There have been a lot of things said there and there in this thread. Some made sense and some didn't, so I feel like I should reply, I'll do it point by point.
Regarding the BW decision itself
We agreed to suspect/implement a weather + speed ability based on an IS thread as well as IRC conversations. It's a decision a lot of players agreed with, even a good part of the one who are displeased with the way we implemented it. We (the TDs) don't plan to overturn this decision, unless Excadrill proves to be overpowered in BW based on the Live Tours we'll host and the WCoP (something I very much doubt).
Regarding its implementation in WCoP
Sure, we could have hosted Suspect Tours prior to announcing the decision to implement it into WCoP, but those will pretty much be a formality, because we're pretty much sure of the decision we'll take (aka: weather + speed ability ban in BW). The Suspect Tours will probably confort us in our decision (unless Excadrill turns out to be really outpowered, which let's be honest, has very little chance to happen) and give people and WCoP players some testing grounds for the tournament itself.
Let's be honest, old gen ladders are dead and this one would be dead as well. People just don't care if there is no reward. More over, Official Tournaments is truely where we get to see the evolution of a tier, and I believe implementing the BW decision for this WCoP will be best to emulate the tier development.
The thing is
an old gen tiering decision is gonna affect an official tournament soon or later, and we decided it would in application as soon as for this WCoP, especially considering the Inside Scoop thread on the matter has been made more than a month ago, so it's not like it's
completely out of the blue either. The decision has also been announced 2 weeks in a half before the first round will be up, which is more than enough time to start preparing for the tier changes, especially with the Live Tours to playtest.
I'll also add that this is how we'll work in the future if we decide to implement an old gen tiering change: we will go through some Live Tournaments as well as an Official Tournament ruleset change. We'll use them as the basis for a Official Tiering Change. We feel this is the only way to see the true effects of a change in an old gen.
If you'd prefer an another form of delivery regarding this kind of decision in the future, let us know, but the decision to implement the weather + ability ban in WCoP is final.
Regarding the WCoP Format
First of all, the format has been announced more than two weeks ago, so I don't know why some people are suddenly jumping at our throat regarding the decision to include RBY and GSC? What is actually laughable is that some of you are actually claiming ~some TDs~ made that change to favor their teams. Do I have to remind you that we actually decided to go with an Old Gen WCoP because
this is what the players wanted and proposed last year, with Malekith's
thread in IS? The only difference this year is that we decided to be more coherent and include all generations instead of some weird compromise. An idea not only most TDs agreed to take, but also strongly backed up by TDs who gain no benefit from it because they don't even play in the tournament.
Sure, Full ORAS had a case to be the format, and we even made a thread in our private subforum to discuss on the matter. The thing is: Full ORAS and All Gens
both have their upsides and downsides, and both sides have their supporters. In these cases, the decision is up to the TDs, and we decided to go with last year change (altho we modified it), the one
origally suggested by our playerbase. So much for TDs doing "what they want" and "not listening to the players" right? Allow me to laugh at people thinking "the majority" (the Malekith's thread OP has gathered pretty much as many likes as Masterclass post despite being only accessible to a much smaller part of our userbase) is angry at our decision.
The format has been announced early enough for every teams to prepare regarding their RBY and GSC player, especially when you consider that the Classic got a lot of people to learn the basics of the tiers. I'll also add that RBY has a more active and bigger playerbase than ADV, so the argument that "only a few teams have a competitive RBYer" is bullshit.
Regarding the decisions being made by the TDs and not the managers
We didn't allow the captains to vote for a decision and I'll get onto this point. Does anyone remember SPL5? Remember most of the captains voted for/against LC and Doubles mostly based on thier bias on the tiers or their ability to retain strong players in the tiers? Remember how much shit the TDs got back then for "letting the captains decide because they didn't have the balls to do it themselves and avoid the blame"? Because I, and the other TDs do, and that served as a nice experience for the future.
Both decisions have been taken unilaterally by
all the TDs, and not only the one who'd "benefit" from there (France certainly has seasonned RBYers and GSCers, right lol).
We spent a lot of time discussing this kind of decision, trying to be as objective as possible. I mentionned in this post why we changed the WCoP Format (to please the playerbase), and why we took the BW decision (to please the playerbase), and nothing about them has to do with "favoring" our team. You're free to think whatever you want regarding us, or some of us in that case, but I know we all think about the playerbase and fairness when we take decisions.
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Just in case there was any doubt: the WCoP format is
not up for change this year.