Announcement Smogon VGC Winter League II - Polling and Discussion

How interested in Winter League?


  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .

Sapphire

♫ Mugen No Ticket ♫
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VGC Leader
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With Scarlet and Violet's recent release, in addition to a huge surge of VGC players, its no doubt that a VGC team league would be something that many people would want, whether it for teambuilding, community building, or just some fun team competition!
As we continue to host these PLs, we strive to make them better and better each time, and would love to hear your input on how you want Winter League to be formatted/play out this year!

Looking at the previous Winter League, we had 6 teams with a 6v6 week, with teams up to 15 players, which is significantly smaller than VGC PL I and II. With the new generation in tow, we are potentially looking at 8 teams with an 8v8 week, to increase the number of potential players in the league. The reasoning behind (preferably) avoiding 7v7 is because ties generally make the standings and competition closer, while rewarding teams for more dominant performances. This would be the same format and size as VGC PL I, but obviously all of these numbers depend on interest and how many manager/player signups we get (So please vote on the poll if you haven't!)

Another thing that could be touched on is budgeting. Last year we had a total 120k budget for up to 15 players (8 starters, up to 7 subs), with managers costing 15k. This system worked relatively well, but we'd love to hear your thoughts on budgeting! In addition, do we want to look into retaining players from the previous year? If we were to implement retains, it would likely be the same price as the previous year +3k, a fair price to pay to keep a player.

And now for the biggest topic for discussion: Formats
With a new generation and format, the biggest point of contention would be the formats played, mainly legacy formats. With Sword/Shield now being a legacy format, the way we tackle legacy must also be altered. How many slots and which formats should be rotated? We'll always have a legacy player-base, but finding a fine balance between having enough Gen 9 slots and having enough legacy will always be tough.
Personally I'm looking at 1-2 Legacy slots (most likely in Gen 8), which would allow for legacy to be played while keeping the spotlight on the new Gen 9 format. We could also considering rotational slots, with formats changing every week to include more formats into the mix.

Below is a proposed timetable for when this tour will play out! In terms of "double weeks", instead of having 14 days to play 1 game, we will have 14 days to play 2 games, making scheduling much more feasible.

Proposed Schedule: (Assuming for 8 teams, Week 6 and 7 will be removed if we end up running with 6 teams, PL would then end Feb 26)
Manager Signups Dec 5-Dec 11
Player Signups Dec 12-Dec25
Draft Dec 30
Week 1 + 2 (Double week for Regionals) Jan 2 - Jan 15
Week 3 Jan 16 - Jan 22
Week 4 Jan 23 - Jan 29
Week 5 Jan 30 - Feb 5
Week 6 Feb 6 - Feb 12
Week 7 Feb 13 - Feb 19
Semifinals Feb 20 - Feb 26
Finals Feb 27 - Mar 5
[Note I'm probably missing 1-2 big Regionals in there, but the start and end times will be the same regardless]

Let us know what you think, and what you want to see in a potential VGC Winter League II!
 

zee

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first off huge thanks to eeveon and the other mods that stepped up to even think of putting this together. I simply do not have it in me to be solely responsible for two team tours in one year so this is a huge weight off my shoulders.

that being said, I am very excited to return to managing in this tournament, and I am announcing right here and now that I will destroy yuki in the inevitable VGC leader showdown.

my preference for formats is entirely VGC 2023 with no legacy slots. I introduced legacy slots into our team tours in gen 8 because there was a relative disdain for gen 8 vgc compared to older gens and I want something to help our tours stand out. Currently a lot of legacy era players are actually caught up in gen 9 hype and enjoying that, and there definitely seems to be less negative energy toward this gen as of now. I just can't see 8 teams' worth of legacy slots signing up when you could be practicing the format used in real ladder and tournaments instead. By the time PL rolls around and people start to become jaded with the format, I think it will be appropriate to add legacy slots again. But for now, I think this is a pretty good time to stay fully current gen. It also makes it way more accessible to newer players, I think any manager in this tournament has had at least one week where they have to throw their 3k in an oldgen without any actual tournament experience.

the restructuring of double weeks was my idea and I think it works great for major tournaments (if any more arise we can build them into the calendar, but for the preliminary one I was just factoring in san diego), since it doesn't actually delay the tournament for those that aren't playing in those tournaments. But if anyone has more thoughts or suggestions re: building the calendar around regionals/internationals I'm all ears.
 
I will probably play or at least sign up.

Two points I want to address. First I agree with zee regarding having no legacy. Not only gen 8 VGC was generally unpopular but this early in the gen most people will want to play gen 9 and not revisit formats and mechanics that ended less than 6 months ago.

Second point is the schedule. While I imagine the majority of the player base is american, the number of Europe-based players in these leagues has been increasing a lot. If San Diego deserves a 2-week round, then so does Liverpool.

Good luck hosting, Eeveon!
 
I think Legacy can still be pretty fun, but what we've basically got to do is one of the following options:

  • 7v7 per week with 2 legacy slots, or 8v8 with 2 legacy slots.

I think an argument could be made for 1, but I think the legacy slots should be a permanent VGC'2022 Series 12, and a rotating Gen 7 slot. I feel like Gen 6 and beyond is a bit too old to include in these tournaments now. If we include legacy slots at all, I think it's more appropriate to shuffle between VGC'17, VGC'18 and VGC'19 (Ultra), rather than specifically forcing 19 it keeps it a bit interesting to shuffle between all the Gen 7 formats.

The other option is to include no legacy at all, which again is fine. If we don't include legacy slots, we should do 7v7 and open team lists when game 1 gets opened (or to just manually exchange it if it's being played on cart) However, I think for the mainline PL next year we should do 8v8 with 2 legacy slots!
 

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