[POWC] Pokemon Online World Cup 2021 - Introduction

Hello everyone! Pokemon Online World Cup (POWC) is scheduled to return this year. As I did last year, I'd like to make a few announcements on the general schedule and format such that the players interested in participating or forming a team can have plenty of time to prepare.

- Week 1 will start on 22nd of March.
- Captain Sign-ups will start on early March and will last about one week.
- Player Sign-ups will start once captains are picked, and will last 1 or 2 weeks.
- Be sure to join the PO Tournament Discord: https://discord.gg/ppxSkUE to stay tuned.
- The eligibility rule remains the same: You shall play for the team you played for in the last year, unless you didn't play last year, or the team you played for last year no longer exists, or you are trying to play for a team that didn't exist last year.
- The Tier representation this year will be:
SS OU / SS OU / SS OU / USUM OU / ORAS OU / BW OU / DPP OU / ADV OU / GSC OU / RBY OU.
(Lower tiers will gets due representation in the later half of the year, during POCL.)
This relatively early notice allows certain regions and countries to have more time to fill their rosters.
- The teams from last year are:
Argentina, Brazil, Caribbean, China, Europe, France, Germany, India, Italy, Latin America, NA East, NA West-Central, Spain, United Kingdom + Ireland.
Last year's Group A 6th place: Germany; 7th place: India.
Last year's Group B 6th place: Spain; 7th place: Argentina.
The pre-season format detail can be seen here: http://pokemon-online.eu/threads/40833/#post-513244
The gist is that there will eventually be either 12 or 16 teams in the main event.
- If you captained last year and is no longer interested in captaining, while also being pessimistic about others leading and forming a team for your region or country, please let me know, ideally by the end of February! I will reach out to Team India, Argentina, Spain and Germany at the end of February to prepare for pre-season.
- If you want to captain a new team that didn't exist last year, please contact me with a list of at least 10 eligible players that are willing to play for you based on the eligibility criteria and the tiers represented described above. You can find me by joining the PO Tournament discord, or directly address your interest in #powc channel. You should make such contact about forming a new team by the end of February (though ideally not before February 1st).
- The teams that was not in the tournament last year but has indicated interest to participate are listed as following:
Greece (welcome back!)