel that the aforementioned concerns are enough to warrant changing the tangible outcome of a series. I am perfectly fine with these two entities not having identical rulesets for this scenario; individual and team tournaments differ in the consequences that come about when ties are forced, and as such, I feel that differing rulesets are justifiable. Forcing ties to be mandatory rematches can alter the course of entire tournaments; everyone knows the importance that 1 point can have in an SPL season (just ask the Sharks last year, or the Wolfpack in SPL 4). In team tournaments, I see no reason to stray from the mechanics of the cartridge games. Ties should remain as ties.
Okay, now that I have left the general public stupefied by this wild foreign greeting, it is time to make my main point: Ties should be left as ties in team tournaments.
If two players tie (in tiers where ties are part of the cartridge mechanics such as DPP, ADV, GSC, and RBY), the battle should be left as a tie. If a series ends 6-5 with a tie game, then so be it. This situation comes up roughly once a year, so the ruling in general isn't one that has been talked about as much as it maybe should. In the past, Smogon had two different sets of tie rules. For Smogon Tours, which are live, Self-KO clause was enforced to prevent any and all ties and speed up the tournament. In team tournaments, ties were left as ties, as can be seen in the infamous Scooters vs. Sharks bloodbath that is perhaps my favorite SPL week ever. Conflict vs. Karrot was ruled as a tie, and the decision was deemed so typical that an Administrative Decisions post was not even created for it. At some point, the rules flipped entirely, and ties became automatic rematches. Most likely due to the aforementioned scarcity of this event, no one really seemed to create too much of a fuss about this rue change. In addition, DPP is now officially out of the Smogon Tour circuit, so ties are no longer part of live tournaments either.
However, I feel that in team tournaments, ties should once again roam free. My main argument here is simple: the end result of the game / series was a tie, and thus, the outcome should not be altered. Previous generations had ties for a reason, and it seems nonsensical to me to essentially eschew the cartridge mechanics and enforce our own rules. Individual tournaments can obviously be an exception to this rule, as one party is required to advance. However, in team tours, the issue at hand is much less severe, and because of that, I see no reason as to axe ties from the tournament circuit. The main concern of the TD team seems to be that they do not wish people to attempt to play for ties, and would rather them all attempt to play for a win. It is fine to have this philosophy, but personally, I do not feel that that opinion alone should be enough to circumvent a fundamental part of older generations. If a DPP game comes down to Snorlax vs. Swampert, and the Snorlax blows up, the game should be left as a tie. The same can be said for RBY series; if one game of a series ends in a tie, and the other two games are split, the series should be ruled a tie. If you wish, you can make a distinction between manually forced ties in GSC and 'natural' ties in other generations, but for practical purposes, I will consider them to be equivalent to one another, as this is a decision made solely due to logical reasons.
Now then, people will obviously call into question the effects that reintroducing ties would have on SPL and WCOP series. However, I legitimately feel that some of these concerns are overblown. We had ties for 5 years during an era of Smogon with countless instances of team tour shadiness that would put any of the events today to shame, and, at least in SPL 3, 4, and 5, I do not recall this so-called "playing for a tie" mentality to really be an issue. Ties are extremely hard to orchestrate in a game; "playing for a tie" in DPP and ADV seems almost impossible, and even in RBY the event rarely occurs (I suppose someone could theorize how many ties there would be if the outcome could benefit one's team). There are also three games in an RBY series, so there inherently remains more opportunities for one to showcase one's superior skill than other generations. In GSC, I feel as though it legitimately just becomes a mind game before the match, which we already have plenty of regardless. If a series is 6-5, and the final game is GSC, the team with a higher score would naturally be more inclined to bring a much more bulky team in order to potentially gain another win condition in forcing a tie. However, the enemy team would obviously be aware of this as well, and could easily use something like Marowak + BD Snorlax to counter this. Because both teams are aware of the potential motivations of one another, I do not really see this as an issue.
Ultimately, this decision hinges on whether you believe that wanting our community to have a "play to win mentality" is enough to essentially alter the game's mechanics. Smogon is based on following the gameplay present in the cartridge games, only changing the rules to rid the competitive atmosphere of inherently broken attributes such as the ability to put multiple Pokemon to sleep. In individual tours, ridding Smogon of ties is obviously mandatory. However, for team tournaments, I do not feel that the aforementioned concerns are enough to warrant changing the tangible outcome of a series. I am perfectly fine with these two entities not having identical rulesets for this scenario; individual and team tournaments differ in the consequences that come about when ties are forced, and as such, I feel that differing rulesets are justifiable. Forcing ties to be mandatory rematches can alter the course of entire tournaments; everyone knows the importance that 1 point can have in an SPL season (just ask the Sharks last year, or the Wolfpack in SPL 4). In team tournaments, I see no reason to stray from the mechanics of the cartridge games. Ties should remain as ties.
