Basic Tournament Rules

Playing In a Tournament


Playing in tournament is rather simple, not as complex as hosting a tournament. However, getting banned is much easier. Follow these rules and you should be alright.

1. Get your match done on time. It's not smart to forget to play your match. Not to mention that it delays the tournament.
   
2. Be a good sport.
   
3. All tournament matches should be played using your forum nickname, or by informing your opponent that you are under a different nickname on Shoddy. Things can turn out bad and could cause cheating by hidden battle cases.
   
4. Decisions by the tournament host are generally final. However, if a ruling you feel is ridiculous, please send a PM to Donald or Ness, describing in full detail to the situation at hand. One of us will look into it if it truly is worth bothering with. If it is not, we will inform you right away.
   
5. Do not break the rules of a tournament. Always read through them carefully before your battle. If you don't agree to them, then don't sign up for it!
   
6. "Scouting", or intentionally looking at someone's team to help benefit your upcoming match is heavily discouraged. Though this is something that cannot be helped, the tournament staff is letting participants know as that they can at least watch a match.
   

Breaking these rules can potentially get you banned from playing in future tournaments. Not to mention that you will receive an warning as well. Rules 1, 2, 3, and 5 especially.

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Hosting A Tournament


To host a Pokémon tournament on Anytrades, there are a few simple guide lines.

1. Anytrades Tournament applications must be open. Reading this page will tell you if they are open or not.
   
2. You must get your tournament idea approved by either Donald or Ness. If either denies your idea, don't go PMing the other person. You'll be denied again because you didn't meet the requirements.
   
3. You must be a responsible user who has spent a good amount of time at Anytrades. If you are close to being banned, banned, have had a lot of infractions in general, or are too new to the forums, your tournament request will be denied (Forum "age" will be determined by who you send your PM to).
   

Once you have had tournament approved, create your thread and start your sign-ups. Be sure that you know you can handle the amount of people who have registered. If it's your first time hosting a tournament, it's recommended (but it's not required by any means necessary) that you limit your registrations to 32 players, and then let people register as substitutes. If you get to the point where you can have more people register (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512...), open up your slots to join and create a new limit. Avoid giving byes at all costs.
Here are requirements while you are hosting your tournament.

1. You must give deadlines each round of your tournament. Deadlines force players to do their battles.
   
2. Do NOT let players who are banned from tournaments or who are about to be banned from Smogon join your tournament.
   
   
   
   • If a player becomes close to/or becomes banned during a tournament, do not disqualify the player who is close to being banned. Substitute a banned player, only in round one, or at anytime if you are hosting a team tournament. Players whose status become negative during your tournament does not make you break the rules.
     

Give as few deadline extensions as you possibly can. This promotes laziness to players and that is not good.

Do not let your tournament die. Pester your participants who have not completed their match yet to do so. If you yourself let your tournament die, your chances of hosting another Tournament is lowered.

Disqualify players fairly.

• If two players are trying their hardest to complete their match even past the deadline, move their match as a part of the next round and let them play their battle. Then the winner of their match will play who they were originally supposed to be put up against.
  
• If one player is being very active (Check out Shoddy Battle) while another is not, disqualify the inactive player.
  
• If both players are inactive, flip a coin. Advance the winner of the coin flip and move on.
  
• If a situation cannot be handled, ask a tournament administrator (Donald or Ness) and the one you've contacted will make a final decision.
  

Usually, tournaments on Anytrades are played using the Random Pairings method.

Under no circumstance should you fix the rules in your favor or to that of another person's favor as a tournament host!

It is recommended that you set a rule to have players send you logs of their match.

Should you kill your own tournament, fix the rules in your favor, disqualify unjustly, or let banned/to be banned players join your tournament, you will receive a warning and be banned from hosting future tournament.



Taken from Smogon.com, Edited by Donald.