Win Raccoon Money! Awesome!

[Vandaeron]

1/2/2016: The tournament has begun! Entries are officially closed! You can view the score card here!

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Hi.

I've recently returned from a very long absence, and after watching some League matches recently, let's just say I've rekindled my fighting spirit. So, to get myself back into practice and get acquainted with some new people, I'm painting a giant target on my chest.

Here's the deal: I'm hosting a tournament, and the prize is all of the rupees I own at the time of the tournament's conclusion. I spent a little bit when I came back, but I've still got a decent amount, and I'll assuredly have more by the time this is done.

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Naturally, it's not going to be just a normal tournament by any means. The main rule of the tournament is this:

Everyone will be using the same six pokemon, chosen by me. You won't know what those pokemon are until a specified time, and it is entirely up to you to decide how to build and utilize those pokemon. The pokemon in question are carefully selected to promote interesting strategy and ample room for creativity.

Naturally, entrants will be asked to provide their chosen move lists and items to me privately to prevent circumstantial adaptations.

Oh, and the other thing.

The tournament will have a qualifying round, and the way that round works is, you must battle me, with a separate team of my choosing. Note well that it is not designed to counter the assigned team, and also that I am too big of an idiot to utilize advance knowledge of your moves and items.

To advance into the tournament, you need only faint at least three of my pokemon. Nothing I'll ever choose for a team will be above UU, so you don't have to be concerned that I'll just trounce people with a crazy team. Qualifying matches will be carried out at the entrants' leisure; this won't be just a consolidated event carried out at once.

(Besides, if i had to do a whole bunch of qualifying matches right in a row, I'd get pretty exhausted!)

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"Hay, why are you bothering with this, anyway?"

Uh, the main point is just to get myself out there and interacting with today's active people. It's been 3 years since I've been here, and even more since I've actually been active. A lot has changed around here as well as in Pokemon, so I've got some catching up to do.

...Either way, who are you and how are you talking inside my post?

"BECAUSE REASONS! *RUNS*"

...Saying *runs* out loud didn't magically make you disappear. Please stop interrupting me.

Anyway, as I was saying, this whole event thingy isn't exactly super formal or anything. In fact, I'd honestly rather keep it as casual and social as possible, for reasons I've described.

I'll open this up to discussion for now. Let me know if you want to sign up, tell me that I'm dumb and my ideas are dumb, or whatever else you'd like to discuss.

And now that I think of it, if you'd like to donate to the winnings as a sort of bet, I wouldn't object (and I'm sure some higher-ups could ensure I don't commit any foul play with the money, if trust is an issue.)

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Entrants:

1. cosmosvoid
2. Pixlization
3. Chubb
4. Mr. Divergent
5. wytch
6. Odybld
7. Cobalt996
8. Pineapple

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Update: Entries will remain open until the end of the year (EST). From now til then, you may submit your teams and conduct your qualifying match, HOWEVER, due to turnout, they will not actually disqualify you. I'd like to still do them as a formality and for something to do until the 1st, though. Just as an opportunity to see what you've come up with firsthand.

And on that note, the team everyone will be using will be:

Muk

Meowstic (M)

Bastiodon

Bronzong

Cacturne

Armaldo

The terms of the tournament will be decided once entries have closed, and will be based on the final entrant count. PM me with your team's moveset; these may not change once your qualifying match is conducted. However, items, EVs, and even ability will be up to you to adjust as desired.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Vandaeron

[Skeleton]

i love raccoons and money but this seems like a whole lotta work??

[starkidcosmo]

hell yeah I'm in

[Pixl]

Yeah, sure, why not, I'm in.

[Fumble]

Hm, I'll try to do this, but idk if I can make it.

[Vandaeron]

i love raccoons and money but this seems like a whole lotta work??

Maybe, I'm not sure. Ultimately it's just a team building exercise on a restriction, then a battle against me before a tournament. But it's not going to be a big all-at-once event; it'll all be at the leisure of the participants.

I might not enforce the rule about fainting enough pokemon to qualify if there aren't a lot of entrants.

I just wanted to chime in and spark up something neat for people.

[Fumble]

But it's not going to be a big all-at-once event; it'll all be at the leisure of the participants.

Oh, alright then. That makes me feel better since there's no specific time I have to fight. ^^

[Daniel Blackworth]

I'm in.

[Vandaeron]

So, in recent news, the prize money has received a significant boost!

Additionally, I'll release the pokemon list at the end of the day (midnight EST) on the 25th.

Qualifying matches can then begin as soon as I receive your move lists. As a side note, it would be in your best interests to send them to me privately, rather than posting it here! I'll also request (but can't really enforce, I don't think) that entrants do not spectate qualifying matches, for fairness.

Entries won't be closed until the start of next year (also midnight EST) as that is when I'll open the entrants up to their tournament matches.

Don't forget the ultimate rule: this is all for fun! And money, but the fun is more important, I think!

[Vandaeron]

Oh right, I was doing this now. A bit late; sorry!

So, when I started putting together the team for this event, I had some really specific goals in mind, and it wasn't until I had them all met and organized that I realized how low tier the pokemon ended up being. I had no intention of picking a specific tier to roll with; it just kind of ended up that way.

Anyway, without further ado, the team for this tournament will be:

Muk

Meowstic (M)

Bastiodon

Bronzong

Cacturne

Armaldo

Take your time to plan out how you wish to build each of these pokemon, and try to anticipate how you'll handle facing the same pokemon as opponents. Plan for as many or as few layers of anticipation and counter-anticipation as you want!

You need to PM me your move sets before moving forward (or post it here, but that'd probably not be good for your health,) and after I've gotten that PM, we can proceed with qualifiers. Also, with the way things are looking right now, the qualifiers are just gonna be in name only. Your performance in them won't actually disqualify you. That's because there are so few participants. I'm only keeping them so you have something to do before New Years when the final entries are closed and you can start your tournament matches.

If it stays at 6 or fewer participants, I'll either do everything best 2 out of 3, or just double elimination. Or maybe both.

Finally, I apologize for the double post, but it's been a few days and it's pretty important information to alert the participants to, so I wound up feeling warranted in it.

[wytch_doctr]

If it's not too late, i'd like to join. although i don't know about timing and stuff, but battles could be fun

Edited December 26, 2015 by wytch_doctr

[Vandaeron]

Yeah, entries are still open until the end of the year (EST).

You're fine to join!

[Odybld]

The rupees started making more sense, so I'm in for the $$$.

[Vandaeron]

I added an update to the main post to include major items discussed later in the thread.

[Cobalt996]

Close to the end of the year, now. Still got space? Teambuilding around... interesting restrictions is always fun!

[Vandaeron]

Yep, you're still good to go.

Whenever you have your team set up, PM me the move set and you're good to go for your qualifier.

[Vandaeron]

Alright, so! Only 15 hours remain until the tournament starts. Entries are still open until that time, but in the meantime, I'd like to propose a discussion and a poll (in the first post) about what format to conduct the tournament in. There are currently 4 formats I'm entertaining:

1. Round Robin, with top 2 facing off in a final match.
2. Single Elimination, best 2 out of 3
3. Double Elimination
4. Double Elimination, best 2 out of 3

Round Robin is the one I'm favoring, as it would guarantee everyone gets a chance to fight every other team, to basically engage in the spirit of the team building aspect of the tournament. But I acknowledge that 7 participants is the point where round robin starts getting up there in the match count, so I have the more traditional options up there as an alternative. I left out basic single elimination just because it offers a lot of potential for people to be cut out early due to a bad circumstance rather than simply being outplayed.

Thoughts?

[Odybld]

Considering the repetitive nature of your format, with 7 teams of the same Pokemon in constant mirror matches, I would actually suggest to cut down on more repetition, wait on an 8th contestant and make it single match elimination...

[Ojama Yellow]

If it's still possible, I'd like to be entrant number 8. I figure that I'm wayyyyy too late for this though.

[Vandaeron]

Alright, cool. That'll settle us into a nice 8. Since the tournament hasn't actually "started" started, I'll allow it.

However, I inadvertently asked for votes on Showdown, and got like a relatively huge pile of Round Robin votes, so it seems like it'll wind up being that format anyway. There were two schools of thought on either end of the argument, one being that round robin would be nice to give everyone a chance to see what creative solutions the rest came up with for the team, and the other is full of money-grubbing cowards who want to get their hands on the money as soon as possible feels that fighting the same team over and over would get repetitive.

OH MY GOD I CAN'T MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY IT'S ALL FALLING APART

Basically the contenders are Round Robin at 4, and single match single elimination at 2, so unless there's a considerably staunch disagreement, it looks like Round Robin has it.

Pineapple's already set to go, so with that, we can start. Here is the score card, which I will update with match results and standings as often as possible.

Typically, I would like to be present for matches, but if I'm not around or unresponsive in Showdown, a replay thingy will suffice. Actually, PMing me a replay would be nice regardless, in case anyone wants to watch but isn't there. Don't post it in here, though; that'd let people get a look at teams ahead of time.

And as my last statement...

GO FORTH

AND

DOMINATE

Edited January 3, 2016 by Vandaeron

[Vandaeron]

Hey everybody. Sorry, I kinda went quiet the last couple weeks. Some stuff came up that I wasn't anticipating and let's just say it's been hard to catch a free moment.

Anyway, to make up for lost time I want to start spurring on the remaining matches. Looks like right now we're about 40% done.

Keep your ears open!

In the meantime, after getting the scores up to date, here are some stats:

Everyone who has fought a match has at least one loss, so as of yet nobody is unbeatable.

Everyone is currently capable of a final score of 6-1 or 5-2, so top 2 is still wide open, even if you have two losses.

Stay determined!

Edited January 17, 2016 by Vandaeron