I have never really talked too much about my invitational tournaments here on Smogon as I’m not really the attention-seeking type and I don’t want to come off as smarmy or self-important. However, with this topic finally coming up organically I would like to offer my perspective.
First of all in over a decade of competitive mons I’ve never played a single ADV Cup or attempted to be involved with Classic in any way, so I’m not necessarily the best guy to discuss the state of Smogon tournaments in old gens, but I sure as hell know the 1-5 player base between running Pokemon Perfect, running invitationals and managing however many old gens tours. In short, I do agree with the consensus that overall player quality and probably depth too have declined as years have gone by and continue to decline as more time passes. Remember the old SPL ADV lineups with Asta, BKC, Ojama, Roro, Undisputed and others all in the pool? With no disrespect to any current day players, I think we can all agree that we are not at that same level of quality today. Looking at the Lavos, BKC, prime Fear, prime Conflict, Earthworm days of GSC I think the same can be said of the other tiers as well.
Regarding invitationals, here’s what I can tell you, good and bad, from half a decade of hosting Callous Invitational.
The tournament has grown in hype, popularity and prize pool every single year and has shown no sign of slowing down. In perspective, we exceeded CI4’s total end of tournament prize pool BEFORE PLAY-INS began in CI5. Our final total was nearly double that of the previous year.
As far as sheer quantity, the number of donors has also gone up every single year by huge amounts. Again, it doubled between CI4 and CI5.
I receive dozens of messages from participants and spectators alike that Callous Invitational is their favorite event in all of Pokemon and the thing they look forward to the most each year. People really, really like it and the appreciation and hype for the tour are extremely evident if you’ve ever been in my Discord server while the tournament is going on.
Often times top players, including players who no longer care about or participate in even the biggest Smogon tournaments such as SPL, come out of the woodwork to play CI and they give it their 100%. UD and Undisputed immediately come to mind from this last year, Asta in previous years, etc.
These tours go a long way towards unifying the community. There is absolutely no dispute that the ADV community is, by far, the deepest, strongest, most active and most unified among all Classic gens. That’s not a coincidence.
The tour requires A LOT of time and effort and it’s easier said than done to find someone who is both willing and able to provide that. If you plan on having an old gen invitational for all of 1-5, not to sound like a dink, but you won’t just find a CALLOUS equivalent in the other gens. Likewise, I cannot emphasize the importance of narrating the games. Again, it’s easier said than done to find someone who will do that. Consider who will be at the helm of these tours before moving forward.
There is no perfect, completely objective, “correct” system for choosing who should or should not be invited. I sincerely try my best every single year to be as fair, objective and neutral as possible and assemble the best lineups I can taking all sorts of things into account- What have they done in the past 12 months? How good do I think an older player still is today? How motivated are they? How much effort do I think they’ll put in? Are they difficult to schedule with? Is there a chance they’ll quit on the tournament or disappear midway through? Is their inclusion going to cause problems for other reasons? How much do they care about ADV? Are they just a pilot? There is no flawless way to make these kind of calls and at the end of the day there will always be people who are critical of the decisions that are made. We certainly don’t want to introduce something that the community views as biased, rigged or unfair.
The inclusion of banned users is also a hot button topic. For me every decision has always been on a case by case basis. This past year I let pasy_g play and there were no problems. Simultaneously, I opted not to let Lavos, a longtime friend and someone I’ve always gotten along with really well by the way, play. If we move these tournaments to Smogon, how will this be handled? We will have to consider what kind of concessions we are willing to make. If the rule were “anyone who is currently banned is ineligible to participate” that’s not something I would personally support or agree with and I’d not be involved in hosting tours here if that were non-negotiable. It’s my personal belief that not all bans are created equal and these tours are about showcasing the best players in any given tier first and foremost.
Even if we move the tournaments to Smogon, a dedicated Discord server is absolutely necessary. Watching the games live and commentating and enjoying as they happen is a HUGE part of the enjoyment and the hype building. How would that sit with Smogon’s rules regarding “ghosting”? Would that open up a can of worms of “if it’s okay in that tour why isn’t it okay in this other one”? Again, consider this before moving forward. Along the same lines, understand that with money on the line and clear incentive to do so, you’re risking players colluding or cheating in invitationals. Doesn’t it just make sense that Pikachu123 and Raichu321, both participants in the tournament and longtime friends, would agree to be in a call with each other during all their matches, help each other and then split whatever prize they win at the end? The more you build these tours and get more money involved the more likely and incentivized this undesirable behavior becomes.
Introducing a financial element also opens up a whole host of potential problems. What if someone wants their money back? What if a minor donates using their parents card/account without their permission? What if the person holding the money, potentially thousands of dollars, takes the money and runs? Is Smogon prepared to deal with these potential problems? Money complicates things. We aren’t just playing for pixels anymore.
For now this post is long enough and I’ve literally typed this all out on my phone at work. I think there is a lot of upside to going down the invitationals rabbit hole but I also think there’s a right and a wrong way to do it and it comes with plenty of risk and new problems. I’d be happy to discuss the matter further if anyone has any questions.
