Announcement Smogon x NPA Commencement!

[Sapphire]

Welcome back to another year of VGCPL!! Super excited to be announcing our partnership with NPA, the prestigious and longest running VGC team tour around. With both playerbases combined we're hoping to bring you the absolute best VGC team tour action yet!
Once again we will be fighting for a custom avatar and Smogon banner!

Format will be 8 slots of VGC 2024 Regulation F

For some general rules:

• 10 teams to play in an 8v8 regular season, followed by a 7v7 playoffs stage featuring the top 4 teams
• 120k budget for a min of 11 players, max 15 players
  • Bidding prices start at 3k
• Each team is comprised of up to 3 managers, none of which can self purchase. Managers are listed below!
• Trades for players can happen until the start of Week 1
• There will be no midseason draft
• No retains from previous NPA or VGC PL iterations
• Standings will follow a points system, 5 points for a win, 2 point for a tie, 0 for a loss. (Tiebreakers will be specified in Admin Thread later)

Additional Notes:
The default platform for games to be played is on the Pokemon Showdown, with the challenge Bo3 option with Open Team Sheets. If players both agree, matches can be played on cartridge, however full footage must be included. More details for featured stream matches on the way!

This year's teams!

Aether Paradise Symbionts
Managers: Avatar Fede & jackofspadesman

Asukana Samurais
Managers: abhayfive & Baars & MichaelderBeste2

Blackthorn City Blades
Managers: NJ11 & Chongjun & Howkings

Celestic Stars
Managers: Jamie Kean & Brede & scottyw01

Malie City Monarchs
Managers: Spurrific & zee

Mistralton Aerial Aces
Managers: yuki & trace & KrelCROC

New Bark Loud Puppies
Managers: Naociak & 45mice & Teenspirit

Slateport City Cruisers
Managers: baaaaat & SvenVGC

Snowbelle Blizzards
Managers: Tamtam & Temple & Izzy22x

Twinleaf Town Tycoons
Managers: Zelda & ChosenFuture & calvonix

Proposed Tournament Schedule

Player Signups: December 28 - January 11
Draft: TBD [January 12 - January 14]
Week 1: January 15 - January 21
Week 2: January 22 - January 28
Week 3: January 29 - February 4
Week 4: February 5 - February 11
Week 5: February 12 - February 18
Week 6: February 19 - February 25
Week 7: February 26 - March 3
Week 8: March 4 - March 10
Week 9: March 11 - March 17
Semifinals: March 18 - March 24
Finals: March 25 -

Thanks to NPA for making this partnership possible, and let's bring on the madness!
Live Discussion will be happening in the NPA Discord​

 

[jackofspadesman]

Hello one and all! I’m Jake, one of the captains of the Symbionts. If you’re interested in playing with us, please fill out our interest form here: https://forms.gle/RbzZzTbuoYJPjvPg6

 

[SvenVGC]

Hi!
I am Sven, one of the managers of the Cruisers. If you are interested in playing for us, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/ExCaH9f1TdYKZag5A

 

[Helios of Sun]

Hello, Blizzards-interested people!! I am Helios, one of the (unofficial) managers of the Snowbelle Blizzards. As you can see in the next statement, we do have an interest form. Please fill it out if you're interested in joining the Blizzards family!: https://forms.gle/8gq75XGDpoS8HiJK8

We do look through the responses of our interest form seriously, and we have drafted several individuals based on them in previous years!

As per always, if you have any questions about the nice bunch we have here, please feel free to ask me (Discord: helios.ai), Tamtam (Discord: tamtamtamtam), izzy22x (Discord: izzy22x) or Temple (Discord: samjtemple).

Hope to hear more from you soon!

 

[Butch Hardnight]

hi everyone, i'm jamie one of the managers for the celestic stars. we've put together an interest form for anyone who's looking to join our team and wants to get on our radar a bit more: https://forms.gle/PMEUTdoFKoBSrn9d7

 

[teenspirit]

BARK BARK!

Hey everyone! We are the NPA New Bark LoudPuppies. We’re very excited for the Smogon merger, and wanted to tell you about the most successful team in NPA history, The Puppies! Boasting 3 championship titles in the 5 playoffs we’ve made across 6 years, we narrowly missed title contention for the first time last year. Suffice it to say we are BACK and more motivated than ever to do what we do best: winning!

The Puppies is a team built on trust and a shared commitment to self-improve by doing it together! We don’t just want to build a team, we want to build a community where we all grow and work together. This is a group effort, so we all win as one! Our team will actively and passionately support all players' endeavors in their weekly matches and IRL tournaments; we’ll all be prepping as hard as we can.

If you’re a team-focused player motivated to grind and win a championship, we may be the team for you! Below is an interest form to give us some brief information about what you would bring to the team. Likewise, feel free to contact Naociak, 45mice, or teenspirit on Discord with questions or an opportunity to introduce yourself. We’re excited to be back with ya’ll for another year!

Interest Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...w9SoLNhOhz8vhw5VHyZzlwyQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

[yuki]

MISTRALTON
AERIAL
ACES

We're effectively newcomers to NPA, but we also happen to be a team with a 100% playoffs rate in Smogon VGC teamtours. If you want to be a part of the highest-flying franchise in the tour, fill out our interest form! Any further questions can be directed to one of me, trace, or KrelCROC on Discord (you can find us in the Aces or NPA server). Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Our interest form is here: https://forms.gle/ikpPn6aH5W8iEiaHA

 

[tyo]

Mock Draft!

Pricelist: https://pastebin.com/xyrgnF3H
Remaining Players: https://pastie.io/nfrhou​

 

[tyo]

Another Mock Draft!

Pricelist: https://pastebin.com/dPK4wBNH
Remaining Players: https://pastie.io/qvvyvv

​

 

[a fairy]

watch the stream video! but if you want a "clean" log of the auction there is this too

 

[Sapphire]

Here's a stream of the live draft with commentary featuring Polpolpo CableVGC Tan PqlarBear
Twitch Link because smogon formatting dumb

Pricelist