Tournament OM Snake Draft III - Announcement & Manager Signups

[The Immortal]

Hello and welcome to the third edition of the OM Snake Draft! Following on from previous years, this team tournament features some of our biggest non-ladder metagames.

How Snake Draft works

There are 6 teams. Each team will draft 7 players, enough for 4 starters and 3 substitutes. Managers are not allowed to play. The draft order will be randomized prior to the start of the draft and teams will pick in this order. Each team will pick one player, until the final team is reached, after which the draft order reverses and the final team will now get the first pick for the next round, making this a Snake Draft. This process will repeat until every team has a total of 7 players. For the following 5 weeks teams will face off against each other, where winning a round earns 2 points and tying earns 1 point. After the 5th week, the two teams with the most points will advance to the finals where a champion will be crowned.

The tentative list of formats for this year's Snake Draft is as follows:

• (Best of 5) 2v2 Doubles
• (Best of 3) Pure Hackmons
• Tier Shift
• Trademarked

As members of the OM community, you are urged to voice your opinion on the metagames you would like to see in this tournament. The list above is not final and will change based on the feedback provided in this thread.

...

Managers are expected to fulfill the following requirements:

• Will be active for the entire tournament (~6 weeks).
• Will fulfill all responsibilities of the position in a punctual manner, including but not limited to team submission, ensuring activity of players, and making substitutions.
• Can be trusted to uphold sportsmanlike conduct.

If you think you can handle it, please sign up! Format your post like this:

Bio: Why are you qualified for the position? Why do you think you'll be a good manager? Do you have prior experience? Those are good things to put here.
Team name: Your preferred team name. Nothing inappropriate.
Commitment: A pledge that you will be active for the entire tournament and fulfill your managerial duties.

You may sign up individually or as a pair of co-managers. If you have limited experience playing or managing in a team tournament, it is recommended that you sign up with an experienced partner. To give different people the opportunity to manage, you are not allowed to signup if you managed in the most recent OMPL or OMFL.

Signups will be open until we have 6 capable teams and the format list is finalized. SectoniaServant shall be co-hosting alongside myself. Feel free to contact either of us should you have any questions.

 

[MAMP]

im breaking the curse this year

Bio: successfully managed this team in both previous snake drafts, familiar with om playerbase, made a cool logo, all-around popular guy, very handsome
Team Name: Partying Poliwags
Commitment: Yes sir

edit: continuing my long-standing tradition of finding co-managers by just asking in the om discord, willdbeast will be my assman

 

[in the hills]

SNAKE HYPE
I do enjoy this lineup of tiers based on the options we have available this gen. The only change I’d want would be to add Inheritance as a 5th slot as it’s deserving (was in the last two Snakes and won OMotM this gen already), is unique from the other tiers, and is a huge draw for a lot of people in the community. I dont believe this would require to increase the number of players drafted either as 5 starters and 2 subs is more than appropriate for a tour like this. Otherwise, this tour looks like it’s gonna be a good one!! (EDIT: originally didnt bother me that PH is bo3 but after talking to some people i agree that might be too much)

Bio: Won last snake haha rekt
Team Name: changing it up this year, going with Guts and Gliscor
Commitment: yeet
ALSO SINCE IT WAS NOT CLEAR MY ASSMAN IS vivalospride ONCE AGAIN HE IS GOATED

 

[Pigeons]

Alright, there's a lot of questions I have about the format so I hope nobody minds me raising them.

Firstly, Trademarked is a cool metagame in principle but a decidedly weird choice for this tournament. The main reason I don't understand is that Trademarked never actually won OMotM and got average plays at best as Leader's choice, so it seems like an odd thing to include. If this was based solely on the fact that Trademarked has a VR already, it's worth noting that said VR predates the DLC and the meta will no doubt be extremely different with the addition of threats like Magearna and NP Alakazam.

Secondly, PH being a bo3 slot seems rather weird and arbitrary. I assume this happened either because PH has a reputation for being extremely matchup based, or because Ransei decided to support TI for his technical contributions. I really disagree with this even though bo3 is nice in principle since PH games take a long time to individually play and asking people to play 3 of them per week in 1 sitting is a lot for a tour that emphasizes fun more than being super competitive. I really don't see a good reason for this and it seems to be turning a lot of people off the tour as is so I hope this can change.

Thirdly...what happened to AG? For context, Ransei had mentioned to me that Galar Dex AG would likely be in snake (and would now be eligible for inclusion in OM tours), however that seems to have changed. Galar AG still seems like a fairly natural inclusion for a 5th / 6th slot (I'll get to that in a min) since it has an active playerbase and well-developed meta. If Galar AG is suddenly ineligible for OM tours once again....what changed exactly? If the status of Galar AG within OMs has changed could there please be no more flip-flopping on this?

Lastly...4 slots honestly just seems crappy, especially for a more "fun" tour like snake. I'd agree with ITH that adding Inheritance (or possibly AG) would be a very good change for this tour. Again, snake is never going to be the most competitive tour so why not take the chance to showcase more metas and allow more people to participate?

 

[MAMP]

just want to post saying i agree with the above two posts wholeheartedly in regards to the format. my ideal format would be like

pure hackmons
tier shift
bo5 2v2 doubles
galar dex ag
inheritance

+ 1 or 2 of flipped, trademarked, linked, inverse, shared power

 

[berry]

re: the chosen formats

I’m completely content with 3/4 of the formats chosen: 2v2 is given a chance to merge with OMs a bit, Tier Shift is a staple with a solid player base, and trademarked is possibly one of the most fun OMs of the last couple years. However, I do see a problem with BO3 Pure Hackmons. Having this slot be a best of 3 leads to it being potentially an extreme time commitment. Depending on the players (blobglare @ pigeons) and teams used, games can easily stretch past an hour just because of winconds that are only obtainable in lawless formats like this. Add this onto being a bo3, and players can be stuck in a series from anywhere upwards of like 45 minutes to like 2 or 3 hours. In my opinion, that’s an extremely unreasonable amount of time to be playing this game in one sitting. Imagine if BH in ompl was locked to a bo3: I’m assuming games would be going on for a similar amount of time.

On the other hand, because this generation of PH is semi luck based, you really need the bo3 to determine the better player (or the player who just keeps getting lucky hitting sheer colds a couple games in a row). This creates a gigantic catch 22, and I feel like because of these opposing circumstances, PH isn’t truly read to be presented as a tournament format. As much as I love pure hackmons and the PH community, I feel like I have to say this.

The solution? I’m not too sure, but I agree with some of the ideas thrown around in the OM discord. Inheritance is a great and established choice that’s been in past snakes. Sketchmons was brought up, but I don’t think it’s been submitted this gen yet. Godly Gift was another option. Edit: LINKED AND INVERSE! I can’t believe I forgot about these two. Linked is crazy fun and more balanced, inverse is another classic. just not too convinced that one of the slots in a 4 slot tournament should be a long-form format with Large chunks of luck.

obviously this is just my opinion: if the community really really wants pure hackmons (and I can totally see that: snake is more of a “fun” tour to play off metas instead of a competitive trophy tour like ompl or wc) I’d be fully in support of it. However, I don’t believe the format is teamtour-viable, with shortfalls being present both in the bo3 and the meta itself.

edit: to echo MAMP’s sentiment in omcord, imagine not being a PH player and just being subbed into a bo3 series. If you’re inexperienced in the meta, you might have to just sit through an hour+ bo3 and have a miserable time. PH isn’t a very intuitive meta and a lot of things just don’t make sense your first couple times around (think tonyflygon bh type stuff).

 

[Redflix]

if Galar Dex AG does get included , I would like to propose a 6 tiers + 2 subs slot in this tour. While users in om discord have pointed it out that it will be tough for snake to get this many sign-ups for 8 people , I do believe AG will generate enoigh interest no matter what and would be fairly easy for every team to get a player so that just leaves us with virtually 1 more slot being added in the tour from the current format.

I agree with pigeons with the trademark being a wierd meta to include in this tour and would much rather see either inheritance or flipped in the tour both of which saw decent activity as their time of being omotm/lcotm.

For the 6th slot , I would like to propose inverse as a metagame. Ik it's a very recently revived om with no prior omotm experience but even in ompl camo and stab didn't see much development before the tour but it turned out to be fine. Inverse has seen a large playerbase(especially in tours plaza) before the thread existed and is an easy metagame to learn and understand and thus would imo be a healthy addition.

In short , 6 + 2 tiers is the way to go imo with the following tiers

2v2
Pure Hackmons
Tier shift
Galar Dex AG
Inheritance / Flipped
Inverse

 

[Mark K]

I'll chime in as well because I plainly dislike this format.

Tier Shift is great and imo the only uncontested meta that definitely deserves to be in this tour.
2v2 Doubles At first I wasn't too onboard with this idea but in the end it's a fast and fun meta that hasn't had any representation in OM tours and 1v1 seems to be dropping it.
Pure Hackmons is the exact opposite of what I said about 2v2, it's slow and boring and very centralized with many rng elements present. Overall, I agree with the sentiments already shown and I don't think PH should be in.
Trademarked is a weird one. I was surprised to see it on a list with only 4 metas and so many left out, granted it's probably the most fun OM submitted this gen, I don't think it should be above certain others I'll be mentioning as well. Trademarked can be a borderline 5th slot meta.

Now onto the forgotten stuff:

Anything Goes was even close to being in OMPL (At least part of the discussion) and now gets completely left out when snake comes around? It already has a meta, dedicated leadership and a playerbase, this feels like an auto-include, especially if we're extending to at least 5 slots.
Godly Gift is an extremely underrated meta and one if the most fun OMs to build for. When it starts being played it'll only get more fun as team archetypes change so much with the restricted mon you choose to build around, especially when prepping for a player in specific. Would be a great inclusion for a team tour.
Inheritance is proven value, has always been in this tour and I dont understand why it shouldnt be in this version as well, it's fun, very different from other OMs and quite balanced.

Ideal Lineup:
Tier Shift
2v2 Doubles
Anything Goes
Godly Gift
Inheritance
Trademarked / Linked

PS: dont forget the purpose of this tour is to just have fun playing fun metas, let's not let policies or bureaucracy get in the way of that. Engagement is the ultimate goal here.

 

[in the hills]

After talking a bit with some more people and honestly being a bit abrasive on my end, I decided I’d post my opinion on Galar AG

In my opinion, Galar AG should not be included due to a couple reasons, such as being genuinely unpopular in the om community (placing last in every single month of OMotM voting). Its recent pickup in the AG forums as part of AGPL and another tour are great for them, but that also does raise the question of why would people join for Galar AG when that tier is already in a larger, more prestigious tour that’s currently running. I personally do not think that AG has any place in OMs anymore, not because I dislike it or hate the playerbase or think it’s “not an OM”, but because it’s doing so successfully on its own. Why should we take the spotlight away from the smaller OMs Snake is meant to highlight for a meta that’s already seeing representation in a much larger community while also not receiving any attention in our own section?

That being said, that is fully my personal opinion, and I would gladly accept the decision if Galar AG were included into the tour, provided we also include OMs that deserve the spotlight in this tour. I would honestly enjoy a 6 slotted tour with PH/TS/2v2/Trademarked/Inheritance/Galar AG, provided we can guarantee enough signups for 6 mains+2 subs. EDIT 2: Honestly Inverse is seeming like a viable option so Inverse/TS/2v2/Trademarked/Inheritance/Galar AG would be my ideal 6, though any two of TM/Inh/PH would be acceptable to me

On Trademarked vs Inheritance posts

Early take Ive noticed from these posts is that there seems to be pinning of Inheritance and Trademarked against each other by suggesting Inh>TM, and I don’t think that is doing anyone any favors here as they had similarly popular ladder activity while Trademarked had more forum activity and more active bans, which is why I’d like to see them side by side as I think they’re both deserving.

EDIT: also free Inverse ;-;

 

[Whitephoenixace]

So lemme just roleup in here on these peeps slandering trademarks good name.
To say that I will have a management podt once I get off work in a few hrs.


Not gonna say much but it would be nice to see the addition of inheritance as a meta as honestly its well deserved spot wise (though many debate consistency in the tier due to the many different sets and team builds that often cant just be identified with a single look). Would be nice to see it also showup.

Trademarked though I dont have much to say. Personally i dont feel thw om itself has fell off. It was decently popular last gen, and is ok in popularity this gen. If anything I take more fault for not trying to encourage its growth due to alot of semi inactivity on my part.

Id say more but im on mobile data on my phone waiting on my food from a takeout atm so thats all from me for now.

 

[willdbeast]

Can I sign up as a free agent manager?

edit: looks like this worked and a random team adopted me

 

[manu 11]

Yo, i rarely post on smogon, doubt many of you even know me, but some of things said in this thread just don't make sense to me. Like i legit don't care which meta makes it in or not and how much games are played, i don't plan on playing in this draft tour but some things said about Pure Hackmons and why it shouldn't be bo3 need to be discussed.

So um, this is a team tour right ? So basically that means people who will sign in for Pure Hackmons games like the meta and know what they are gonna have to deal with potentially. It's not like the person who signed for Trademarked will have to play Pure Hackmons (except subs). So yeah, i don't really understand how playing a bo3 is « a lot for the players in a tour that's supposed to be fun more than competitive ». I would be happy to play a bo3 rather than 1 game of a meta i like and which i signed in for.

Moreover i don't see how this will be turning a lot of people off the tour. Do you know of people who intented to play Pure Hackmons for this and then saw bo3 and said no ? I haven't seen any as of now tbh. If the majority of the Pure Hackmons playerbase says so, well i am sure TI and SectoniaServant will listen to the playerbase but as of now we are just speculating.

Most arguments are about how it shouldn't be bo3 because it's gonna be long and boring.... Well first « boring » is pretty subjective. I don't like gen 8 ph tbh, but i would much rather see/play a 300 turn Pure Hackmons game rather than a 100 turn BH game. That's my opinion but that shouldn't be an argument as to why it shouldn't be bo3 or not. I am not going to use my opinion and say that's how everybody else views it. Then, it's gonna be « long ». Well shit, any game of any tier/meta can be long. I will give you that Pure Hackmons makes most games naturally longer because everything gets recovery but so does BH, so does any meta where recovery moves have better distribution. At the same time, a Pure Hackmons game can be over in less than 2 minutes if played right. That argument works for any meta. Are we going to decide which meta or how much games are to be played based on the argument that « maybe » the game will last 1 hour ?

So yeah, i don't see how bo3 makes it a problem. It's bo3 because rng is sadly quite present in Pure Hackmons in gen 8. So to balance it, you make it bo3. Seems logical. Yet i see people saying that some poor players (who signed for this meta and knew what could happen in the game) are gonna have to sit there in « long and boring » games for hours consecutively.

If we are taking the point of view of potential subs that will have to maybe play this meta they don't know. Yeah ok i can understand that it might be annoying but again isn't this the case for any meta you are forced to play out of nowhere. Moreover, this was one of the most played om of the month ladder with very good activity, i find it hard to believe that you won't be able to find more than 10 people who will either sign up specifically for ph or at least sign up for another tier but who also know ph.

So yeah just my 2 cents on the bo3 Pure hackmons conversation, imo bo3 is a good choice knowing how, sadly, luck based this gen can be. And Pure Hackmons definitely deserves to be in this tour considering the playerbase it has. Bo3 is the option that just makes the most sense to me. Same as how AG was bo3 in ompl 7 iirc.

 

[lepton]

Bio: I havent done much idk why youd pick me tbh
Team Name: Clueless Clobbopi
Commitment: i have no life outside of mons

perfect lineup:
Averagemons
2v2 doubles
Pure Hackmons
Tier Shift
Inheritance
Anything Goes
last slot 1 of (flipped/trademarked/linked/inverse)


e: also 300th post whoops

 

[Jrdn]

Godly Gift is an extremely underrated meta and one if the most fun OMs to build for. When it starts being played it'll only get more fun as team archetypes change so much with the restricted mon you choose to build around, especially when prepping for a player in specific. Would be a great inclusion for a team tour.

Echoing this opinion of godly gift. It's always what I vote for in omotm and have always felt like it was a fun and creative metagame

 

[Whitephoenixace]

(thanks from Marsopa Trump & Test Rex

BIO: The legend, the me , the cringe king of om cord himself. I have no prior experience admittedly with running a team , but I believe that I have shown (outside of me becoming cringe itself with memes) that I can be responsible when the time calls for it. Would also othrwise be a good opportunity for me to show myself capable
team name: TUMULTUOUS TOXTRICITIES
Commitment: what is a social life.


also add godly gift and inheritance plis. One of the formats hasnt really had a turn up to bat (that being godly gift) so would be nice to see it especially post dlc.

 

[dhelmise]

The tentative list of formats for this year's Snake Draft is as follows:

• (Best of 5) 2v2 Doubles
• (Best of 3) Pure Hackmons
• Tier Shift
• Trademarked

As members of the OM community, you are urged to voice your opinion on the metagames you would like to see in this tournament. The list above is not final and will change based on the feedback provided in this thread.

Best-of-3 Pure Hackmons seems atrocious.

DISCLAIMER: I am looking at this from a statistical approach. Sorry if that was not clear.

To preface, all of these stats are using the 1500 stat files:

• December 2019: Camomons - 12172 battles
• December 2019: [Gen 7] Balanced Hackmons - 56888 battles
• January 2020: 2v2 Doubles - 14012 battles
• January 2020: [Gen 7] Balanced Hackmons - 62494 battles
• February 2020: Pure Hackmons - 41928 battles
• February 2020: Trademarked - 21603 battles
• March 2020: Inheritance - 21729 battles
• March 2020: Scalemons - 19099 battles
• April 2020: Shared Power - 89999 battles
• April 2020: Pacifistmons - 4809 battles
• May 2020: Camomons - 37516 battles
• May 2020: Flipped - 23856 battles
• June 2020: Tier Shift - 35304 battles
• June 2020: 2v2 Doubles - 12968 battles

Camomons is fairly popular, but it was in OMPL, so I doubt it will be included this time around.

From the stats above, you can see that [Gen 7] Balanced Hackmons had over 50k battles in both months of it being Leader's Choice. Why is it not being included here? I know Snake Draft is trying to use different formats than those played in OMPL, but the activity is very clearly there, and in fact is more active than all of this generation's ladders, so it should at the very least be included in Snake.

I am unsure why Pure Hackmons is being required to be played in a Bo3 format. The nature of most hackmons formats entails some form of stall, so having to sit through that 3x through seems horrid. Please make it Bo1 if it stays through to the actual tournament.

Next, I'm a bit confused why 2v2 Doubles is in here? It doesn't seem to be all that popular judging by these ladder stats. Both times it was OM/LCoTM, it only got at most 14k battles (yes I'm rounding down, sorry to those 12 extra battles), which is the least of all of the formats listed above (barring Pacifist mons, but that metagame is very inactive so I doubt anyone would bring it up). It even hosted a suspect test on the ladder last month and still got less plays than when it was first ladder. No offense to Mubs or anyone else involved in the community, I just don't think it's good to host a format in a tournament that could risk getting fewer signups.

I think Shared Power should be added. It's gotten the most attention of any OM this generation. The only drawback of it being involved is that the banlist needs to be severely kept up with, since I don't think it's been touched at all since being OMotM, and as a result, obviously broken abilities like Libero are still allowed. I can also understand that inherently broken nature of it being used as a counterargument to not including it though, so I won't fight too much on this.

Inverse is a very good candidate. Although it is a new format this generation and might be difficult to gauge activity from as a result, it has historically been semi-popular since its inception in ORAS and has been a format in official OM tournaments before.

Inheritance is another metagame that has historically been a community favorite. Although it has never been included in official tournaments (at least not from my memory), it has a solid userbase and people constantly enjoy playing it, so garnering signups for it shouldn't be hard at all.

I'm not commenting on Scalemons due to the bias I hold from leading it.

Other metagames that don't yet have stats but have already proven to be enjoyable, such as Cross Evolution, Godly Gift, and Linked, are also favorable choices.

I don't have much else to say, but I will say that my ideal lineup would look similar to this:

• Tier Shift
• Trademarked
• Linked
• Godly Gift
• Shared Power or Inheritance
• Pure Hackmons or [Gen 7] Balanced Hackmons

I don't really have too much of an opinion though on what does actually get picked, I would just like to see something of some sort addressed.

Onto my next concern:

I very much dislike the idea of relying on side servers for tournaments (no offense, urkerab) because of the unreliability they can hold in coding differences, etc. For example, the way urkerab implemented Mix and Mega in the past would also change the species of the Mega-Evolved Pokemon, and would also cause things like Red Orb Darkrai with Dark Void to fail due to the species TECHNICALLY being "Darkrai-Primal". As a result, The Immortal is there a plan to put these formats on the main server, at least for the duration of this tournament, to ensure stability?

 

[willdbeast]

Next, I'm a bit confused why 2v2 Doubles is in here? It doesn't seem to be all that popular judging by these ladder stats. Both times it was OM/LCoTM, it only got at most 14k battles (yes I'm rounding down, sorry to those 12 extra battles), which is the least of all of the formats listed above (barring Pacifist mons, but that metagame is very inactive so I doubt anyone would bring it up). It even hosted a suspect test on the ladder last month and still got less plays than when it was first ladder. No offense to Mubs or anyone else involved in the community, I just don't think it's good to host a format in a tournament that could risk getting fewer signups.

It's also worth noting that 2v2 usually doesn't take very long to play a game for, so you would expect a higher raw number of games if you had the same number of players, compared to say gen7bh where the battles are often lasting 100+ turns or even relatively offensive metas like inheritance seem to last 20-30 turns (based on checking ~10 replays so maybe I just happened to see the 10 longest inh battles ever played). edit: relatively offensive metas like inh when pigeons isn't playing

 

[jasprose]

bio: i comanaged for a wco1v1 before
teamname: weebinbells (team name not finalized)
commitment: yea

 

[The Number Man]

Are we gonna get the finalized list of played metas before manager signups close? Asking for a friend.

Gonna chip in on the tiers too I guess, for whatever my opinion is worth.

Despite not playing PH myself, i realize that there's a sizable audience of people who play it. I've heard comments from my friends who play/used to play PH that the state of gen8 PH isn't the greatest. For example, NGAS Ohko moves are apparently a significant part of the meta, which leads to games being decided by 70/30 rolls and contributes to the luck factor - which is afaik why gen8 PH was chosen as a BO3 tier. Well, why not just make it gen7 PH over gen8? I know it was technically a mashup in gen7, but I'm assuming the core playerbase is the same? (Disregard this if I'm way off the mark)

2v2 doubles is a weird inclusion. Afaik most of the OM community doesn't play this tier, so adding this mostly makes sense by looking at it as a way to get the 1v1/2v2 community into snake draft (akin to NFE in ompl), which makes sense. But, if the 2v2 community is being given a slot in snake, why not AG? If anything, I'd say that adding Galar AG would make even more sense, given that the OM community is invested enough in AG that there is literally an "OM goons" squad in this year's AGPL (talking about the Sableyes managed by Fardin with a lot of big OM names on the team).

Other than that, most of the suggestions for various Omotm tiers that people brought up in this thread seem good.

 

[LuckyPiper]

Bio: I'm managing MPL and managed Mono blt and some random ass discord tours, but guys we all know that's not what really matters. What does really matter when it comes to team tournaments is something we all tend to forget about, it's Heart. I know that I want to win the tour more than everyone else, and that's why I know that the team I draft will be super fire. We Will win this tournament, Believe it!
Team name: Moisty Mire Mr Mimes
Commitment: I shall be active although somedays i just watch anime and cry into my pillow so I'd like to be left alone on those days ahaha....
my assman will obviously be I want Atago to sit on me I didnt ask them yet but I'm sure they'll say yes because they've got a good username and we like eachothers posts sometimes.
Edit: I asked them, good to go

 

[CashKP]

Bio : Ahoy. Most popular OM staff member of all time YKP here. Just came off of managing 1v1pl and winning another trophy. After looking in the mirror every day for over 20 years I have developed an eye for talent. But really I'm enjoying reentering all the communities I used to be part of years ago. Let me manage or co with someone. I have a lot of managing/leadership experience and I love winning team tours.

Team name : The Skrilla Rillas / Moola Miltanks

Commitment : I spend most of my time doing curls with my 3d printed smogon trophies but I can do that from my computer so I'll be here.

 

[PA]

I think many people are looking at 2v2 Doubles in the wrong way, only basing it on ladder statistics alone especially considering that 2v2 Doubles hardly ever get the chance to get a Ladder and due to this you aren’t depicting the full idea of 2v2 Doubles as an unofficial OM and how much effort has gone in to make it into a room where People can enjoy fast-paced games rather than other OMS such as Pure Hackmons. If you look at the most recent “big event” for 2v2 it would be the 2v2PL where it scored despite being called an “inactive” metagame 88 signups in total with many of the People who never knew what the tier was, gained an interest in the tier and as a result stayed in the room because of this. The 2v2 Doubles room regularly hosts many ways to gain the audiences (the people who don’t play) a way to actively get involved with the community with many other events being planned as a whole. I will not be naïve and say the 2v2 Doubles is the most active tier in the world because, in reality, it is very far from it however I would say that basing it on Ladder activity isn’t the best way to go about basing your views on the metagame. To make this post not just about 2v2 Doubles, I will give my thoughts on the other tiers mentioned. I believe that Inverse isn’t the way to go due to it having a minuscule player base and very little players actively build. It is a very restrictive tier that lacks customisation and is put into a stalemate when deciding what to build around. If you look more into it, it’s more or less restricted to Chansey + Avalugg cores and without a way to handle this core your team is more or less considered not viable or at least more likely to put yourself in a worse position considering how restrictive this core is leaving less variation as a whole. I would like to hear some thoughts on Galar AG being a format for the tour because of it having a lot of discussions and is a very balanced tier looking at the tournament perspective it had a Galar AG cup which had a decent amount of signups so idt it would be the worst idea to at least consider it. I don’t like Pure Hackmons having a slot, but I think bo3 isn’t the worst idea considering that the tier is very matchup based and is centralised around Eternamax and Neutralising Gas, meaning that there are very few possibilities for picking a team. The rest of the tiers I mainly don’t have a problem with or can’t be asked to give a more descriptive perspective on it. adios.

 

[Chessking345]

Last year's meta lineup was Tier Shift, Inheritance, Sketchmons, Camomons, and Partners in Crime. One thing notable about this lineup is the first 4 metas are all relatively intuitive because there isn't a significant change from regular tiers, and the relatively simplicity of the metagame concepts also make them pretty easy to balance, resulting in more competitiveness. In this lineup, Partners in Crime is the only chaotic meta, and I do feel like having one of these wild metas would make the tour more exciting and interesting.

Looking at this year's lineup so far:
From what little knowledge I have about Pure Hackmons, I think it is a meta that has a lot of rng elements in it, including Para DIB Flinch, fishing 30% OHKOs, Sleep turns, Speed ties between Zacian-C and Eternamax, and rolls (I believe there are a lot of rolls involving OHKOing Eternamax even with hazards). This overall makes it a really uncompetitive meta in my opinion, and making Bo3 doesn't really solve this issue.
Don't know a lot about 2v2 Doubles, but from what I can tell it is a relatively active metagame and while there are definitely matchup stuff it seems way more competitive than 1v1 and Bo5 makes this an alright pick for me.
Tier Shift is a really solid choice overall, with good activity, playerbase, balance, and competitiveness. Don't see a reason to not include it.
Trademarked is a pretty interesting meta and I could see this as the fun meta in this lineup (similar to PiC) and has seen decent activity overall.

For other metas:
Godly Gift (possibly biased opinion here) and Inheritance are in my opinion both really good choices, both being pretty intuitive, do not have crazy elements in the meta, and are overall fun and competitive metas. They both also receive good interest, with Inheritance being a really strong contender for omotm everytime it is available and Godly Gift being around the top 3 every month. Inheritance has also been in last year's lineup.
Inverse seems like an alright choice but there does seem to be centralization in the meta.
Linked, Flipped, and Scalemons all seem like possible substitutions for TM, but I think Trademarked is the best choice out of all of these.
Shared Power is way too of a mess to include in a major tour like this.
Cannot comment on Galar AG.

My personal ideal lineup would be:
Tier Shift
2v2 Doubles
Godly Gift
Inheritance
Trademarked
If 6th slot possible Inverse/Galar AG/PH/Linked/Flipped/Scalemons

 

[Scarf]

Bio: ompl manager mastermind scarf. made the finals of every team tour i joined. extremely charming. you know who i am
Team name: not a god damn clue
Commitment: my life is yours

if you dont add AG and Godly Gift then that is not a "vibe"

e: UB: STINGERS (stylized as such)

goat

 

[The Immortal]

Thanks for the feedback! We have concluded that 6 slots is ideal for this tournament. Let me briefly go through the list of formats and why they were chosen.

Tier Shift: An OM staple for many years that has the support of the entire community.
2v2 Doubles: Despite its unique format, 2v2 is presently one of the most successful non-ladder metagames.
Trademarked: A new addition to Snake. Overall activity, competitiveness, and fun has earned its spot.
Inheritance: A popular format that lost traction in the transition to gen 8. However, the support shown has led to its inclusion.
Inverse: Initially overlooked, the feedback provided and its presence on PS has earned its spot in this year's Snake.

What about the 6th slot? The formats contending for the final slot are Pure Hackmons and Anything Goes. These two formats are extreme in nature and often divide opinion. We feel that including both Pure Hackmons and Anything Goes would be detrimental to the competitiveness and fun of this tournament. As such, we have created a poll for the community to vote which of these formats they would like included. Note that the winning format will be best-of-one.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/om-snake-draft-iii-final-slot-poll.3667232/

Honorable mentions

Flipped: A solid candidate that was just edged out by Inverse.
Godly Gift: Some support shown but it has been too dead to warrant a slot over something else. This tournament would be its first activity in gen 8.