Introducing the Smogon Classic

Introduction

A new official tournament was recently announced on the forums. Known as the Smogon Classic, this is the first official tournament to focus purely on past generations. The OU metagames of RBY, GSC, ADV, DPP, and BW will all be represented, each with a Cup of its own. Players will need to be skilled in all of these past tiers in order to succeed in this tourney. As with every official tournament, the winner will be rewarded with a brand new trophy: Trophy

A Bit of History

The idea for an official past-gens tournament was first proposed by Jorgen almost two years ago. He noted that although past generations were represented in SPL, a team tournament, there wasn't an individual tournament for past-gens players. His initial idea of a past-gens Smogon Tour (featuring RBY, GSC, and ADV) was met with mixed feelings. While many battlers agreed that a past-gens tournament would be an excellent addition to the official tournament circuit, there were some inherent issues with the proposal. A large, live GSC OU Tour was rather intimidating (think of the recent Bedschibaer vs Tiba fiasco); plus, the idea itself would get messy come Generation VII (a four-metagame Tour doesn't work well, leaving DPP snubbed by both.)

While the idea remained in the back of several people's heads, it never really came to fruition and was forgotten by most. That was until BKC came forward with a new official past-gens tournament proposal. His idea was to base the tournament on Grand Slam, with each of the five past gens getting their own individual tournament. This solved both of the issues brought up before (as come Gen VII, the tournament could use a 5/6 system similar to what Grand Slam currently has) and was quickly put into action.

Format

As mentioned, each of the generations will be given individual tournaments, similar to Grand Slam's Opens, called Cups. These will be best-of-three, single elimination tournaments. The signup dates and hosts are as follows:

The BW Cup - Hosted by Bloo - March 30th
The DPP Cup - Hosted by Sapientia - April 16th
The ADV Cup - Hosted by Mizuhime - April 16th
The GSC Cup - Hosted by Jellicent - May 3rd
The RBY Cup - Hosted by Isa - May 3rd

Based on the number of signups for each tournament and how well you do, you'll be awarded various numbers of points. The points system used for this is the exact one used for Smogon Tour. After all five Cups wrap up, points will be tallied, and the top eight players will move on to the playoffs, hosted by Tournament Director and Smogon Classic host Oglemi. The playoffs will feature best-of-five series involving all of the past OU metagames.

Conclusion

To be crowned the Smogon Classic champion, you'll need a firm understanding of all five past generations. Thankfully, most of them are working quite well on Pokémon Showdown! now (only GSC has a notable bug), so finding practice matches is easier than ever. Anyone looking to pick up these older gens should also check out the Past Gens Resource Archive in Ruins of Alph.

I'm personally very excited to see past generations getting an official tournament of their own. I'd like to wish everyone the best of luck in this tournament, and I can't wait to compete against you all!

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