UU Summer Team Tour Format Discussion Thread

[Monky25]

Hello everyone,

For 2 out of the 3 summers in gen 8, UU hosted UUWC as a low-stakes side team tour that could reflect meta development in a changing metagame while deviating from traditional draft structures of UUPL and UUSD and just create enjoyment in the community during the summertime. Last year, because of Gen 9 coming out in November, the time where UUSD would normally be, UUSD got bumped up to be in the summer. With UUSD/its possible replacement moving back to the fall, the UU forum moderation and tournament planning team want to include a fun, low-stakes summer team tour in our schedule. We currently lean towards bringing back UUWC, with all (8-10) current gen UU slots. The major issue of UUWC was the regional imbalance, but in a new generation that changes monthly, the skill gaps can be closed as everyone will be treading new waters that can turn out any way. Regions with old gen legends are set back which ultimately makes the tour closer in skill than before. UUWC is a previously existing format that we’re familiar with, and by having all current gen UU slots (roughly 8 players, could be more based on signups), we feel this tour’s bad reputation can be alleviated and become a fun tour we can all play in our free time.

However, we are not committed to UUWC. The purpose of this thread is to gain community feedback on whether they’d like to see UUWC return with all current gen slots or they have a new proposition that can be done instead. The requirements that are set in stone are:

• Must be a fun, low-stakes tour that still remains competitive but generally is chill and just allows everyone to have a good time.
• Have a team formation method unlike UUPL and UUSD. Dutch-auction is something that has been considered for a main team tour so it would not be accepted either.
• Must be current gen focused

This thread will be open for discussion for about a month with a survey at the end to decide on the format of the tournament. Please share any thoughts you have on what should be done for the summer tour. Your voice matters, and you should be the change you want to see to create the most enjoyable and fun tournament for all. Please remain civil and respectful in discussion as well, we all want to have a fun summer tour so let’s make discussion organized and respectful.

 

[BigFatMantis]

UU Campus Cup

Smogon is a University but we rarely see any other schools challenge Smogon in PokemoNCAA competition. It's about time that changes:

Step 1: Open up "Coach" signups for each Campus (8 total)

Step 2: Pick 8 Coach pairs (managers) from the signups (1 Player-Coach allowed from the pairs). It's important to note the coach selection process is very important as Coaches will have to sort of recruit/players will have to want to play for them.

Step 3: Open up player signups. Players must apply to exactly 3 Campuses, no more no less.

Step 4: Coaches can directly recruit 2 players each from the Player Signups to play for their Campus, bypassing any sort of draft for those 2 players. The Coaches and the Player must be in agreement though, hence it is pretty much direct recruiting for those 2 slots.

Step 5: Players accepted by multiple Campuses (I.e. every player signup not picked as a direct recruit) are placed into a secondary pool. A snake style draft then commences, but Coaches can only select players that applied to their Campus during this draft.

This is a way to have a fun team tour where you are primarily playing for someone you want to play for without overcentralizing the teams too much in such an unfair fashion so it's just a lighthearted fun low stakes tour. While it may be somewhat imbalanced it is probably more balanced than a regional UUWC would be.

--------------------

This was just a silly idea I had though I'm perfectly fine with a UUWC coming back.

 

[Finchinator]

Have a team formation method unlike UUPL and UUSD.

A blind auction could be cool. It was almost selected over Snake Draft for NUSD in 2022 and it was a serious discussion point for the rebranding of SSD to SCL as well. It would be a creative and exciting way to open the tour and decide upon teams that emphasizes manager strategy, which could fit this opening well.

For those unfamiliar, see the bottom HIDE tag in Hogg’s post here. For a shorter for explanation, lax’s post here hits the nail on the head.

Personally am fine with UUWCOP and being all CG, even if it means I may sit out, as it follows the official WCOP and it’ll be a big draw for the community. I do think this prospect is enticing though.

 

[KM]

zodiacpl people can lie but who cares

 

[Adaam]

The inaugural UU Big Booty Gaming Invitational Team Tour Bottom Text League

more details to come

 

[Aqua Jet]

UU Campus Cup

Smogon is a University but we rarely see any other schools challenge Smogon in PokemoNCAA competition. It's about time that changes:

Step 1: Open up "Coach" signups for each Campus (8 total)

Step 2: Pick 8 Coach pairs (managers) from the signups (1 Player-Coach allowed from the pairs). It's important to note the coach selection process is very important as Coaches will have to sort of recruit/players will have to want to play for them.

Step 3: Open up player signups. Players must apply to exactly 3 Campuses, no more no less.

Step 4: Coaches can directly recruit 2 players each from the Player Signups to play for their Campus, bypassing any sort of draft for those 2 players. The Coaches and the Player must be in agreement though, hence it is pretty much direct recruiting for those 2 slots.

Step 5: Players accepted by multiple Campuses (I.e. every player signup not picked as a direct recruit) are placed into a secondary pool. A snake style draft then commences, but Coaches can only select players that applied to their Campus during this draft.

This is a way to have a fun team tour where you are primarily playing for someone you want to play for without over-centralizing the teams too much in such an unfair fashion so it's just a lighthearted fun low stakes tour. While it may be somewhat imbalanced it is probably more balanced than a regional UUWC would be.

My main gripe with this idea is "what if all/most of the "good" players, collectively or by accident, chose not to apply to managers campus?" This is a valid concern - this past UUPL of the three people pokemonisfun and I reached out to possibly retain, one of them chose to not sign up and the other two said they'd prefer to go at auction. I feel that this disadvantage - the disadvantage of not abusing a broken retain system - was mitigated by the fact that, by virtue of not retaining them, we had a higher starting budget to work with, allowing us to instead up bid good players such as Fc, Expulso, and TJ. However, under this proposal, I see no such mitigation, so if a team has fewer "good" players to work with they will likely be put at an inherent disadvantage, not only damaging team morale from the get-go but having less proven support/playing options.

zodiacpl people can lie but who cares

This sounds like it would just be jerkpl which based on the UU Discord's reaction we don't want

 

[Askov]

uuwc

 

[Liz Angeles]

This sounds like it would just be jerkpl which based on the UU Discord's reaction we don't want

I don't really get why this would be jerkpl, i think it's a fire idea personally

 

[Aqua Jet]

I don't really get why this would be jerkpl, i think it's a fire idea personally

People want to team with their friends -> people sign up as the same zodiac sign as their friends

Unless you use Smogon join dates/something else verifiable (that doesn't include personal information, such as Birthdays) I am against this idea

 

[justdrew]

A blind auction could be cool. It was almost selected over Snake Draft for NUSD in 2022 and it was a serious discussion point for the rebranding of SSD to SCL as well. It would be a creative and exciting way to open the tour and decide upon teams that emphasizes manager strategy, which could fit this opening well.

For those unfamiliar, see the bottom HIDE tag in Hogg’s post here. For a shorter for explanation, lax’s post here hits the nail on the head.

Personally am fine with UUWCOP and being all CG, even if it means I may sit out, as it follows the official WCOP and it’ll be a big draw for the community. I do think this prospect is enticing though.

Agree with everything you said. I personally think that if we were to consider blind auction that we would replace UUSD with it. I feel like the vibes for this summer tour is something lighter and familiar and that's UUWC. I wouldn't be opposed to blind auction > UUWC but I feel like it's better to replace Snake.

People want to team with their friends -> people sign up as the same zodiac sign as their friends

Unless you use Smogon join dates/something else verifiable (that doesn't include personal information, such as Birthdays) I am against this idea

Cmon bruh. It's clearly a joke suggestion that won't be taken seriously. Don't die on a hill that's not actually a hill.

uuwc

What Askov said. I think UUWC is the clear choice and will be full supported by the UU community. I'm in agreement with all CG slots. Old gens has UUPL, UUFPL, UUSD, Classic, and now Home Field Advantage. The only full CG tours are Masters, Open, and Circuit finals. UUWC will give more users chances to play CG and with home being released soon and the tier not actually being terrible, I think it's the best option.

 

[Estarossa]

Been pushing for UUWC quite a bit on Discord but absolutely throwing my support visibly for it in public too. All current gen UUWC will be a fantastic way to draw interest across a lot of people for the new generation and help us push the metagame further going into like HOME etc. There's certain things that need ironing out with its formatting but it's absolutely the best tour for us this summer for at least the first year of the new gen, and will capitalise well on the massive support the return of the tour has had too.

 

[pdt]

I vote bo3 sv uu and I vote to let me play it. (seriously though please bring back the bo3 slot i feel like we have enough interest to supply it).

 

[BigFatMantis]

The UU Amazing Race

• 8 Teams w/ managers etc.
• 7 SV UU Slots
• 1 SV UU Bo3 Slot (for pdt)
• Draft is done by Blind Auction (see Finch's post)
• After Week 2, each team can only retain 2 drafted players and the rest are all sold back (for the same credit value they were bought), and an actual new Blind Auction takes place with everyone in the pool undrafted + sold back.
• After Week 5, each team retains the 2 previously retained players + can retain 2 additional ones, then the rest are sold back and yet another new Blind Auction takes place for the last time to finalize the teams.
• Top 4 teams make playoffs.

 

[Corperate n]

I like the idea of a joindate pl / zodiac pl based on joindate. I think it follows the casual, more chill idea proposed in the op, and is like uuwc in that every team a has a limited player pool, difference is that the teams would be more balanced than doing it by country.

 

[Lily]

My suggestion: A variant of UUPL but with ghosting rules completely removed.

You wanna get ghosted by your team? Fuck it why not
You wanna get ghosted by randos in the UU discord? Hell yeah dude
You wanna get ghosted by your OPPONENT? Good luck! I wish you the best!

Yes I'm 100% serious, I think this fits the "fun but not too serious" vibe and would make for some super funny memorable moments. Yeah it's not balanced or particularly competitive but neither is joindate/uuwc/etc so why not.

 

[Slip]

SUUMER CAMP:

- 6 SV slots for the newer guys, 2 challenge slots for the more experienced players
- CHALLENGE SLOTS: Weekly change of slot options (bo3, random old gen, unban/ban a mon(?), ghosting slot). Pretty much anything to spice up the weeks so we don't have to watch only SV. These 2 slots do not have to be the same every week. This will also entice people to spend for certain specialty slots for certain weeks for important wins.
- Teams can be decided either in a pulling of straws or an exhibition game or something. Anything entertaining for the fans.
- Maybe some other gimmick for a break week or something depending on how hard you want to larp this thing.

UUWC is cool, ghosting tour is cool, and I also like BFM's ideas. Seems like we got a lot of good ones so maybe this can give some help to cover everything. I thought of this in 5 minutes so im sure ill add onto it down the road when I think on it more.

 

[691]

My suggestion: A variant of UUPL but with ghosting rules completely removed.

You wanna get ghosted by your team? Fuck it why not
You wanna get ghosted by randos in the UU discord? Hell yeah dude
You wanna get ghosted by your OPPONENT? Good luck! I wish you the best!

Yes I'm 100% serious, I think this fits the "fun but not too serious" vibe and would make for some super funny memorable moments. Yeah it's not balanced or particularly competitive but neither is joindate/uuwc/etc so why not.

free 100 players in one voice channel and upload the recording, definitely funnier than the match itself

 

[Sulo]

My suggestion: A variant of UUPL but with ghosting rules completely removed.

You wanna get ghosted by your team? Fuck it why not
You wanna get ghosted by randos in the UU discord? Hell yeah dude
You wanna get ghosted by your OPPONENT? Good luck! I wish you the best!

Yes I'm 100% serious, I think this fits the "fun but not too serious" vibe and would make for some super funny memorable moments. Yeah it's not balanced or particularly competitive but neither is joindate/uuwc/etc so why not.

Okay but unironically, this is a fire idea. Tournament discussion is filled with some interesting armchair discussions and it could be pretty damn funny to see people actually make the plays they would make. Could be a banger tour.

 

[dingbat]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-178215410

BRING BACK THE BATTLE CHAT SPAM

 

[Moutemoute]

My suggestion: A variant of UUPL but with ghosting rules completely removed.

You wanna get ghosted by your team? Fuck it why not
You wanna get ghosted by randos in the UU discord? Hell yeah dude
You wanna get ghosted by your OPPONENT? Good luck! I wish you the best!

Yes I'm 100% serious, I think this fits the "fun but not too serious" vibe and would make for some super funny memorable moments. Yeah it's not balanced or particularly competitive but neither is joindate/uuwc/etc so why not.

So fucking done for this, sounds hilarious !

 

[AM]

My suggestion: A variant of UUPL but with ghosting rules completely removed.

You wanna get ghosted by your team? Fuck it why not
You wanna get ghosted by randos in the UU discord? Hell yeah dude
You wanna get ghosted by your OPPONENT? Good luck! I wish you the best!

Yes I'm 100% serious, I think this fits the "fun but not too serious" vibe and would make for some super funny memorable moments. Yeah it's not balanced or particularly competitive but neither is joindate/uuwc/etc so why not.

Sign me up

 

[Cdijk16]

What about SV UU Trio Tournament?

 

[spell]

All SV World Cup is much more desirable to me than something like Ghosting Tour or zodiac pl or whatever else people have been suggesting. That’s only if we have to add a third tournament though since i think world cup itself is a pretty bad tournament

No 3rd tour (could change snake format also? this isn’t the place for it but was always wondering about just making it another auction tournament like Ubers has done with their snake) > All sv world cup > everything else

Don’t test something unreliable > bringing back something that has been proven to at least be functional

 

[Lily]

Thanks everyone for your discussion here. We'd like you all to complete a short survey to help us better think about where we're going with this.

The survey can be found here.

Note that the results of this survey are not binding. We'll just be using it to make a more informed decision than we'd otherwise get. It'll be open for about 72 hours; it would be great if you could answer it sooner than that, though. Thanks!

 

[pokemonisfun]

Cmon bruh. It's [Zodiac PL] clearly a joke suggestion that won't be taken seriously. Don't die on a hill that's not actually a hill.

This is why I try to treat people seriously on Smogon when they seem to put thought into their post, it's only right and we shouldn't assume things are jokes! I appreciate the thought you and others put in your posts in this thread though.