partly adapted from Smogon's thing
I don't know what to write here in the intro. Basically read this when hosting stuff.
Tournament suggestions thread
Guidelines for playing in tournaments
The stuff in this post is not finalized. Please tell me if you think anything should be changed.
Before the tournament
You have to successfully schedule and play at least one tournament battle in order to host. Signing up to host a tournament is a commitment. Hosts are expected to check Meta almost every day, even during signups, and watch every replay in the tournament. If you can't or don't want to commit for whatever reason, then don't host.
When there's no active tournament on Pokebase, you can request to host the next tournament by commenting "I'll host next tournament." or something like that on the answer announcing the previous tournament's winner. Then you wait for a moderator or me to approve you.
After getting approved, you should immediately set the start date for the poll. Pokebase does one tournament per season, so just pick whichever day you want in the next January, April, July, or October.
Choosing an idea
Which tournament will be run is ultimately decided by a poll, which occurs on the day you promised to open the poll. The tournament suggestion thread is used to decide which tournaments appear on the poll.
The host should follow these instructions to make sure the poll is structured correctly. You should also (get server staff to) post an announcement on the Discord server that includes a link to the poll.
Opening signups
After closing the poll and announcing the winning suggestion, post a question in Meta titled "[suggestion poster]'s [tournament name] (signups open now)", such as "Pimplup's Same Team Tournament (signups open now)". The question should include
links to the guidelines thread and tournament suggesting thread
tournament rules
signups deadline (usually 1 or 2 weeks after signups open)
brief instructions for signing up
possible bans that participants can vote on
Note that in addition to copy-pasting the rules from the tournament idea, you should read all the comments on the tournament idea in case someone else thought of a way to improve the tournament or just make the unclear parts of the idea more clear, and possibly change the rules to address the comments or prepare for possible complications. At the very least, make sure you're prepared in case you get less than 8 signups, or a few people randomly leave mid-tournament.
You should also (get a moderator to) post an announcement on the Discord server that advertises the tournament. The ad should include the tournament's name, link to the Meta thread you just posted, and signup deadline.
Starting the tournament
Post and select (or BA or whatever you call it) an answer in the tournament thread saying that the tournament started. If participants voted on bans, then the voting results should also be in this answer.
If the tournament is single elimination or double elimination, then you need to generate matchups for each round. For most of these tournaments, you should give a certain number of round 1 byes so the number of players in round 2 will be a (integer) power of 2. If at least half the players get byes, then you should generate and post the round 2 brackets so a lot of people can start battling without waiting for round 1 to finish. Unless it is round 1 and at least half of the players get byes, do not reveal matchups for any rounds after the current round. If you generate those matchups using a bracket generator, post the current matchups in a random order so players can't guess the future matchups.
Some tournaments require each participant to play the same number of rounds. In that case, you usually must add the last few signups to a list of "substitutes", so the number of participants at the start is a (integer) power of 2 (usually 8 or 16). However, when participants forfeit or become inactive before finishing round 1, you can simply substitute players for whoever dropped out and continue the tournament.
There are multiple ways to generate matchups. I prefer pasting usernames into this list randomizer. Put the matchups in the BA on the tournament thread. At the beginning of every round, simply generate new matchups, paste them into a new answer, and select the new answer.
During the tournament
As mentioned earlier, hosts are expected to check Meta almost every day. When you check Meta, you should do these things.
watch every replay that you get
bold the winners' usernames in the BA
post and select a new answer (that contains new matchups) each time a new round starts
read the tournament playing guidelines
read the rules specific to the current tournament
enforce all the rules you just read
Ending the tournament
Post and select an answer that announces the winner, says that hosting signups for the next tournament are open, and links to this thread. (Force your expert to) Update the tournament winners.
You also are allowed to stop checking Meta almost every day.
