The World Cup of Pokémon XI - Round 1 (Read post #402)

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M Dragon

The north wind
is a Community 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 Smogon Tour Season 17 Championis a defending World Cup of Pokemon Championis a Past SPL Champion
World Defender
>> SPREADSHEET <<

Schedule

Welcome all to the finest international Pokemon competition on the planet, the World Cup of Pokemon. This year, 16 teams are vying for the glorious title of World Champions. Will anyone usurp last years champions, USA East? Let's find out. Onto the first round!

The site will be ready to go soon.

The format can be found here.

The rules of the tournament can be found here. (to be updated soon)

Format
In this round, players will be placed into groups of 4, where they will battle all three of their opponents. Divisions will be assigned randomly and each team will play each other team.

6 points will be awarded for first place, 4 for second place, and 2 for third place in a division. If there is a tie for any position, the total number of points between those two positions will be split equally among the tied parties. For example, if two people are tied for first place, they will split 10 (6 for first + 4 for second) points between them for a total of 5 points each.

Teams will be ranked based on records, rather than points. This means the 8 teams with the best records will qualify for the quarter finals of the World Cup of Pokemon IX. If two or more teams within the top 7 have identical records, points will be used to sort out the tiebreaks. However, if there is a tie in records for the last spot, points will be ignored and both teams will nominate one person for a sudden death battle for qualification. This battle will be standard ORAS OU.

Deadlines

Now, all battles are to be completed by Saturday, July 2th, 2016 at 11:59 EST. Battles that are not completed will NOT have a winner declared, and will simply not count in deciding final standing. (Exceptions may be granted if proof can be shown that one user was clearly avoiding the battle / severely inactive. The TDs the final say on all decisions of this matter). I figure that three weeks is more than enough time, and I will take no excuses what so ever. I expect all Captains to nag their players to get their battles done if they are being active, and make substitutions as necessary, that is your job.

Furthermore, if by Sunday, June 26th, 2016 at 11:59 EST you have not completed at least one battle, I will force the Captain to sub you out. I will NOT accept inactivity. I don't want people sitting around, I want people being proactive. The reason the first round is so long is so teams can actually take some time to collaborate in their irc channel and help each other with teams and strategies. It is not this long so you can sit around and not battle until 5 days before the deadline. I am sure I have made myself clear!

So let's get to it, shall we?

Pairings

The divisions for the first round can be found here.

Substitution

This year we have 5 subs per roster, and Captains may use them as they see fit. For the first round, you may sub in a player on your bench at any time. For later rounds, Captains may change their roster in between rounds, and I will only allow subs in Rounds 2-4 in the case of unexpected absence. Keep in mind once a player is subbed out, they cannot be subbed back into the same round, but can be put back onto the roster for next round. Lastly, the 5 subs listed on the roster must be the first five subs that are used, in any order. If you (for god knows what reason) need more than 5 subs, PM me and I will examine your candidate to join the roster. Realistically though, it should never really come to that.

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Huge thanks to ludicrousman and to Steven Snype for their help with the algorithm to make the groups and the spreadsheet
 

M Dragon

The north wind
is a Community 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 Smogon Tour Season 17 Championis a defending World Cup of Pokemon Championis a Past SPL Champion
World Defender
Rulings

Now some notes on a few issues I feel need to be addressed (basically rulings on often disputed topics):

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, 2013 at 10:00PM. Its deadline is June 14, 2013 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


So that's everything, feel free to post predictions and smack talk, but let's keep the personal attacks out of this. If you have any questions or need anything clarified, feel free to contact me. Let's have a good tournament, good luck everyone! Be sure to join #wcop on irc.synirc.net for live chat!
 
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