Notes From the Editor

I'm very pleased to introduce The Competitor's return to serialized releases. Long-time members of Smogon might remember the very original Competitor issues from about three years ago. Those image-based releases were originally published directly on the forums, though we've since uploaded them onto the site (1 & 2). After the second issue, The Competitor took a bit of a hiatus while it revamped its entire approach. The result was a zine that released articles as soon as they were completed; the slick style that Setsuna and Zracknel designed for these can still be found here.

Flashforward a few years to the present, and we've come full circle. A lack of consistency and variety were common criticisms for us, and we've decided this change best fixes both concerns. Not only do issues bring us a regular release schedule, but we'll also be ensuring that every issue has various article styles and features. In this issue, for instance, we take a look at the top 16 of OST 11, as well as having an in-depth review of the Walkthrough Tournament. I had the pleasure of doing an interview with SPL host and recently promoted Tournament Director Zebraiken. We also have a featured team by KratosMana, with an analysis by aim of the SPL match it was used in. And we top it all off with even more coverage from the SPL 6 finals.

None of this would be possible without our awesome team of contributors, so I'd like to take a moment to thank them all right now. Everyone who worked on this issue helped make it a blast, and I can't wait to work with them all again. If you're interested in doing some writing for The Competitor, or perhaps you have a successful tournament team that you'd like to see featured, just drop us a post in our Article Approvals subforum. You can also feel free to ask me any questions about how to get involved. For now, go enjoy the first new issue of The Competitor!

~Jellicent