[POWC] POWC 2020 - Information & Administrative Decisions

Pokémon Online World Cup 2020​

Official Discord​

Hello, and welcome to the 2020 edition of the Pokemon Online World Cup! In this thread, we are going to post everything related to all the POWC administrative matters and our decision on those matters. Here, the hosts (@Hurricane and I) will post:

• Season Schedule
• Teams and their Captains
• Administrative Decisions

First and foremost, those are the fourteen teams (in alphabetical order):

Team | Captain | Assistant Captain

Argentina | @ziloXX | @ElectricityCat
Brazil | @Rewer | @satan saves xmas
Caribbean | @Bloody alfa | @Lord Thorx
China | @sstj | @Laputa
Europe | @Djokra | @drud
France | @Z+V | @BlazingDark
Germany | @Nigel | @CMx
India | @Rajshoot | @OminousDraco
Italy | @Atli | @Luck>Skill
Latin America | @Raichy | @Haru
NA East | @Finchinator | @TDK
NA West-Central | @Mannat | @KingKdot
Spain | @Sinkyr | @Ranshiin
United Kingdom + Ireland | @HSOWA | @Taiga

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The format for this tournament will be 2 groups of 7 teams, with each team facing every other team once in every starting slots, in a round-robin fashion in 5 weeks. This is a novel format that shortens the duration of the group stage from 7 weeks to 5 weeks for a group of 7 teams and is voted in favor by the captains (12-2).

Week 1 starts on Monday, March 16, 2020. Signups and team rosters are due on 15th March 2020 at 23:59 UTC (18:59 GMT -5). The lineups for week 1 are due 15th March 2020 at 23:59 GMT -5.


The grouping is of the following:

Group A: China, NA East, Brazil, India, Europe, Germany, UK + Ireland

Group B: NA West-Central, Latin America, Caribbean, France, Italy, Spain, Argentina

The matchups are of the following (click on the image or open image in new tab for higher resolution):





In this format, there are 7 teams per group, and a team plays 12 games each week against various other teams. The graphs above show the specific matchups where each color represents a week. Lineups are submitted per week.

Note: A single player can play a maximum of 6 games during the 5-week group stage, with a maximum of 2 games in one week that has to be against different teams. A player cannot play against the same opposing team more than once over the course of the group stage. If a slot of a tier (3 SS OUs are different "slots") is played twice by a team that week, they are allowed to submit different starters as long as the above-stated rules permit. Per game substitutions are allowed, i.e. if a player plays two games that week and has trouble scheduling in one, it is allowed to make a substitution for that one game while continuing to play the other.

After the group stage, the three teams with the highest battle differentials (the wins minus the losses), within each group, will move on to the quarterfinals. If two or multiple teams are tied in points, the head to head record will determine the placement, except if one or more teams face elimination. In those cases, a tiebreaker will be played with the format of SS OU / Tier picked by Team A / Tier picked by Team B.

The following bracket will be used after the group stage has finished:

Quarter-Finals
(Winner A and Winner B get a bye)
Q1: Runner-up A vs Third-place B
Q2: Runner-up B vs Third-place A


Semi-Finals
S1: Winner A vs Winner Q2
S2: Winner B vs Winner Q1

Final
Winner S1 vs Winner S2

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Pokemon Online World Cup 2020 will feature 8 tiers, and every team is allowed to have 12 to 15 players. The tiers are as follows:

• 3 SS OU;
• 1 SM OU;
• 1 ORAS OU;
• 1 BW OU;
• 1 DPP OU;
• 1 ADV OU;
• 1 GSC OU;
• 1 RBY OU (BO3);

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After signups have been completed, the captains will have to post their final squad, consisting of at least 12 and a maximum of 15 players, in the player signup thread as soon as possible. (Co-)Captains are allowed to play in the tournament itself and will count for the player limit if they decide to play. You must have a Smogon account in order to join this tournament. We will check the validity of any account we deem to be suspicious. This does not apply if your PO forums account was made before January 1st, 2017.

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Players that played in POWC 2019 must play for the same team that they played for last year unless that team no longer exists, or the new team didn't exist last year.

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This thread will be locked and any further news will be posted separately.

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Some small reminders:

1) The captains must send in their Line-ups on time and send them to both @fsk and @Hurricane, just in case something bad happens. If no roster has been submitted before the deadline, we will use the previous one.
2) Please save your replays! You are more than welcome to post replays in the discord channel #powc-replays. And when a dispute arises, we will have to void the game result if no replay is provided.
3) Please read the Universal Official Tournament Rules.

 

Re: Format next year.

The current format, no matter how novel it is, is a stopgap. It is largely because the participating team captains cannot settle to make a choice between the shorter duration of the tournament (which prevents loss of interest towards the end of group stage) and the fairness of grouping (which 3-3-4-4 grouping lacks, and a non-precedented pre-season also sort of lacks). As such, we have the above-stated format to cut the group stage from 7 weeks (due to 7 teams a group with one bye per week) to 5 weeks while not forcing any team out or making any unfair grouping.

The downside is the complexity of the current format requires some additional effort for the player. Knowing this, we would like to limit the teams of POWC 2021 to either 16 or 12, depending on the signup numbers. That would give us fair grouping, acceptable duration, and simplicity of format all combined. And therefore, we are establishing the rule of relegation for 2021 so we have a ground for pre-season, should need arises:
1. If there are 12 or 16 teams, there would be no pre-season needed.
2. If there are 13 teams with no new team forming, the 7th placed team (with the worst BD in the group stage) in each group will face off each other in a pre-season stage. If one of the two 7th placed teams is not returning, the one with a worse BD among the two 6th placed teams will play the pre-season instead.
3. If the same 14 teams return next year, the 2 last-placed teams (with the worst BD in the group stage) in each group will face off each other in a pre-season stage, where the 7th in group A will face 6th in group B, and the 7th in group B will face the 6th in group A.
4. If new teams are forming and the total team number is among 13, 14 or 15, the 7th placed team (with the worst BD in the group stage) in each group will face the newly formed team(s) in a pre-season stage, where the format depends on the number of teams.

 

Arena Trap is now banned from SS OU. This is in effect in Week 3 immediately since the ban was announced 30 minutes after this week's thread goes up (i.e. within 12 hours).