Howdy everyone! Welcome to the second edition of Saber, an RBY STABmons Tournament. This is an annual tournament designed to keep the RBY STABmons meta alive and push it forward. This is an open tournament, so everyone is welcome to participate.
Tournament Rules:
- Matches will be best-of-three in every round (defined as the first player to win two games; ties are not counted).
- You may switch teams between sets and the battles within a set.
- All tournament games must be played on Pokemon Showdown! The Smogtours server is the default option.
- The matches will be played in the [Gen 1] OU format using the following Challenge Command (you can use Custom Game, but be careful because this format will not enforce mandatory rules such as Sleep Clause; violating these rules, intentionally or otherwise, may result in a game or set loss):
/chall gen1ou @@@ stabmons move legality, *bind, *clamp, *hypnosis, *lovelykiss, *sing, *spore, *wrap
- This tournament will be Double Elimination.
- This tournament will be seeded.
Seeding is a valuable option for tournaments to keep them competitive and interesting for longer.
For this tournament, I plan to experiment with a seeding method that I call Randomized Equivalent Cluster Seeding, or "RECS" for short (yes, I named it). Rather than assigning every player an individual seed, each player is assigned a cluster. These clusters are based on the unique placings that one can achieve in a double-elimination tournament. For example, four players may place 9th in a standard double elimination tournament. Rather than assigning seeds 9–12 to each of four specific players at will, I will instead randomly assign each of those four seeds to each of those four players. In effect, seeds 1–4 are prescribed, while all further seeds will be subject to at least some randomness. There are a few purposes for this. For one, it keeps the seeding interesting and more flexible (realistically, it's hard to distinguish the 9th and 10th best RBY STABmons players, so it makes sense to settle who gets the better seed by randomness). It also keeps the tournament more honest, as it prevents me and any other TOs from simply using the seeding we choose to rig the bracket in our or any player's favor.
If necessary, I may also consider Reduced Randomized Equivalent Cluster Seeding ("RRECS") instead. This method is identical to RECS, but uses larger clusters that span multiple sets of equivalent places. In this case I may, for example, choose to randomize seeds 1–4, 5–8, 9–16, 17–24, 25–32, and so on. This further diminishes the TOs' role in seeding (making bracket design more honest), without totally compromising the extra excitement that seeding can bring to a tournament by increasing the likelihood of higher-level matchups occurring later in bracket.
Seeds, or more precisely clusters, will be assigned by me and any fellow TOs. Seeds will be assigned by the three main factors listed below. These factors do not have preset weights, so there will be a degree of subjectivity in how seeds are distributed.
For this tournament, I plan to experiment with a seeding method that I call Randomized Equivalent Cluster Seeding, or "RECS" for short (yes, I named it). Rather than assigning every player an individual seed, each player is assigned a cluster. These clusters are based on the unique placings that one can achieve in a double-elimination tournament. For example, four players may place 9th in a standard double elimination tournament. Rather than assigning seeds 9–12 to each of four specific players at will, I will instead randomly assign each of those four seeds to each of those four players. In effect, seeds 1–4 are prescribed, while all further seeds will be subject to at least some randomness. There are a few purposes for this. For one, it keeps the seeding interesting and more flexible (realistically, it's hard to distinguish the 9th and 10th best RBY STABmons players, so it makes sense to settle who gets the better seed by randomness). It also keeps the tournament more honest, as it prevents me and any other TOs from simply using the seeding we choose to rig the bracket in our or any player's favor.
If necessary, I may also consider Reduced Randomized Equivalent Cluster Seeding ("RRECS") instead. This method is identical to RECS, but uses larger clusters that span multiple sets of equivalent places. In this case I may, for example, choose to randomize seeds 1–4, 5–8, 9–16, 17–24, 25–32, and so on. This further diminishes the TOs' role in seeding (making bracket design more honest), without totally compromising the extra excitement that seeding can bring to a tournament by increasing the likelihood of higher-level matchups occurring later in bracket.
Seeds, or more precisely clusters, will be assigned by me and any fellow TOs. Seeds will be assigned by the three main factors listed below. These factors do not have preset weights, so there will be a degree of subjectivity in how seeds are distributed.
- Performance in Saber, if applicable
- Performance in the RBY STABmons Tournament, if applicable
- General performance in Pokemon Tournaments, especially those in the RBY or STABmons metagames
- All replays of all tournament games must be posted in this thread.
- Each round will last at most one week, barring extensions.
- I will make all activity calls, potentially with neutral assistance from RBY Moderators. I will also manage any coinflips.
- I will manage all player substitutions.
- RBY STABmons rules/clauses can be found here.
- All standard Smogon tournament rules apply, and can be found here.
- Do not cheat or harass opponents. I will disqualify anyone violating this rule.
Due to the Double Elimination Format, signups may discontinue when the player count is at or near a power of two. Depending on turnout, I may not being accepting substitutions after the deadline, as this could interfere with seeding.
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