Bloo
Banned deucer.
World Cup of Pokémon VII
One year ago, team Oceania defended their championship and took home the title once again as the best PokéNation in the world. Today, we begin a new quest to determine which of our fiercely competitive nations will outlast all the others in a tournament like no other.
You may be wondering why I'm posting this thread in lieu of Jackal. He's moving onto to much better things, and due to real life matters, Jackal is no longer able to dedicate the time to host this tournament. He did an absolutely amazing job hosting the World Cup for the past years, so a round of applause goes out to him. Iconic and I will be hosting this year and will, without a doubt, try to live up to the quality of hosting Jackal demonstrated countless times. We hope everything goes well for you in life Jackal, thanks for everything! Too bad Canada will never win a World Cup, though (iconic EDIT: screw you man!).
To be clear this is a BW OU team tournament. Everything on-site is ready to go, and before we move into the details of this years tournament, you may want to check out the following:
Make sure you read through and understand all of the rulings listed below, as well as all of the general tournament rules.
Registration
The system utilized last year worked well, so we will be using it again. We will not be releasing a list of teams prior to signups; instead, we will allow people to sign up, and then base teams off of who signed up and for what. This allows us to ensure that the teams list is representative of the signups, and that there will be a good balance in the tournament. Ultimately, we don't expect too much deviation from last years team list, but it could happen.
To sign up for this tournament, use the following format: If you do not sign up in this manner, we will delete your post.
Pokémon Online Username(s): This is self explanatory. If your main name on Pokemon Online is Bloo, then you will list Bloo next to this field.Pokémon Online Username(s):
Country / State of Residence:
Nationality:
Other Eligibility (if applicable):
Country / State of Residence: Easy. Put what country you currently live in. If you live in the USA, put what state you live in.
Nationality: This field is for your family’s place of origin. For example, if your family moved from India to the USA, then you would put Indian. If this is the same as your first field or you don’t think it is important, omit it from your signup. List no more than two regions here (one for each parent).
Other Eligibility: This field should be a rarity. This is for situations like "I just moved to England but I lived in Canada all my life". We will review these on a case by case basis, and will only grant them in clear cut situations.
Team Captains
Team Captains will be responsible for assembling the roster, promoting the tournament through their team through IRC or other means, ensuring their team is completing battles and subbing battlers in and out as necessary. If there is an issue with a team we will approach the captain to resolve it. Include with your sign up post whether you would like to be considered to be a Captain. One week today, June 4, 2012, we will announce the final team list and the Captains for each team.
If you are relatively new or not known well by me, you probably should avoid signing up for captain. We have given some relatively new players captaincy in the past and it has had some pretty poor results, so we will be sticking to our veterans that we know and trust. Being captain has nothing to do with your skill, it is all about leadership and trustworthiness. The captain is not required to actually battle in the tournament.
Team Formation
After captains have been announced, there will be another one week period in which the captains have to hold tryouts / scout users to assemble their team. This will be the time period where the most activity is required from the captain, an ideal candidate would be on IRC every day and getting the opinion of well respected members of their team on potential roster spots.
Final rosters are to be submitted on or before June 11th, 2012. All rosters should include the team name, captain name, starting 8 players and 4 subs as well as the team flag. The captain does not have to be on the playing roster at all. We understand that two weeks is a long time to wait before the start of Round 1, but please take advantage of this time. It is to be used to form the roster, make teams together, test those teams, etc. By the start of Round 1, all teams should be at the top of their game. Don't just sit around until the first round starts and then start training.
Format Changes
There are a couple of changes to the rules and format that you should be aware of. The most important of which is the locking of the tier for the entire tournament. Pokemon Black and White 2 are going to be released in Japan on June 23, which falls directly in the middle of this tournament. If Platinum is any indication, this will result in a massive metagame shift. The Tournament Directors have decided that the current BW OU tier will be locked at this point and will not change for the duration of the World Cup. This means that no Pokemon, item, abilities, moves, etc. released in BW2 can be used in later rounds. We understand this may bring about some frustration, but it is unfair to force players to learn an entirely new metagame in the span of a few days, and preventing potentially broken Pokemon from being allowed in the World Cup will preserve the tournament's integrity.
The seeding of teams after the preliminary round is another important format change. In the past, teams were ranked based on points, but this year they will be ranked based on record to prevent unfortunate circumstances from the past two tournaments. If any teams within the top 8 have identical records, the point system will be used to break these ties. However, if two or more teams are tied for the last spot based on record, the point system will not be used to break the tie, and the teams will instead choose a player for a sudden death playoff to qualify for the next round.
Flags
Our wonderful artists all worked very hard on the flags last year, and we would like to maintain continuity by keeping them. If a new team is made, or you seriously don't like your flag, it's the team's / captain's responsibility to contact artists. We encourage you to wear these flags with pride!
IRC
IRC is a major part of this tournament. You may be left behind on a lot of the community aspect of the tournament if you don't use it, so don't miss out! Join us in #wcop on SynIRC (irc.synirc.net) for continuous World Cup of Pokemon chat. This channel will make it easy to find your opponents and discuss the tournament. If you have a problem connecting to IRC, please refer to this page for instructions on how to get there. If you still can not connect, the easiest way to do so is by using mibbit.
Further, each team is encouraged to create their own IRC channel for team use. If you want to try out for a team, it is a good idea to sign onto their channel and get to know everyone there. These channels are the heart of this tournament (and an endless source of entertainment!).
Conclusion
Alright, with all that out of the way, we expect a great tournament this year. Let the World Cup of Pokémon VII begin!