Pearl
Romance は風のまま
This is it, you've all be waiting for! After fiercely battling for a playoff spot across five opens (which, for what it's worth, featured almost 2000 unique competitors), we're now left with only 16 people remaining. As I said previously in the tiebreaker thread, making it this far is an impressive feat in itself, and while only one of you will be able to walk away with the
Before moving on to the action, I'd like to thank everyone who made this tournament possible: the open hosts (MrAldo, Kiyo, Quote and Fireburn), the artists (Zracknel, Bummer and aim), the people who helped keeping the standings spreadsheet updated (HSA, elodin and Eo Ut Mortus), my fellow co-host Zebraiken and also rozes for all of the effort he put into this prior to his ban (as well as teal6 and the rest of the TD team for putting up with my endless barrages of questions, you guys rock). Last but not least, I'd also like to thank all of the people who signed up for the various opens, making this one of the biggest tournaments in the history of Smogon.
With that said, here is the list of people who qualified and their respective seed:
1. FLCL - 38 Points
2. dodmen - 37 Points
3. aim - 32 Points | 84.6% Win Ratio
4. Tricking - 32 Points | 82.1% Win Ratio
5. Rodriblutar - 32 Points | 82.1% Win Ratio
6. ict - 31 Points
7. Welli0u - 30 Points
8. blunder - 29 Points | 80.8% Win Ratio
9. Sacri' - 29 Points | 80% Win Ratio
10. Pohjis - 28 Points | 82.6% Win Ratio
11. soulgazer - 28 Points | 80% Win Ratio
12. Lax - 27 Points
13. KratosMana - 26 Points | 80% Win Ratio (+ Beat Gunner Rohan in the tiebreaker)
14. Level 56 - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio (+ Beat a player with a higher win rate in the tiebreaker than the two users below)
15. teal6 - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio
16. Nintendi - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio
Aside from seeds 4/5 and 15/16, all tiebreakers were decided based on win ratio. For the two aforementioned cases, where there were perfect ties, the involved parties decided to sort things out between themselves, with Tricking and Rodriblutar coming to an agreement without needing to battle for a seed, while teal6 and Nintendi played a Bo1 to decide who would take which seed.
2. dodmen - 37 Points
3. aim - 32 Points | 84.6% Win Ratio
4. Tricking - 32 Points | 82.1% Win Ratio
5. Rodriblutar - 32 Points | 82.1% Win Ratio
6. ict - 31 Points
7. Welli0u - 30 Points
8. blunder - 29 Points | 80.8% Win Ratio
9. Sacri' - 29 Points | 80% Win Ratio
10. Pohjis - 28 Points | 82.6% Win Ratio
11. soulgazer - 28 Points | 80% Win Ratio
12. Lax - 27 Points
13. KratosMana - 26 Points | 80% Win Ratio (+ Beat Gunner Rohan in the tiebreaker)
14. Level 56 - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio (+ Beat a player with a higher win rate in the tiebreaker than the two users below)
15. teal6 - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio
16. Nintendi - 26 Points | 78.3% Win Ratio
Aside from seeds 4/5 and 15/16, all tiebreakers were decided based on win ratio. For the two aforementioned cases, where there were perfect ties, the involved parties decided to sort things out between themselves, with Tricking and Rodriblutar coming to an agreement without needing to battle for a seed, while teal6 and Nintendi played a Bo1 to decide who would take which seed.
Due to the higher number of playoff spots (as well as a smaller amount of tiers to be featured in this year's edition of Grand Slam), this year's format will be slightly different from last year's. For starters, all sets will be Bo5, but since there are exactly 5 tiers as opposed to last year's 7, there won't be any need for participants to exclude tiers. Besides that, the top 4 seeds won't have a break in the first round, as there are now 16 people in contention instead of 12. The higher seed will get to choose the first tier to be played in a set, while the loser picks the next one. There will be four rounds of direct elimination until there is only one player remaining.
Identity
I expect many battles to be completed under alts and I expect many battles to be completed on other servers to prevent scouting. These kind of factors are pretty bad for tournament security, and thus I will make this clear: If I hear any whispers of identity theft (battling as someone you are not) or proxy battling (helping someone else battle through pm) I will not be pleased and I will take severe actions.
Scouting
Next, I do not want to hear anything about counterteaming, at all. It is the silliest thing I have ever heard, any battler worth their marbles has more than one team. Do not complain about it. I also don't want to hear about any forceful scouting, whether it be spying on another teams irc channel or following your opponent around on PO. There is a difference between "ipl is known for using stall" and "let me follow ipl around all day to watch all his battles since I am his opponent". I expect a lot of the former and none of the latter.
With that said, I give permission to all battlers to ask any person spectating their battle to leave if they do not want them watching. However, given the fact that this is the big stage, I am sure a lot of people want to watch, so don't be too mean.
Timer Clause
As for taking long between moves, if your opponent asks you to hurry up, please oblige. If you are doing a damage calc for a key turn that is one thing, but prolonging every move is suspicious and annoying. Don't do it. Furthermore, Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason. If you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time. Timing out is still classified as a loss, unless the reason for timing out is a disconnection. If there is any suspicion that a disconnect was carried out deliberately to take advantage of this rule in any way, we reserve the right to exercise a harsh punishment.
Disconnections
If a player disconnects and either player contends that they could still win, the optimal solution is to recreate the exact situation the disconnection occurred at during the battle. If it is agreed between players that this is not feasible due to unreasonable battle length, highly improbable circumstances, or some other reason, the player who did not disconnect may choose to rematch with either the same teams or (the option to use) new teams. Timing out is still classified as a loss, unless the reason for timing out is a disconnection. If there is any suspicion that a disconnect was carried out deliberately to take advantage of this rule in any way, we reserve the right to exercise a harsh punishment. Do not do it.
I know that was a lot to read, but it is all necessary for me to have posted here so everyone can see it in the case of a dispute. I don't want any confusion or any problems.
I expect many battles to be completed under alts and I expect many battles to be completed on other servers to prevent scouting. These kind of factors are pretty bad for tournament security, and thus I will make this clear: If I hear any whispers of identity theft (battling as someone you are not) or proxy battling (helping someone else battle through pm) I will not be pleased and I will take severe actions.
Scouting
Next, I do not want to hear anything about counterteaming, at all. It is the silliest thing I have ever heard, any battler worth their marbles has more than one team. Do not complain about it. I also don't want to hear about any forceful scouting, whether it be spying on another teams irc channel or following your opponent around on PO. There is a difference between "ipl is known for using stall" and "let me follow ipl around all day to watch all his battles since I am his opponent". I expect a lot of the former and none of the latter.
With that said, I give permission to all battlers to ask any person spectating their battle to leave if they do not want them watching. However, given the fact that this is the big stage, I am sure a lot of people want to watch, so don't be too mean.
Timer Clause
As for taking long between moves, if your opponent asks you to hurry up, please oblige. If you are doing a damage calc for a key turn that is one thing, but prolonging every move is suspicious and annoying. Don't do it. Furthermore, Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason. If you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time. Timing out is still classified as a loss, unless the reason for timing out is a disconnection. If there is any suspicion that a disconnect was carried out deliberately to take advantage of this rule in any way, we reserve the right to exercise a harsh punishment.
Disconnections
If a player disconnects and either player contends that they could still win, the optimal solution is to recreate the exact situation the disconnection occurred at during the battle. If it is agreed between players that this is not feasible due to unreasonable battle length, highly improbable circumstances, or some other reason, the player who did not disconnect may choose to rematch with either the same teams or (the option to use) new teams. Timing out is still classified as a loss, unless the reason for timing out is a disconnection. If there is any suspicion that a disconnect was carried out deliberately to take advantage of this rule in any way, we reserve the right to exercise a harsh punishment. Do not do it.
I know that was a lot to read, but it is all necessary for me to have posted here so everyone can see it in the case of a dispute. I don't want any confusion or any problems.
ROUND 1
1. FLCL vs. 16. Nintendi (UU, RU, NU, LC, Ubers)
2. dodmen vs. 15. teal6 (UU, RU, NU, Ubers)
3. aim vs. 14. Level 56 (RU, NU, Ubers)
4. Tricking vs. 13. KratosMana (UU, RU, NU, LC, Ubers)
5. Rodriblutar vs. 12. Lax (UU, RU, NU, LC, Ubers)
6. ict vs. 11. soulgazer (RU, LC, Ubers)
7. Welli0u vs. 10. Pohjis (UU, RU, NU, LC, Ubers)
8. blunder vs. 9. Sacri' (UU, NU, LC, Ubers)
SEMIFINALS
16. Nintendi vs. 4. Tricking
10. Pohjis vs. 14. Level 56
DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 29, 11:59 PM EST
note: From this round onward, Mega Gardevoir is banned from UU! (Weavile was banned the round before)
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