IronBullet
Astronomy Domine
Smogon Senior Staff and the head Tournament Director have decided to slightly rework the way we deal with our Smogon Metagames and their representation in Official Tournaments. From now on, Smogon Metagames will be divided in two groups:
- Official Metagames
- Core Metagames
Both Core and Official Metagames will have a top level subforums, official Tier Leaders, on-site analyses, and their suspect votes will count towards the Tiering Contributor badge. The difference between both is that Core Metagames will have Official Tournament representation, while Official Metagames won't be eligible for them. The list of Core Metagames is not subject to change, but new metagames will be officialized without much issue as long as they meet the requirements. The idea behind this is moving past the ambiguous "Officiality will not equate to obligatory representation in tournaments" policy and using a simpler system, which will make some decisions easier for the TD team and allow SS to be more willing to officialize new metagames.
In order for a metagame to become an Official Metagame, the metagame must have the following (and determined to have met the criteria by Senior Staff):
- Large and active playerbase on the simulator
- Base of workers willing to create content for the site regarding the metagame
- High activity on the forums
- Leaders interested in making the metagame as competitive as possible
- Must be playable on the cartridges without an external device
And the list for Core Metagames is:
- OU
- Ubers
- UU
- RU
- NU
- LC
- DOU
Again, this list is currently not subject to changes.
This does means PU will not have Official Tournament representation. Understandably, the PU community will be upset by our decision, but we believe this is the best for Smogon as a whole. PU has an extremely small tournament playerbase and we don't think that community has enough high level players to justify representation in our current Official Tournament circuit.
Bad news for some people, but we have some really good news for another community...
Monotype is now an Official Tier. Eien and Paleo will be Monotype Tier Leaders. Congratulations to the Monotype community, keep up the good work, and enjoy your new subforum!
==========
FAQ
"Who decides how much representation an Official Metagame gets?"
- The TD team
"What about old gens?"
- Old gen OU tiers are eligible for tournament representation and the TDs decide how much they get. We are not changing the way we deal with old gens.
"What about VGC, etc?"
This policy only affects Smogon Metagames.
"Can Official Metagames be promoted to Core?"
Right now or in the near future? No. We are working on a system to review the Core Metagames list periodically (yearly or every new gen), but nothing has been decided yet.
"Does this means PU isn't allowed to have tournaments?"
No, this only affects official tournament representation. PU can have as many unofficial tournaments as they want and if we ever get Ribbon Tournaments, PU will be represented in them.
- Official Metagames
- Core Metagames
Both Core and Official Metagames will have a top level subforums, official Tier Leaders, on-site analyses, and their suspect votes will count towards the Tiering Contributor badge. The difference between both is that Core Metagames will have Official Tournament representation, while Official Metagames won't be eligible for them. The list of Core Metagames is not subject to change, but new metagames will be officialized without much issue as long as they meet the requirements. The idea behind this is moving past the ambiguous "Officiality will not equate to obligatory representation in tournaments" policy and using a simpler system, which will make some decisions easier for the TD team and allow SS to be more willing to officialize new metagames.
In order for a metagame to become an Official Metagame, the metagame must have the following (and determined to have met the criteria by Senior Staff):
- Large and active playerbase on the simulator
- Base of workers willing to create content for the site regarding the metagame
- High activity on the forums
- Leaders interested in making the metagame as competitive as possible
- Must be playable on the cartridges without an external device
And the list for Core Metagames is:
- OU
- Ubers
- UU
- RU
- NU
- LC
- DOU
Again, this list is currently not subject to changes.
This does means PU will not have Official Tournament representation. Understandably, the PU community will be upset by our decision, but we believe this is the best for Smogon as a whole. PU has an extremely small tournament playerbase and we don't think that community has enough high level players to justify representation in our current Official Tournament circuit.
Bad news for some people, but we have some really good news for another community...
Monotype is now an Official Tier. Eien and Paleo will be Monotype Tier Leaders. Congratulations to the Monotype community, keep up the good work, and enjoy your new subforum!
==========
FAQ
"Who decides how much representation an Official Metagame gets?"
- The TD team
"What about old gens?"
- Old gen OU tiers are eligible for tournament representation and the TDs decide how much they get. We are not changing the way we deal with old gens.
"What about VGC, etc?"
This policy only affects Smogon Metagames.
"Can Official Metagames be promoted to Core?"
Right now or in the near future? No. We are working on a system to review the Core Metagames list periodically (yearly or every new gen), but nothing has been decided yet.
"Does this means PU isn't allowed to have tournaments?"
No, this only affects official tournament representation. PU can have as many unofficial tournaments as they want and if we ever get Ribbon Tournaments, PU will be represented in them.