PokeBase tournament suggestions and info (read before posting!)

Question

Introduction

We run competitive battling tournaments on PokeBase. Using this thread, you can post ideas for future tournaments! When the next tournament comes near, the top-voted suggestions on this thread will appear on a poll, where players will make a final vote for which tournament will run.

PokeBase tournaments traditionally give creative twists to existing battle formats, or create entirely new metagames. However, if you'd rather play a "standard format" (OU, VGC, etc.) then there is a separate option for this on the poll. More details below. Standard current-generation AG, Ubers, OU, UU, and VGC should not be posted as suggestions on this thread, as they already appear regularly on the poll.

For inspiration, try reading the tournament winners page, which has a list of previous tourneys that were selected. Make sure to read the existing suggestions below before writing yours, in case your idea is already there.

Please only vote if you intend on playing in PokeBase tourneys!

Format

You must include the following information in your suggestion:

• The name of the tournament.
• A brief introduction to the concept. Sell your idea so people vote for it!
• A full and proper rules list. For example, if your tournament is monotype, then you should include the rule "all Pokemon on a player's team must share at least one type". Mention any bans. Usually, Smogon clauses and rules will be included.
• Make a suggestion for the bracket arrangement: single elim, double elim, etc.
• Make a suggestion for matchup format: Bo3, Bo1, first-to-two (i.e. the third match is not played if one player goes 2-0), etc.
• If the tournament is seasonal (e.g. to be played on Christmas, or when the next generation of Pokemon is released, etc.) please mention it. The idea can be added to the poll at the correct time.

Please make sure to post suggestions as answers, not comments.

Topics like player limits, changing teams between games, seeding, length of sign-ups, disqualifications etc. can be mentioned here, but can also be handled by the eventual host of the tournament and/or its players.

Resources

• Hall of Fame (tournament winners)
• Tourney player guidelines
• Hosting guide
• Old tournament suggestion thread (feel free to copy ideas!)

Answer 1

Bad move tournament:

So basically you can only use the first four moves the Pokémon gets while leveling up.
You can use any items and basically everything else. TM or TR moves are not allowed since they are usually good moves

Answer 2

Super Metronome Tournament

A little bit of backstory: I was just chilling in Lobby on Showdown, when there was a Super Staff Bros tournament of Super Metronome where the only Pokemon used was Delphox called Fox, no ability, no item and the only move it knew was Super Metronome. I eventually went on to be a runner-up, and since then I've found that type of tournament and Super Staff Bros itself kinda fun. Classic Smogon and all their wacky gimmicks.

Rules:
The only Pokemon used can be Delphox with no items or ability. (no nickname necessary, but the mods can decide)
All the Delphox will only know Super Metronome.
It will be a Single Elimination tournament.
You cannot switch out.

You can add more wacky ideas for this tournament by commenting on this post!

Comments

What's Super Metrenome?

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Basically Metronome but it is used 2-5 times in a turn.

Answer 3

Pokebase Retro Trios Tour
Rules
1. This will be a multi-generational Team Tournament.
2. Formats: Gen 1 OU, Gen 2 OU, Gen 3 OU
3. There will be X/3 teams of 3 players in the tournament. (X=Signups)
4. Each player will play 1 tier each. This may change from week to week.
5. In the signups thread, players may sign up in the following format
Team Name: <>
Gen 1 OU player: <>
Gen 2 OU player: <>
Gen 3 OU player: <>
or type: "in as free agent", specifying the tiers they play.
6. All free agents will be given matching teams of 2 other random players by the tournament host.
7. Each format will be BO1 individually.
8. Single Elimination
9. The team that wins BO3 of formats will win the week and proceed to the next.

Answer 4

Reposting from the legacy tournament thread because I completely forgot I wrote this.

Mono-Ability Tournament

I'm a bit surprised this hasn't been thought of yet (unless it was done in the past and hidden, in which case oops). It sounded like a fun idea to me, so hope it's enjoyed.

Rules:

• All Pokemon on a team must share an Ability, and retain that Ability throughout the tournament
• All team members must use the shared Ability (for example, on a Sturdy team, Steelix wouldn't be able to have Sheer Force or Rock Head)
• National Dex format

Bans:

• Gastro Acid, Skill Swap, Entrainment, Role Play, Simple Beam, Transform, Worry Seed
• Every Pokemon above the tier of NatDex OU
• Protosynthesis and Quark Drive

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Obviously not every Ability would be viable, as there aren't enough Pokemon that can have them. Pre-evolved Pokemon are allowed, but use them at your own risk. This idea probably needs a bit of work, so feel free to suggest other rules.

Comments

It might be more viable to just do it in AAA so that way you choose the ability and then 6 pokemon with it.  I'm not an expert on AAA, so I might be wrong though

On another note:  would multiple of the same Pokemon be allowed?

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I was thinking cartridge-legal Abilities only at first, but if people want, it could be done in AAA.

I would've invoked species clause, but if that makes it too restrictive, it's subject to change.

Answer 5

Random. Battle. Mayhem.

Random Battle Mayhem Tournament

RBM is my favorite randos format, simply because you cannot rely on previous knowledge, as the game is flipped on its head. For those who don't know, RBM is a format on Showdown! where it behaves just like randos, except:
- Team preview and ability to choose lead
- Camomons (Pokemon's typing is determined by first two moves)
- Inverse Battle (exactly what it sounds like)
- Shared Power (after a Pokemon is sent out, every Pokemon in the team recieves that ability, stacked on top of their existing ability or abilities)
- Scalemons (Pokemon's BST, excluding HP, are scaled to be as close to 600 as possible)

To prevent wildly unbalanced games:
If any person happens to get Dugtrio or Gothitelle (Arena Trap or Shadow Tag), the game will be restarted. This is because it will be too unfair to play a game where one player (or both) have the ability to easily remove one of the opponent's Pokemon.

Now all i need to do is to get a stable vpn so I can actually use google docs and discord

Answer 6

I think a Gen 8 National Dex would be good.

National Dex allows you to use any Pokemon with Megas, Z Moves etc are allowed.

Rules -

• No Gigantamax.
• No Pokemon-specific Z Moves are allowed, so Lycanium-Z is not allowed but Rockium-Z is allowed.
• Primal formes, Rayquaza-Mega, Origin formes and Necrozma-Ultra are banned.
• Few Mega Stones banned and those are - All starter Megas, Beedrlite, Pidgeotite, Gengarite, Garchompite.
• Baton Pass is banned.
• Evasion moves are banned
• Bulk Up Corviknight is banned.
• Team must contain six Pokemons.
• FEAR Pokémon are banned.
• Aegislash is banned.
• Urshifu* (both formes) are banned.
• It will be single elimination.
• Tournament to be conducted on Summer Holidays.
• It will be best of three.

Comments

I feel like lots of these bans are very unneccesary. FEAR is easily counterable and half the mega stones banned seem worthless, as megas like Sceptile and Pidgeot are in low tiers. Why did you make bans for Pokemon tiered UU like Mega Beedrill and Aegislash if most of those Pokemon aren't used very often in National Dex (OU)?
I'm just assuming your talking about National Dex OU, if you're actually talking about NatDex AG or NatDex UU, some of these bans still seem extremely odd.

Answer 7

"If the strong and able do too much, they limit the contributions of others. The strong must show restraint. This enables everyone to live together and share responsibility."
--a veteran, Hearthome City, Pokemon Platinum Version

With that in mind, allow me to explain the
Level-balanced tier shift tournament!

Every species of Pokemon (except those with no legal abilities) is allowed, but those on higher Smogon tiers must have lower levels. Based on statistics from January 2022, these are the max levels for each tier.

ZU: 100 (MBST 494)
PU: 99 (MBST 500)
NU: 98 (MBST 507)
RU: 96 (MBST 535)
UU: 96 (MBST 505)
OU: 93 (MBST 570)
Ubers: 85 (MBST 680)

As for the details, this tournament will be set in Ubers, but use the OU banlist for abilities and moves.

Pokemon in BL tiers have the same max levels as the tier above them. (for example, UUBL Pokemon have the same max level as OU Pokemon) Pokemon below ZU have the same max level as ZU.

Light balls and Eviolites are banned.

If a generation started recently, and not all usage tiers have been out of beta for a month, then please delay this tournament until they are.

If this tournament is to happen after I leave the site, then the host is to do this to determine the max level for each tier.

Step 1: Find the right usage statstics
Go to smogon.com/stats/ and click the latest date on the page. You should now see something like

gen21ou-0.txt
gen21ou-1500.txt
gen21ou-1695.txt
gen21ou-1825.txt

for each playable tier. The numbers right before the .txt are GLICKO ratings. The higher numbers imply more experience, so you will use stats from players with the highest GLICKO rating (gen21ou-1825.txt in this case) to calculate the maximum levels.

Step 2: Calculate the median base stat total (I'll call it MBST) for each tier
These calculations involve base stat totals. If a Pokemon can enter battle in an alternate form or reliably change form on turn 1 before anything moves, then the alternate form's base stats should be used.
The MBST of a tier is the median base stat total for the first 200% of Pokemon on the statistics you just found.

Step 3: Calculate the max level for each tier
The max level for ZU will be 100. The max level for all the other tiers are given by
100 sqrt(a/b)
where a is the MBST of ZU and b is the MBST of the tier whose max level you're calculating. Round down.

If a tier's max level is lower than the max level of the tier below, then the higher tier's max level will be set to the lower tier's. For example, if the max level of OU is less than the max level of UU, then the max level of OU will be set to the max level of UU.

Answer 8

Randomly Generated National Dex

You get a randomly generated number using this, or another random number generator and set the max number to 898. When you get your randomly generated number, you find the Pokemon using Pokebase's National Dex. If you get an Ubers or AG Pokemon, just generate another number. If you get a Pokemon that's not fully evolved, you can choose to evolve it. You repeat these steps until you get 6 Pokemon. The format is Nat Dex. The host of the tournament generates the teams.

Comments

If we won't be using Hisuian Pokemon, wouldn't it be best to set the max number at 898?

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How will you prevent people from lying about what they got from the generator?

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@JustATypicalPerson good idea, I'll switch it to that.
@sumwun I guess the host could generate the teams.

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Transparency would be an issue here. How do we know that the host is not favouring a certain user? How do we know the host isn't going for multiple rolls for their own team? And how will the host hand out the teams to users who don't have Discord and/or other social media/private platforms? Through wall posts, the teams would technically be public (even if a rule asking the poster/player to remove the wall post after both parties have viewed the team), which isn't quite fair.

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The host could hand out teams through Showdown.

Answer 9

National Dex Monotype Ubers

This tournament idea came from Room Tours from the National Dex Monotype room, and I thought it was a fun idea, so here it is.

This is basically National Dex Monotype, but with usually banned Pokemon like Dragapult, Reshiram, and Genesect allowed. All Pokemon on a team must share at least one type.

Rules/Banlist
- Luck based items like Bright Powder, King's Rock, Lax Incense, Focus Band, and Quick Claw are banned
- Dynamax Clause is enforced (meaning no Dynamax)
- Evasion Clause is enforced; Evasion moves like Double Team and Minimize are banned
- Mega Rayquaza Clause is enforced; Rayquaza can't Mega Evolve
- Same Type Clause is enforced to have the Monotype
- Same Species Clause is enforced; No one can have a team like 6 Kyogre or whatnot
- The ability Moody is banned
- Sleep Clause Mod is enforced
- OHKO Clause is enforced; OHKO moves are banned
- Calyrex-Shadow, Gengarite(Mega Gengar), Marshadow, Ultranecrozium Z(Necrozma-Ultra), Zacian, and Zacian-Crowned are banned

Format is in National Dex AG, using this code when challenging players:

/challenge username, nationaldexag @@@ -Bright Powder, -Calyrex-Shadow, Dynamax Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, -Focus Band, -Gengarite, -King's Rock, -Lax Incense, -Marshadow, Mega Rayquaza Clause, -Moody, OHKO Clause, -Quick Claw, Same Type Clause, Sleep Clause Mod, Species Clause, -Ultranecrozium Z, -Zacian, -Zacian-Crowned

Tournament can be either Single or Double Elimination. Hope you like this idea!

Answer 10

Gen 8 OU 1 Move Only

Literally what it sounds like. Each Pokemon on your team can use only one move. A team could look like this.
Rules:

• Metronome is banned.
• Normal OU rules.

Comments

How is metronome uncompetitive at all? The average move that metronome chooses will be much more useless than a move that a good player intentionally includes in a team. Also how can a team have 6 of the same species when following normal OU rules?

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I feel like Metronome kind of ruins the one move only, but I could unban it. I edited the example team.

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What's the point of setup moves in this format? You can't do anything after using them,

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If you mean the example team, it's just an example, not a good actual team.

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I see, got it.

Answer 11

The User Draft League

It’s always fun to play when you play on a team. This would be played in the current Gen OU the time it is selected, with all that gen’s ban list.

This is teams of three best of three, meaning each teamate gets a turn usually. So let’s say 12 members sign up for this tournament. 4 members will randomly be selected as team captains and be given a draft order. Those 4 captains will take turns drafting the rest of those who have signed up. This would leave us with 4 teams of three. Team captain’s can choose a team name if desired.

Let’s say we have a figurative team of Team Captain Johnny93, and teammates Karl44 and JJ400 under the team name Cooler-Than-U. This team is set to face another team called Barbecue Night the 3rd, with members Kai, Sigh, and Bye. Members of Team Cooler-Than-U can help eachother make teams, give eachother advice, and choose the order they want to play their games, like:

Game 1: JJ400
Game2: Karl44
Game3: Johnny93

Game 3 will only happen if Team Cooler-Than-U wins one game and Team Barbacue Night the 3rd wins one game. So since Johnny93 is the clutchest, he’s chosen to play the third game, should it come down to that. Team Barbacue Night the 3rd decides Bye will play game 1, Sigh will be game 2, and Kai will be game 3. This makes the matchup

Best of Three:
Game 1: JJ400 vs. Bye
Game 2: Karl44 vs. Sigh
Game 3: Johnny93 vs. Kai

Note, once the game starts teammates can no longer help in decision making. This is still to be skill vs. skill. Well, hope I explained this to the best of my ability. If anyone has any questions comment.

Comments

Sounds good.

Answer 12

Random Doubles Duos!
A format I made up where it combines Random Doubles/Multi Random Battles(or Doubles OU/VGC if people really want) with the element of having a partner. As long as your partner has a Showdown! account, they are allowed(state your partner’s showdown account, regardless of whether they are in the site or not).
Rules
Single elimination
Both teams have to agree on a format
For anything not Multi-Random Battle, both partners must spectate
Any ban ideas are appreciated