4) A 2-6 Classic is the path of least resistance, using
Luigi terminology
- If gen 10 is released, GSC would be cut
I do not hate on rby and want to remove it because it’s bad. It simply does not have room in our tournament circuit, and is the oldest generation.
Me when "path of least resistance" means exising the most
classic community
I knew this was gonna be brought up. While phasing out RBY
looks pleasing aesthetically, it's also
peak out-of-touch bureaucracy. It completely disregards the gigantic increase in playerbase RBY has experienced in the past few years and the sheer activity it sees on the forums and elsewhere alike shows that in full. It's one of the most-played old gens and brings a lot to on-site tournaments in 2022, with every tour that includes it seeing tons of sign-ups. Even the biggest RBY deniers can see that nowadays: the playerbase is still going up every day and shows no signs of slowing down.
With your methodology, you would end up cutting ADV in the next couple of years, which is yet another generation that is absurdly popular. I strongly believe that you would have almost violent resistance that only grows more fiery as DPP eventually gets the axe. Are these not the "perfect" old gens in the eyes of many? Is this not why people become old gen enthusiasts? You'll end up seeing dwindling players as you end up with a lot of similar generations from ORAS over to (presumably) SCVI that will likely have homogenous playerbases. This is why they are not as active, because they are usually focused on CG. This is not always the case, but it's a common enough one for me to care to note. You're not reaching any "compromise" with your mentality, because every compromise you make ends up dealing massive damage to at least one community.
This is not a long-term sustainable solution at all. You are quite literally asking for the tournament to slowly rot away. This is CLASSIC, man! Where's the identity going? In the gutter!
You could argue "Well, let's not go down that slope, let's stop phasing out come GSC and worry about other gens later!" but I think we both know what that actually means: you don't want a long-term solution, you want something else. Not sure what that would be, but maybe you could answer that if I'm hitting the nail on the head right now.
With that said, I think we can see that making cuts is not the solution. Let's look at expansion options to see how this could work instead.
Looking at Luigi's neat little homework...
"Luckily, Ciele had some ideas to fix it, and his variations what I'm here to propose today.
I'm proposing a Grand Slam-style tournament that consists of every non-current generation OU metagame. Let's look at how this fixes the issues that prevented this tournament from coming into existence."
¹
"Second off, the most recent Grand Slam took on a 6th tier, Doubles, despite ultimately being best of 5 in the playoffs - you're allowed to play all but one (5/6 in this case) of the slams and in the playoffs, the higher seed picks which tier is left out. As of right now, we have 5 past generations so it comes out cleanly for a best of 5, but
GS formatting works perfectly for when generation 7 arrives and ORAS becomes a past gen that would be included in the tournament."
¹
We see that including all non-current old gens is the intention for Classic. It's in the name: Smogon
Classic. Is RBY so old that it's not even classic anymore? I don't believe the intentions behind Classic have changed, but if we're looking at ORAS, it seems some people's perceptions of the tour are rooted in the pre-Mega era of Pokemon. I will agree with others on the significant changes ORAS brought, but I also think this is just sort of irrelevant? Why does it have to be one or the other here? Both gens are pretty fantastic and I certainly remember ORAS OU fondly - even considered picking it back up a few times myself, actually.
Now, I like to propose solutions when I'm complaining about problems, but I'm not confident in what I have. I'll shoot my shot regardless, though, maybe these ideas could lead somewhere.
PvK's Classic A: JUST ADD ORAS!
Do it raw. No condom. Shove ORAS in. It'll be fine!
There is no actual issue with it that I can see. I think that as it stands a 1-6 Classic wouldn't actually hurt anyone right now. I am probably missing something but with some people doing the most insane stuff for a badge there's enough exploitable people on the site willing to host a 6th Classic.
PvK's Classic B: Chuck SM in too. Chaos.
If the issue is it being uneven or something, why not include both ORAS and SM in Classic, which keeps the odd number of generations? You even get the playerbase overlap advantage there, which seems neat and helps newer players reach playoffs. Keep in mind, the older a gen gets, the heavier the top gets. This even keeps to the spirit of what the original intention of Classic was! This results in harsher managerial conditions but I think it's fine.
PvK's Classic C: Divisions!
If there truly is no room, maybe split it to RBY-ADV with the rest in another? I think someone suggested this before to little fanfare, but hear me out! You get a neat little Game Boy circuit; the "Game Boy Division" if you will, then DPP-ORAS - the "DS Division" - for an even split between 6 gens. This would reduce playoffs to a BO3 each, but maybe this could culminate into something else...somehow. I've not thought that far, someone mind doing the thinking for me there? This sounds really cool.
Anyway, this gives an opportunity to stagger the tournaments between different parts of the year, reducing the workload for tournament hosts to some degree, which could be beneficial from a managerial standpoint.
Given we have 7 Old Gens with an 8th looking to enter boomer status, you could even argue for a clean split between the gens if you want some illusion of consistency. Could complicate the Best of X bits though, which is why I think BO3 RBY-ADV and BO5 DPP-SWSH playoffs would be ideal if you go down that route. Buuut, this is a pretty insane change to the format, so I understand if this is seen as unviable, but maybe it's worth giving a shot once SCVI drops.
--
Random bullshit go? Yes! Something has to stick eventually.
