Tournament Type Breakdowns
Type A - Worth the most points, most standard tournaments and will all contain only SS.
Type B - Also will contain only SS tiers, and they will not be as standard as the ones in Type A.
Type C - Contains a mix in of older generation NU Tiers alongside SS NU, but will offer the least amount of points.
Point breakdowns can be seen in the "Scoring Information" tab of the spreadsheet.
Tournament Information
NU League - Type A
Our standard double elimination tournaments. These have been hosted in last year's circuits and need no introduction.
NU Ladder Tour - Type B
As with last year, there will be 4 qualifying cycles with 6 qualifiers in each cycle. This leads to a 24 player playoff, with the top 8 receiving byes.
NU Open - Type A
A single elimination tournament that is a part of the 2021 Grand Slam. Only the NU Tournament will count for points towards our circuit.
NU Homefield - Type C
At signups each player will sign up with a specific NU generation (gsc->ss), this will be their "home" tier as they should have the advantage in that tier. Following this a Single Elimination tournament will start, with Game 1 being the player on the lefts home tier, and Game 2 being the player on the rights home tier. If they tie 1-1 after the two tiers, game 3 will be a tiebreaker SS game.
NU Swiss - Type B
Each round of a Swiss tournament you are matched up against someone that has the same record as you. This goes on for a set number of rounds, after which the top "x" records will go onto a playoffs. Playoffs will play out as a single elimination bracket, and will be seeded based on the records from the Swiss rounds. Points may also be given to those not in playoffs based on record, so there is always going to be an incentive to keep playing.
NU Classic - Type C
A tournament series that includes all Pokemon tiers from ADV to SM, where players gather points from individual tournaments to qualify for the playoffs. Playoffs guarantee circuit points for the participants, and will include Single Elimination Best of 5 sets with all tiers from ADV to SM with seeding based on individual tournament performance.
How the Circuit Has Changed
Firstly, you may notice that the Last Chance tournament has been removed from the Circuit Schedule. This is because its timing coincided with the much larger NU League tournament, and interest for the tournament was very low from everyone that wasn't hoping to sneak into the Circuit Playoffs after skipping most other tournaments of the year. It also provided no actual niche compared to the other Sword and Shield tournaments other than being single elimination, so it wasn't adored by many.
We also added Classic to the circuit, which we believe is representative of the time and effort that it requires to win this tournament. Many of the qualifiers for Classic playoffs are active and successful in Sword and Shield, and giving it a spot in the circuit makes the tournament "more official" and gives more incentive for current generation players to try the older tiers.
Finally, we've demoted Swiss to B to better round out the circuit schedule. After talks with Finchinator, we agreed that Swiss was slightly over-weighted compared to the effort that it takes to qualify for playoffs, and that demoting it gives a highlight on our biggest events of the year much better.
"Unofficial" Tournaments / Team Tournaments
NUPL IX
Hosted by: TBD
Range: May-June
Smogon Champions League (Trophy)
Hosted by: TBD
Range: September-November
NU Snake III
Hosted by: TBD
Range: December-January
