Welcome to the Smogon Tournaments Forum! This thread lists rules that all who wish to participate in Smogon's tournaments must follow, and also acts as a guide to acceptable practices within the forum. Please make sure you read through the entire thread at least once.
Tournament Hosting guide can be found by clicking on Munchlax
Live Tournament Hosting guide can be found by clicking on Dusknoir
Scheduling guide can be found by clicking on Scizor
How to play in Smogon Tournaments
Signing Up for a Tournament
Before getting into this, it should be noted that signing up to play in a tournament is a commitment to playing. If you don't think you will be bothered to build the required teams to play, or you are going on a holiday in a week, please do not sign up. Tournaments will generally take a couple of months to finish, to give a general idea of the amount of time you may need to dedicate. You are expected to log in at least once every couple of days and preferably daily, and should be available for battle reasonably often. If you are only available for a few hours a week, live tournaments such as the Smogon Tour are more suitable. If you sign up to tournaments and repeatedly fail to play your matches, you risk being given a Warning and / or banned from playing in tournaments.
Signing up for a tournament is extremely simple. All you have to do is read the first post to make sure you understand the rules, then post saying "in" or that you want to join. If the tournament requires you to do something else like submit teams before the first round, you should try to do that as soon as you can. If you have any questions, you may either post them in the thread or contact the host privately.
Note that Smogon's hosting rules require most tournaments to accept the first 62.5% of players that sign up, and then randomize the remainder of the players, so if you posted before someone that got in and you didn't, this is the most likely reason why. The reason for this is that basically every tournament uses a number of participants that results in no byes and either two or three players in the final round (32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 192, 256, 384, or 512), and for tournaments that fill up quickly, we don't want to eliminate the chance of participating for those in unfortunate timezones.
Even if you don't get into a tournament, if the host is efficient and willing to do it, you could ask to be substituted into the tournament if someone drops out or goes missing. If you missed out and are interested in joining, simply post in the current tournament thread or send the host a PM stating that you would like to be a substitute if possible.
Playing in a Tournament
Once you have signed up and the host posts Round 1, it is strongly recommended that you contact your opponent immediately by sending them a VM on their profile. Let them know when you think you will be ready to play, your timezone, and maybe your availability if you know what that will be. Try to respond in a timely fashion whenever your opponent contacts you. If someone misses a scheduled time and the match is in danger of going uncompleted by the deadline, the host will nearly always award the win to the player that showed up, so scheduling a battle is a sure way to avoid being eliminated by inactivity. Don't be lazy!
Here are some rules we enforce for players in tournaments. There is a good chance you will receive a Warning or potentially be banned from tournaments if you fail to adhere to these:
These rules explain what you aren't allowed to do before and during a battle, and what standard rules must be followed.
Definitions of Standard Clauses: (these clauses apply across all Smogon tiers)
Disconnections and Timer Clause: In live tournaments with short time constraints such as the Smogon Tour, if a player disconnects or times out, the opponent will be given the win, unless the player that timed out was in a position where they couldn't possibly lose. In other tournaments, if a player disconnects and contends that they could still win, the battle will be recreated by the Tournament Directors from the point of interruption. 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.
Simulator Glitches: Any battle mechanics not properly implemented in the simulator used for a tournament battle are fair game, unless explicitly banned by that tournament's rules. Illegal movesets that are not restricted by the simulator fall into this category as well. However, this does not include faulty tier scripts; for example, if there was a bug in the BW OU tier script that allowed you to use Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team, taking advantage of this would result in disqualification in that battle. If a game breaking glitch is discovered, we will make a blanket tournament ban on that glitch via an announcement in the Tournaments forum until it is fixed.
Cheating: Cheating in it's various forms is entirely prohibited. Players found to be cheating will suffer Tournament Bans and be infracted accordingly. Some forms of cheating may lead to the match that the cheating happened in being replayed, while others don't. What consists of cheating can be found later on in this thread, though it is always up to TD discretion. Repeated offenders are always treated more harshly, as are people in positions of power such as Tournament Directors and Managers. Admitting to cheating might get your punishment reduced by up to 25% of it's length. We reserve the right to offer immunity to a cheater in exchange for information regarding cheating.
[NEW] Attempted Cheating: Attempting to cheat is tantamount to cheating and will be punished just as severely, even if no actual cheating materializes from the attempt.
Timer: The timer is always on during tournament games. The rules for what happens in case of a disconnection can be found here.
Identity: Pretending to be another player in relation to a tournament battle is strictly prohibited. Do not try to impersonate or play as another player. You may request that your opponent log on to their main account to confirm that they are who they claim they are, and they must comply.
Draws: If a battle ends in a draw in an elimination tournament or team tournament, there should be a rematch between the players with the option for both players to change teams.
Throwing: Losing on purpose to benefit your opponent is strictly forbidden, and will lead to the person throwing being Tournament Banned. What constitutes throwing is up to the Tournament Directors' discretion.
Host / Tournament Director Decisions: The host may make a judgment call on the outcome of a battle with a disputed result, even if one player has broken the rules. If you believe the host has made an unjust decision, you may inform the Tournament Director responsible for the tournament of the situation and request that they make a final call on it.
Sportsmanship: If a player displays exceedingly poor sportsmanship before, during, or after a tournament battle, they may be disqualified or otherwise punished.
Player Agreements: Players are allowed to make agreements about their game before it happens, as long as it doesn't break the rules of the tier that the game is happening in, for example agreeing to "No Snorlax GSC OU" is acceptable, but agreeing to "Celebi allowed GSC OU" isn't. The players are not allowed to agree to play a different generation than what they were paired up in, nor a different game. It should also be noted that this is all entirely based on honor, Tournament Directors would not hand out a loss to a player that agreed not to bring Snorlax and then brought it.
Server: All tournament battles should be played on the Smogtours server. If a valid reason is provided and both players agree, playing on the Main server is acceptable, though know that you risk a recreate not being possible should either player time out. Playing anywhere else is unacceptable.
Forum Bans: Users banned from the forums will be disqualified from any tournaments they are in, except under exceptional circumstances. More information can be found here.
Playing on a Proxy: Any user playing on a proxy is subject to being disqualified from tournaments, if their behaviour is suspicious.
Playing before the round is up: Any game played before the round is officially posted doesn't count. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Live Streaming: Any stream of a live Smogon Tournament game must include a two minute delay. Attempting to provide or receive advice through livestream feed is considered a form of ghosting.
[NEW] Mechanics Questions:
Cheating
Tournament Bans: Anyone found to be guilty of cheating as defined below will be tournament banned for the appropriate length of time. Being tournament banned means immediate disqualification from all tournaments you are currently in, the inability to join any new tournaments or post in the tournament forum for as long as the tournament ban lasts, a 2 point infraction and a red Custom Title that demarks you as tournament banned.
Ghosting: Ghosting is defined as giving any piece of advice to someone playing a game. Any form of direct advice is considered ghosting. A player should be able to make their own decisions based on what they observe by themselves. Asking for suggestions or affirmation adds an unfair dynamic and greatly reduces the chances of making mistakes. Our tournaments are designed to be tests of individual skill, not the skill of one player with the support of others providing suggestions or preventing bad plays. Playing a game while in a voice call with someone else will always be treated as ghosting of the highest severity.
The punishment for ghosting is a Tournament Ban that can range anywhere from 3 months to 1 year, depending on a series of factors.
Note that all of this applies to the Smogtours lobby, as such no suggesting of moves or speculation on the sets of either players will be tolerated.
Leaking Teams: Giving someone's intended team to their opponent is strictly forbidden. If this is found to happen any games that were compromised by counter teaming of this sort will be nullified, and the proper course of action will be taken depending on the tournament. If a team gets leaked to you, it is your duty to tell a Tournament Director, if you fail to do so you are complicit in the cheating.
The punishment for leaking is a Tournament Ban that can range anywhere from 3 months to 1 year, depending on a series of factors.
Collusion: Any attempt to get your opponent to throw or forfeit is unacceptable and will be met with a 3 month Tournament Ban for both the person requesting the throw and the person that threw.
Impersonating: Impersonating someone in a tournament game will get you Tournament Banned for 1 year, letting someone impersonate you in a tournament game will get both involved parties Tournament banned for 1 year.
Falsifying Results: Claiming to win a battle you didn't win will be punished by up to a 1 year Tournament Ban. Always be prepared to prove that a game happened. Falsifying activity, such as making up fake logs or deleting communication also falls under this, as does forging logs to incriminate someone of cheating.
DDOS'ing: Any attempts to tamper with someone's internet connection during a tournament battle will be punished with a permanent Tournament Ban.
Joining a Tournament More than Once: You may only join each tournament once. Signing up to a tournament multiple times by using other accounts will get every account disqualified, the alternate accounts forum banned and the main account Tournament Banned for 1 year.
Joining Tournaments on Alts: Even if you only join with 1 account, joining a tournament on an alt is not allowed and will be punished with a 3 month Tournament Ban.
Team Tournament Rules
Bribing: Players should only be added to teams if the manager of the team think they'll be making the team stronger. Offering bribes or similar incentives in an attempt to be drafted will be met with punishments for both the manager and player in question
Sabotaging the Team: If a player signs up and is picked for a team tournament they are expected to have the team's best interests in mind. If the managers of a team believe their player is acting improperly they may get in contact with the TD team about it, and if they can prove their player is behaving in a way that we define to be sabotaging the team, such as refusing to play any games, sandbagging, attacking teammates etc, the player in question will be Tournament banned for 3 months and banned from joining team tournaments for 1 year. Should this happen in SPL the team will be compensated with a free pick + half the value of the player (if before round 1) or with the ability to sellback that player at midseason.
Minimum Activity Expected of Players: Being picked for a team tournament also means we expect a minimum level of commitment to that team, regardless of whether a player is starting or not. If a manager finds that their player is not showing acceptable levels of activity, and after attempting to work things out with the player themselves, they may get in contact with the TD team about it. A player whose activity we find to be below this threshold will be infracted with Unsportsmanlike Conduct, a DQ from this edition of the Tournament in question and a ban from the next edition of this same tournament.
Manager Conduct: Managers in team tournaments are held to a higher standard than players when it comes to upholding the rules, as such any cheating done by a manager will be punished more harshly than the same crime would if committed by a player. More specifically, managers found to be cheating will be exempt from participating in the next 2 iterations of the tour they cheated in, as well as not being allowed to manage again for an indefinite length of time. There are also certain types of cheating that wouldn't result in punishment for a regular user, but would if a manager did it, such as offering ghosting or drafting an alt on purpose.
Regular users that have been tournament banned are also not allowed to manage for 2 years after their tournament ban expires.
General Information
Point System
Three of our tournaments, Smogon Tour, Classic and Grand Slam use a point system to determine their playoffs. It's quite simple and works like this:
Rounds 1-3:
Winning in the first 3 rounds gives you 1 point per win.
Round 4 and above:
Winning Round 4 and every subsequent round will give you 2 points per win. The only exception to this is winning a Round Robin final, which will give you 3 points.
Additional Information:
Round 1 Byes and coinflips do not count as wins, as such you will receive no points for advancing to the next round with them. Upon winning the following round you'll get the points for that round as well as the previous round.
Activity wins and your opponent being disqualified do count as wins, you will receive points as normal.
Tournament Directors
Below you will find a list of the current Tournament Directors. Should you have any tournament-related questions, please don't hesitate to contact one of them.
Official Tournaments
Smogon's official tournaments are held at least once annually and are defined as tournaments which award the winner(s) with a profile trophy. They run according to the Major Tournament Schedule, which also provides a link to the Tournament specific forums where your questions may be answered. Current hosts are listed to the right of the tournaments; contact them if you have any questions about the tournament.
Tournament Hosting guide can be found by clicking on Munchlax
Live Tournament Hosting guide can be found by clicking on Dusknoir
Scheduling guide can be found by clicking on Scizor
How to play in Smogon Tournaments
Signing Up for a Tournament
Before getting into this, it should be noted that signing up to play in a tournament is a commitment to playing. If you don't think you will be bothered to build the required teams to play, or you are going on a holiday in a week, please do not sign up. Tournaments will generally take a couple of months to finish, to give a general idea of the amount of time you may need to dedicate. You are expected to log in at least once every couple of days and preferably daily, and should be available for battle reasonably often. If you are only available for a few hours a week, live tournaments such as the Smogon Tour are more suitable. If you sign up to tournaments and repeatedly fail to play your matches, you risk being given a Warning and / or banned from playing in tournaments.
Signing up for a tournament is extremely simple. All you have to do is read the first post to make sure you understand the rules, then post saying "in" or that you want to join. If the tournament requires you to do something else like submit teams before the first round, you should try to do that as soon as you can. If you have any questions, you may either post them in the thread or contact the host privately.
Note that Smogon's hosting rules require most tournaments to accept the first 62.5% of players that sign up, and then randomize the remainder of the players, so if you posted before someone that got in and you didn't, this is the most likely reason why. The reason for this is that basically every tournament uses a number of participants that results in no byes and either two or three players in the final round (32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 192, 256, 384, or 512), and for tournaments that fill up quickly, we don't want to eliminate the chance of participating for those in unfortunate timezones.
Even if you don't get into a tournament, if the host is efficient and willing to do it, you could ask to be substituted into the tournament if someone drops out or goes missing. If you missed out and are interested in joining, simply post in the current tournament thread or send the host a PM stating that you would like to be a substitute if possible.
Playing in a Tournament
Once you have signed up and the host posts Round 1, it is strongly recommended that you contact your opponent immediately by sending them a VM on their profile. Let them know when you think you will be ready to play, your timezone, and maybe your availability if you know what that will be. Try to respond in a timely fashion whenever your opponent contacts you. If someone misses a scheduled time and the match is in danger of going uncompleted by the deadline, the host will nearly always award the win to the player that showed up, so scheduling a battle is a sure way to avoid being eliminated by inactivity. Don't be lazy!
Here are some rules we enforce for players in tournaments. There is a good chance you will receive a Warning or potentially be banned from tournaments if you fail to adhere to these:
- If your user name undergoes a change, it is your obligation to report the change to the hosts of any tournaments you are participating in, as well as your opponents in those tournaments.
- Avoid dropping out of a tournament midway through unless you have a good reason for doing so. Check this thread for more information on this subject.
- If you do have to drop out, you must notify the host and your opponent.
- [NEW] Leave your profile open to VMs or be the first to initiate contact when a round is posted. Failing to do either of these things may result in receiving an activity loss. See here for more details.
- Always schedule promptly after the round goes up and in public, failing to do so leaves you at risk of being subbed out or getting an activity loss. Scheduling in private such as via pm or discord is discouraged, but if done, make sure to show proof of scheduling to the host.
- Endeavor to complete your battles before the deadline of each round. If we notice a pattern of laziness, we may decide to punish you.
These rules explain what you aren't allowed to do before and during a battle, and what standard rules must be followed.
Definitions of Standard Clauses: (these clauses apply across all Smogon tiers)
- Sleep Clause: If a player has already put an opposing Pokémon to sleep using a sleep inducing move and that Pokémon is still sleeping due to that sleep inducing move, the player cannot put another opposing Pokémon to sleep using a sleep inducing move.
- Species Clause: A player cannot have two of the same species of Pokémon on their team, based on the National Pokedex Number. For example, a player cannot have two Koffing on his or her team.
- Evasion Clause: Players cannot use Double Team or Minimize in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
- OHKO Clause: Players cannot use Horn Drill, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, or Fissure in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
- Timer Clause: If a player exhausts the timer, he/she loses.
- Endless Battle Clause: Players cannot intentionally prevent an opponent from being able to end the game without forfeiting.
- (Standard only in RBY, GSC and ADV) Freeze Clause: If a Pokémon on a player's team is frozen and another Pokémon on that player's team would become frozen, it does not become frozen.
- (Standard only in BW and ORAS) Swagger Clause: A player can not use the move Swagger
- Self-KO Clause is an antiquated concept that is not used in Smogon tournaments. The one exception to the rule is if the tournament is live (weekly Smogon Tour, Suspect Tours, etc.). For all standard tournaments here this rule does not exist. It Does Not Exist.
If both Pokemon faint simultaneously in DPP, ADV, GSC, or RBY, the game is ruled as a tie. Tied games do not count as played games in overall standings and will be expected to be replayed within the round's initial deadline. Similarly to this, tied games do not count towards the total number of games played in "best of X" series. In other words, if a tournament includes "Bo3" RBY, what is really being played is "first to two wins" RBY.
However, ties simply don't exist in later generations. The developers removed ties from BW and have not added them back since. There's a lot of inconsistency with the mechanics of their tiebreaking system but Smogon follows them to stay true to the cartridge. The main ones are listed below:
Note: The following list is for SM, XY, and BW, and not for DPP, ADV, GSC, or RBY
Self-KO Moves (Destiny Bond, Explosion, Final Gambit, etc.):
Attacking Pokemon Loses
Offensive Recoil (Life Orb; Double-Edge, Flare Blitz, etc.):
Attacking Pokemon Wins
Defensive Recoil (Rocky Helmet; Iron Barbs, Rough Skin):
Attacking Pokemon Wins (SM)
Attacking Pokemon Loses (XY and BW)
Passive Damage (Status, Weather, etc.):
Faster Pokemon Loses
- RBY OU
- Banned moves: Dig, Fly
- Cleric Clause: Pokemon must be at full health and without status conditions at the start of battle
- Tradeback Clause: Tradeback moves from GSC are not allowed
- GSC OU
- Cleric Clause: Pokemon must be at full health and without status conditions at the start of battle
- SleepTrap Ban: Having a sleep inducing move and Mean Look or Spider Web on the same moveset is not allowed
- ADV OU
- Banned abilities: Sand Veil, Soundproof
- Banned items: Bright Powder, Lax Incense
- Banned moves: Assist, Swagger
- Baton Pass Clause: Teams are limited to 1 form of stat-boosting alongside Baton Pass across the whole team. Mean Look/Spider Web/Block + Baton Pass is also disallowed. Furthermore, Smeargle cannot have both Ingrain and Baton Pass in its moveset
- DPP OU
- Banned abilities: Sand Veil
- Banned items: Soul Dew
- Baton Pass Clause: Teams may not have more than one Pokemon with Baton Pass in its moveset. Additionally, Speed + another stat may not be passed
- BW OU
- Banned abilities: Arena Trap, Moody, Sand Rush, Sand Veil, Snow Cloak, Shadow Tag
- Banned items: Soul Dew
- Banned moves: Swagger, Sleep-inducing moves (Spore, Sleep Powder, etc.)
- Baton Pass Clause: Teams may not have more than one Pokemon with Baton Pass in its moveset. Additionally, Speed + another stat may not be passed
- Weather + Speed Ability Clause: Teams are not permitted to include Pokemon with the abilities Drought and Drizzle with Pokemon with the abilities Chlorophyll and Swift Swim. They may have one or the other
- ORAS OU
- Banned abilities: Arena Trap, Moody, Shadow Tag
- Banned items: Soul Dew
- Banned moves: Baton Pass, Swagger
- USM OU
- Banned abilities: Arena Trap, Moody, Power Construct, Shadow Tag
- Banned moves: Baton Pass
- SS OU
- Banned abilities: Arena Trap, Moody, Shadow Tag
- Banned moves: Baton Pass
Disconnections and Timer Clause: In live tournaments with short time constraints such as the Smogon Tour, if a player disconnects or times out, the opponent will be given the win, unless the player that timed out was in a position where they couldn't possibly lose. In other tournaments, if a player disconnects and contends that they could still win, the battle will be recreated by the Tournament Directors from the point of interruption. 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.
Simulator Glitches: Any battle mechanics not properly implemented in the simulator used for a tournament battle are fair game, unless explicitly banned by that tournament's rules. Illegal movesets that are not restricted by the simulator fall into this category as well. However, this does not include faulty tier scripts; for example, if there was a bug in the BW OU tier script that allowed you to use Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team, taking advantage of this would result in disqualification in that battle. If a game breaking glitch is discovered, we will make a blanket tournament ban on that glitch via an announcement in the Tournaments forum until it is fixed.
Cheating: Cheating in it's various forms is entirely prohibited. Players found to be cheating will suffer Tournament Bans and be infracted accordingly. Some forms of cheating may lead to the match that the cheating happened in being replayed, while others don't. What consists of cheating can be found later on in this thread, though it is always up to TD discretion. Repeated offenders are always treated more harshly, as are people in positions of power such as Tournament Directors and Managers. Admitting to cheating might get your punishment reduced by up to 25% of it's length. We reserve the right to offer immunity to a cheater in exchange for information regarding cheating.
[NEW] Attempted Cheating: Attempting to cheat is tantamount to cheating and will be punished just as severely, even if no actual cheating materializes from the attempt.
Timer: The timer is always on during tournament games. The rules for what happens in case of a disconnection can be found here.
Identity: Pretending to be another player in relation to a tournament battle is strictly prohibited. Do not try to impersonate or play as another player. You may request that your opponent log on to their main account to confirm that they are who they claim they are, and they must comply.
Draws: If a battle ends in a draw in an elimination tournament or team tournament, there should be a rematch between the players with the option for both players to change teams.
Throwing: Losing on purpose to benefit your opponent is strictly forbidden, and will lead to the person throwing being Tournament Banned. What constitutes throwing is up to the Tournament Directors' discretion.
Host / Tournament Director Decisions: The host may make a judgment call on the outcome of a battle with a disputed result, even if one player has broken the rules. If you believe the host has made an unjust decision, you may inform the Tournament Director responsible for the tournament of the situation and request that they make a final call on it.
Sportsmanship: If a player displays exceedingly poor sportsmanship before, during, or after a tournament battle, they may be disqualified or otherwise punished.
Player Agreements: Players are allowed to make agreements about their game before it happens, as long as it doesn't break the rules of the tier that the game is happening in, for example agreeing to "No Snorlax GSC OU" is acceptable, but agreeing to "Celebi allowed GSC OU" isn't. The players are not allowed to agree to play a different generation than what they were paired up in, nor a different game. It should also be noted that this is all entirely based on honor, Tournament Directors would not hand out a loss to a player that agreed not to bring Snorlax and then brought it.
Server: All tournament battles should be played on the Smogtours server. If a valid reason is provided and both players agree, playing on the Main server is acceptable, though know that you risk a recreate not being possible should either player time out. Playing anywhere else is unacceptable.
Forum Bans: Users banned from the forums will be disqualified from any tournaments they are in, except under exceptional circumstances. More information can be found here.
Playing on a Proxy: Any user playing on a proxy is subject to being disqualified from tournaments, if their behaviour is suspicious.
Playing before the round is up: Any game played before the round is officially posted doesn't count. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Live Streaming: Any stream of a live Smogon Tournament game must include a two minute delay. Attempting to provide or receive advice through livestream feed is considered a form of ghosting.
[NEW] Mechanics Questions:
Providing players with additional information during a match is generally not permitted. The main exception to this is player-requested mechanics queries, which are allowed if they are both objective and specific. For a question to be considered objective, it must be something that could be answered without knowledge of the game's current state. For a question to be considered specific, the question cannot be an open ended request for information; it must be asking about a single mechanic. Valid mechanics queries also include questions about how the simulator behaves (for example in cases where a mechanic is not currently implemented correctly).
Questions about mechanics must be requested by the player; unsolicited information about mechanics should not be sent.
Objective mechanic questions that would be allowed:
Can a magic guard pokemon be fully paralyzed in DPP?
Will Steelix's defense overflow if it uses Curse under Reflect in GSC?
How long is sleep in ADV?
Non-objective questions that would not be allowed:
Will that Rotom-W outspeed my Gyarados?
- answering requires assumptions on EVs, natures, items
Can the opposing Chansey use Softboiled in my RBY game?
- requires knowing Chansey's current HP value
Does the enemy Clefable have Calm Mind?
- inviting speculation on Clefable moveset, not a question about mechanics
Cheating
Tournament Bans: Anyone found to be guilty of cheating as defined below will be tournament banned for the appropriate length of time. Being tournament banned means immediate disqualification from all tournaments you are currently in, the inability to join any new tournaments or post in the tournament forum for as long as the tournament ban lasts, a 2 point infraction and a red Custom Title that demarks you as tournament banned.
Ghosting: Ghosting is defined as giving any piece of advice to someone playing a game. Any form of direct advice is considered ghosting. A player should be able to make their own decisions based on what they observe by themselves. Asking for suggestions or affirmation adds an unfair dynamic and greatly reduces the chances of making mistakes. Our tournaments are designed to be tests of individual skill, not the skill of one player with the support of others providing suggestions or preventing bad plays. Playing a game while in a voice call with someone else will always be treated as ghosting of the highest severity.
The punishment for ghosting is a Tournament Ban that can range anywhere from 3 months to 1 year, depending on a series of factors.
Note that all of this applies to the Smogtours lobby, as such no suggesting of moves or speculation on the sets of either players will be tolerated.
Leaking Teams: Giving someone's intended team to their opponent is strictly forbidden. If this is found to happen any games that were compromised by counter teaming of this sort will be nullified, and the proper course of action will be taken depending on the tournament. If a team gets leaked to you, it is your duty to tell a Tournament Director, if you fail to do so you are complicit in the cheating.
The punishment for leaking is a Tournament Ban that can range anywhere from 3 months to 1 year, depending on a series of factors.
Collusion: Any attempt to get your opponent to throw or forfeit is unacceptable and will be met with a 3 month Tournament Ban for both the person requesting the throw and the person that threw.
Impersonating: Impersonating someone in a tournament game will get you Tournament Banned for 1 year, letting someone impersonate you in a tournament game will get both involved parties Tournament banned for 1 year.
Falsifying Results: Claiming to win a battle you didn't win will be punished by up to a 1 year Tournament Ban. Always be prepared to prove that a game happened. Falsifying activity, such as making up fake logs or deleting communication also falls under this, as does forging logs to incriminate someone of cheating.
DDOS'ing: Any attempts to tamper with someone's internet connection during a tournament battle will be punished with a permanent Tournament Ban.
Joining a Tournament More than Once: You may only join each tournament once. Signing up to a tournament multiple times by using other accounts will get every account disqualified, the alternate accounts forum banned and the main account Tournament Banned for 1 year.
Joining Tournaments on Alts: Even if you only join with 1 account, joining a tournament on an alt is not allowed and will be punished with a 3 month Tournament Ban.
Team Tournament Rules
Bribing: Players should only be added to teams if the manager of the team think they'll be making the team stronger. Offering bribes or similar incentives in an attempt to be drafted will be met with punishments for both the manager and player in question
Sabotaging the Team: If a player signs up and is picked for a team tournament they are expected to have the team's best interests in mind. If the managers of a team believe their player is acting improperly they may get in contact with the TD team about it, and if they can prove their player is behaving in a way that we define to be sabotaging the team, such as refusing to play any games, sandbagging, attacking teammates etc, the player in question will be Tournament banned for 3 months and banned from joining team tournaments for 1 year. Should this happen in SPL the team will be compensated with a free pick + half the value of the player (if before round 1) or with the ability to sellback that player at midseason.
Minimum Activity Expected of Players: Being picked for a team tournament also means we expect a minimum level of commitment to that team, regardless of whether a player is starting or not. If a manager finds that their player is not showing acceptable levels of activity, and after attempting to work things out with the player themselves, they may get in contact with the TD team about it. A player whose activity we find to be below this threshold will be infracted with Unsportsmanlike Conduct, a DQ from this edition of the Tournament in question and a ban from the next edition of this same tournament.
Manager Conduct: Managers in team tournaments are held to a higher standard than players when it comes to upholding the rules, as such any cheating done by a manager will be punished more harshly than the same crime would if committed by a player. More specifically, managers found to be cheating will be exempt from participating in the next 2 iterations of the tour they cheated in, as well as not being allowed to manage again for an indefinite length of time. There are also certain types of cheating that wouldn't result in punishment for a regular user, but would if a manager did it, such as offering ghosting or drafting an alt on purpose.
Regular users that have been tournament banned are also not allowed to manage for 2 years after their tournament ban expires.
General Information
Point System
Three of our tournaments, Smogon Tour, Classic and Grand Slam use a point system to determine their playoffs. It's quite simple and works like this:
Rounds 1-3:
Winning in the first 3 rounds gives you 1 point per win.
Round 4 and above:
Winning Round 4 and every subsequent round will give you 2 points per win. The only exception to this is winning a Round Robin final, which will give you 3 points.
Additional Information:
Round 1 Byes and coinflips do not count as wins, as such you will receive no points for advancing to the next round with them. Upon winning the following round you'll get the points for that round as well as the previous round.
Activity wins and your opponent being disqualified do count as wins, you will receive points as normal.
Tournament Directors
Below you will find a list of the current Tournament Directors. Should you have any tournament-related questions, please don't hesitate to contact one of them.
- [Head TD] Merritt
- [Head TD] Star
- [Head TD] Dave
- TPP
- Sabella
- false
- ken
- Hiro'
- SparksBlade
- teal6
- Ticken
- a fairy
- Finchinator
- freezai
Official Tournaments
Smogon's official tournaments are held at least once annually and are defined as tournaments which award the winner(s) with a profile trophy. They run according to the Major Tournament Schedule, which also provides a link to the Tournament specific forums where your questions may be answered. Current hosts are listed to the right of the tournaments; contact them if you have any questions about the tournament.
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- Smogon Premier League - Dave, Ticken, Vertigo, goldmason, UT, and Larry
- - Official Smogon Tournament - Merritt
- - Smogon Tour - Perry and ken
- - Smogon Classic - Merritt
- - World Cup of Pokémon - ken and SparksBlade
- - Smogon Grand Slam - Maia
- - Smogon Official Ladder Tournament - Quite Quiet
- - Smogon Champions League - Dave, Hiro', Ticken, Vertigo, goldmason, and Princess Autumn
- - Smogon Masters - a fairy and Finchinator
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