Welcome to the twentieth edition of the Official Smogon Tournament! The OST is one of Smogon's longest standing traditions in tournaments and has crowned many great Pokémon players as its champions across five generations. Over the next few months, over a thousand (!) players will compete to the best of their ability as they attempt to join the exclusive ranks of the OST trophy holders. Only one of those players will succeed in their journey and earn the recognition that comes with their victory, along with the iconic OST trophy.
The tournament will have a best of three format. This means that players will play until one of them wins two games. Players are allowed to switch teams in between games, or use the same team throughout the set; it is completely up to the player. If players only partially complete a series before the deadline, it will be considered an uncompleted match and action will be taken accordingly (either an activity win or a coin flip).
Just like last year, there will be a cash prize for this tournament! The winner of this year's Official Smogon Tournament will receive 200 USD!
If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me or a tournament director!
OST Specific Rules
- This is a standard SV OU tournament.
- The tournament will be single elimination.
- Players will play a best of three series of games each round
- Matches are to be played on Pokemon Showdown!. If you can't agree on which server to play on, the Smogtours server is the default option.
- Liking this post increases the accuracy of your Focus Blasts.
- Species Clause: A player cannot have two of the same Pokémon on their team. For example, a player cannot have two Koffing on his or her team.
- Evasion Clause: A player cannot use the moves Double Team or Minimize in their Pokémon's movesets.
- OHKO Clause: Players cannot use Horn Drill, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, or Fissure in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
- Team Preview: Players must turn on the Team Preview feature where players can view the opposing team's Pokémon and choose their lead Pokémon.
- Timer Clause: If a player exhausts the timer, he/she loses.
- Endless Battle Clause: Any moveset on any Pokémon that is capable of intentionally causing an endless battle is banned from competitive play. Check this thread for more information.
- Baton Pass Clause: The move Baton Pass is banned outright.
- Uber Clause: Players may not use any items, moves, abilities, or Pokemon that appear on Smogon's OU Ban List. If the tiers change or new items, abilities, moves, or Pokemon become available in the middle of a round, the changes will take effect in the following round. There will be an announcement in the relevant round if this occurs.
About Activity Decisions
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
In case of disconnections, if you played in the SmogTours server, call a Tournament Director as soon as possible and we'll see about the possibility of having a rematch.
Activity Decisions / Coin Flips: In the event that there is an uncompleted match at the deadline, it will be coin flipped unless one or both of the players involved in the match specifically request an activity win and explain sufficiently why they deserve to win over their opponent. Attempting to schedule a battle is required in order to receive the win by activity. To make it clear that you are requesting an activity win when you post, you must open your post with "Activity Win Request" in bold.
For example, if you believe your opponent is making an unfair request and that they don't deserve the activity win over you, you can either make your own request or quote their post and explain why they don't deserve it. You should try to make your activity win request posts at least 24 hours before the deadline to give your opponent a reasonable opportunity to contest it with their own activity win request.
In case of disconnections, if you played in the SmogTours server, call a Tournament Director as soon as possible and we'll see about the possibility of having a rematch.
General Tournament Rules
Substitutions
Players may sign up as a substitute if they didn't join in time. If you are eliminated from the tournament (i.e. you lose your games, are substituted out, or drop out), you may not sign up as a substitute. I will endeavor to substitute players in whenever a player drops out, and one week before the round 1 deadline, I will look through all players and activity win requests and replace any inactive players with substitutes. Given the size of the bracket this year, there might be two substitution waves. There is a good chance that you will get to play if you sign up as a substitute. Substitutes will only be allowed into the tournament during round 1. Substitutes will be implemented on a mostly first come, first serve basis, but if you are inactive after you sign up as a substitute then you're at risk of not being substituted into the tournament.
To sign up as a substitute, please use the substitute signup thread.
Please read this guide if you're unsure how to schedule with your opponent! Alternatively, watch this video made by teal6:
Now then, without further ado..
QUARTERFINALS
Antonazz vs Rubyblood
Twixtry vs Storm Zone
Maxouille vs DugZa
Thiago Nunes vs zS
Deadline is Sunday, March 24th at 11:59 PM EDT (GMT-4).
REPLAYS MUST BE POSTED FOR YOUR WIN TO COUNT!! SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THREAD FOR INFO
Antonazz vs Rubyblood
Twixtry vs Storm Zone
Maxouille vs DugZa
Thiago Nunes vs zS
Deadline is Sunday, March 24th at 11:59 PM EDT (GMT-4).
REPLAYS MUST BE POSTED FOR YOUR WIN TO COUNT!! SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THREAD FOR INFO
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DugZa is solid though and I have more experience with his play than Max. If DugZa avoids bringing repeats or being too predictable, I will give them the edge just based on firsthand knowledge.
