Frequently Asked Questions
How do tournaments work?
The typical life-cycle of a tournament is as follows:
Joining phase: to join a tournament, either click the "Join" button near the top of the room or type /tour join into the chat. If you can't see the "Join" button, try clicking the "Toggle" button near the top of the room and make sure that 'Ignore Tournaments' is disabled in your settings (click on the gear icon in the top right -> Chat -> Ignore Tournaments).
Players battle their opponents: after the tournament starts, you'll likely be matched up with an opponent on the bracket. You will either have to challenge them or wait for them to challenge you. If you are challenging, select the team you want to use and click the "Challenge" button underneath it. Otherwise, select the team you want to use when you receive the challenge from your opponent and click the "Accept" button underneath it. In either case, you can also first validate your selected team by clicking the "Validate" button underneath it. You will be placed into a battle once you or your opponent clicks "Accept". If you aren't matched up with another player, you are considered on a bye for the round and will be matched up with the winner of the adjacent pair on the bracket.
Inactive players are automatically disqualified: the Tournaments room uses an automatic disqualification timer of 2 minutes that disqualifies users that have been inactive for that period of time. However, the timer is currently dependent on other battles starting and ended. If you've been waiting for 5 or more minutes, you may ask a staff member to manually disqualify your opponent.
If you win, you advance to the next round: you will also be advanced to the next round if your opponent is disqualified or chooses to leave the tournament. After being advanced, you might need to wait for your next opponent to finish their current battle.
- Joining phase
- Tournament starts
- Players battle their opponents
- Inactive players are automatically disqualified
- If you win, you advance to the next round; if you lose, you're out
- Repeat steps 3-5 until only one player is left; this player wins the tournament!
Joining phase: to join a tournament, either click the "Join" button near the top of the room or type /tour join into the chat. If you can't see the "Join" button, try clicking the "Toggle" button near the top of the room and make sure that 'Ignore Tournaments' is disabled in your settings (click on the gear icon in the top right -> Chat -> Ignore Tournaments).
Players battle their opponents: after the tournament starts, you'll likely be matched up with an opponent on the bracket. You will either have to challenge them or wait for them to challenge you. If you are challenging, select the team you want to use and click the "Challenge" button underneath it. Otherwise, select the team you want to use when you receive the challenge from your opponent and click the "Accept" button underneath it. In either case, you can also first validate your selected team by clicking the "Validate" button underneath it. You will be placed into a battle once you or your opponent clicks "Accept". If you aren't matched up with another player, you are considered on a bye for the round and will be matched up with the winner of the adjacent pair on the bracket.
Inactive players are automatically disqualified: the Tournaments room uses an automatic disqualification timer of 2 minutes that disqualifies users that have been inactive for that period of time. However, the timer is currently dependent on other battles starting and ended. If you've been waiting for 5 or more minutes, you may ask a staff member to manually disqualify your opponent.
If you win, you advance to the next round: you will also be advanced to the next round if your opponent is disqualified or chooses to leave the tournament. After being advanced, you might need to wait for your next opponent to finish their current battle.
Who is Lady Monita?
Lady Monita is a bot in the Tournaments room, coded by our former room owner sirDonovan. It's useful for a lot of things n_n, and also functions in other rooms. We have implemented the features of Stats Bot into Lady Monita, so if it joins your battle, don't worry! It's just there to collect usage stats.
How do I PM a user?
To PM (Private Message) a user, either:
- Click their name in the user list or chatroom and then click the 'Chat' button
- Type /msg (USER), (MESSAGE). /w or /pm can also be used in place of /msg
- Type /user (USER) and then click the 'Chat' button in the popup
What are the rules?
When will the next tournament start?
Regular tournaments start 5 minutes after the previous tournaments end. Official tournaments start at the specified times, or 30 seconds after the previous tournaments end if they are delayed.
How can I host a tournament?
Please follow our hosting guide!
What are official tournaments? How are they different from regular tournaments?
Official tournaments are at set times (2:30 am, 9:30 am, 3:30 pm, and 8:30 pm EST/GMT -5), and are played in set formats for the month. You can check the official tournament schedule by clicking the "Monthly Official Schedule" button in the room intro. You can check the official format for a specific day on PS by PMing Lady Monita with .official (date).
How can I leave a tournament?
Type /tour leave into the chat.
How do I view the whole tournament bracket?
Click the "Toggle" button near the top of the room, then click the "Pop-out" button. To view other portions of the bracket, click and drag your mouse in the direction of the part of the bracket that you want to see (currently does not work on mobile).
How is the next tournament set?
Either a staff member decides on a tournament that isn't on the list of recent tournaments, or a poll is started for it. If the official is soon, the next tournament will be the official, or a short tournament like CC1v1 / 1v1 / 2v2 if there's time.
How can I get points?
You get points for either placing in the semifinals, finals, or winning a tournament in the tournaments room. The number of points that you get depends on how high you placed, how many users joined the tournament and whether the tournament was official.
Are there prizes for getting points?
Yes! At the end of each 2-week cycle, the winner gets their name featured in the room intro for the duration of the next cycle. Winners will receive a prize winner rank.
Are there any tournaments that don't give out points?
Yes- CC1v1, Hackmons Cup, Super Staff Bros and Monotype Random Battles
What are annual points?
Annual points are the points that a user has gained throughout the year.
What is scouting?
Scouting refers to joining a tournament battle while you're still in the tournament. This gives the scouter, ie. the player that joined the battle, an unfair advantage as he could counter-team (often called c-team) the opponent, and gain knowledge about their movesets and Pokemon. Scouting is banned in the tournaments room. Even if a player tries to scout, they'll get a pop-up saying that it isn't allowed, and they won't be able to join. Scouting is fine in tournaments where teams are randomized, like Random Battles and Battle Factory.
Which tiers are tournaments played in?
Tournaments are played in pretty much every tier, excluding obscure formats like Custom Game. The more popular formats are played much more often, however, like Random Battles, Monotype Random Battle, Battle Factory, Ubers, OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, LC and now Monotype etc. You often won't go 3 days without seeing one of these tiers. The more popular OMs, like Monotype, AAA etc are also played fairly frequently. Staff try to set 1 official tier, 1 om, 1 past gen, 1 random and 1 doubles in a cycle as a standard basis.
(This does not have to be followed exactly as stated)
(This does not have to be followed exactly as stated)
What is a tournament cap?
A tournament cap is the maximum amount of players that can join before the tournament starts.
How can I watch a tournament battle?
When a tournament battle starts, you'll see a blue message saying 'Tournament battle between (user) and (another user) started.' Click on this message to join the battle. If a battle has ended, it will either say '(user) has won the match (battle score) against (another user)' or '(user) has lost the match (battle score) against (another user)'. Alternatively, you can click on 'Toggle' near the top of the screen, hit 'Pop-out', and click on a portion that says 'In Progress' to view that battle. You can't watch a battle if you're in the tournament, unless the tournament has randomized teams.
Note that (battle score) refers to the amount of Pokemon that each user had left.
Note that (battle score) refers to the amount of Pokemon that each user had left.
Can I check which users are left in the tournament?
Type /tour getusers into the chat
How do people get disqualified?
Either leaving or by inactivity. They are also sometimes disqualified for breaking the rules, for example leaking movesets, being rude, getting themselves banned from the room, etc.
My opponent is stalling, what should I do?
Stalling is fine, except in very extreme cases. To report a timer staller, PM a staff member with proof.
Which Lady Monita commands can I use?
You'll have to PM all the commands that you want to use to Lady Monita, since only auth can use those commands in chat. (Auth are users that have either a +, %, @, &, # or a ~ before their name).
.tour - displays the duration, number of participants, remaining players, and estimated remaining time of the current tournament
.nexttour - displays the next tournament tier and the remaining cooldown time
.top (number) - displays a portion of the leaderboard. The portion of the leaderboard shown can be changed by inputting a number into the (number part), for example .top 20 would show you #11 to #20.
.top alltime, (number) - Basically the same as .top (number), but shows you the specified portion of the leaderboard for alltime points.
.top thc, (number) - Also basically the same as .top (number), but shows you the specified portion of the leaderboard of the Tournaments Host Competition.
.blt - displays the current round of the Best 'Leaderboarders' Tournament or current qualifiers
.rank - displays your current leaderboard points
.rank [username] - displays another user's current leaderboard points
.recenttours OR .pasttours - displays the recent scripted tournament formats
.lasttour [format] - displays the last time the format was played
.host - links to the tournament hosting guide
.join - links to the guide for joining tournaments
.approval - links to the guide for getting tournaments approved
.scout - links to a small FAQ about scouting
.official - shows the official format of the day, time until next tournament, and format info
.official [day] - shows the official format for the specified day
.format - links to the approved formats page
.format [format] - links to explanations/other pages related to a format
.teams [format] - links to sample teams for a format if available
.rankings [format] - links to viability rankings for a format if available
.leaderboard - links to the official tournament schedule & leaderboard page
.thc - gives you a link to info on Tournaments Host Competition
.bscore [user], [room] - shows the current score of [user]'s tournament battle if they are in one
.tourpage - shows the tourpage of the current Lady Monita tour
(Most commands and descriptions taken from http://pastebin.com/ZQR9FPwS , PM Lady Monita with .guide to view said pastebin)
Additionally, some of these commands require you to include the room (e.g. .bscore [name], tournaments)
.tour - displays the duration, number of participants, remaining players, and estimated remaining time of the current tournament
.nexttour - displays the next tournament tier and the remaining cooldown time
.top (number) - displays a portion of the leaderboard. The portion of the leaderboard shown can be changed by inputting a number into the (number part), for example .top 20 would show you #11 to #20.
.top alltime, (number) - Basically the same as .top (number), but shows you the specified portion of the leaderboard for alltime points.
.top thc, (number) - Also basically the same as .top (number), but shows you the specified portion of the leaderboard of the Tournaments Host Competition.
.blt - displays the current round of the Best 'Leaderboarders' Tournament or current qualifiers
.rank - displays your current leaderboard points
.rank [username] - displays another user's current leaderboard points
.recenttours OR .pasttours - displays the recent scripted tournament formats
.lasttour [format] - displays the last time the format was played
.host - links to the tournament hosting guide
.join - links to the guide for joining tournaments
.approval - links to the guide for getting tournaments approved
.scout - links to a small FAQ about scouting
.official - shows the official format of the day, time until next tournament, and format info
.official [day] - shows the official format for the specified day
.format - links to the approved formats page
.format [format] - links to explanations/other pages related to a format
.teams [format] - links to sample teams for a format if available
.rankings [format] - links to viability rankings for a format if available
.leaderboard - links to the official tournament schedule & leaderboard page
.thc - gives you a link to info on Tournaments Host Competition
.bscore [user], [room] - shows the current score of [user]'s tournament battle if they are in one
.tourpage - shows the tourpage of the current Lady Monita tour
(Most commands and descriptions taken from http://pastebin.com/ZQR9FPwS , PM Lady Monita with .guide to view said pastebin)
Additionally, some of these commands require you to include the room (e.g. .bscore [name], tournaments)
Which chat commands can I use?
Type /help in any chat room for a list of them.
What are THC, BLT, and TLT?
THC: Tournaments Host Competition
BLT: Essentially, whenever we have a scripted tournament within the room, the top four players get a certain number of points based on the prominence of the tour. There are also four official tournaments every day, the formats of which decided on beforehand in our monthly schedule. Every time someone receives points from a tournament, it is documented by our room-bot, Lady Monita. At the end of each cycle (around two weeks), we look to see who has the most points on the leaderboard, and the top player is recorded in our Hall of Fame.
Latest season
TLT: Tours' Leaderboard Tournament is a Tournaments Room event that focuses more on individual play, in contrast to our usual team-tour room event known as BLT (Best "Leaderboarders" Tournament). The top sixteen on the leaderboard for the cycles in September and October will be guaranteed a spot in the 64-player tournament. Throughout the tournament, players will battle in a best-of-three format each round, with Smogon's standard tiers being the metagames played. This tournament is also double elimination, so if you're defeated once, you're still in the loser's portion of the bracket.
BLT: Essentially, whenever we have a scripted tournament within the room, the top four players get a certain number of points based on the prominence of the tour. There are also four official tournaments every day, the formats of which decided on beforehand in our monthly schedule. Every time someone receives points from a tournament, it is documented by our room-bot, Lady Monita. At the end of each cycle (around two weeks), we look to see who has the most points on the leaderboard, and the top player is recorded in our Hall of Fame.
Latest season
TLT: Tours' Leaderboard Tournament is a Tournaments Room event that focuses more on individual play, in contrast to our usual team-tour room event known as BLT (Best "Leaderboarders" Tournament). The top sixteen on the leaderboard for the cycles in September and October will be guaranteed a spot in the 64-player tournament. Throughout the tournament, players will battle in a best-of-three format each round, with Smogon's standard tiers being the metagames played. This tournament is also double elimination, so if you're defeated once, you're still in the loser's portion of the bracket.
What is Tours Plaza?
Tours Plaza is a subroom of the tournaments room, used for events like BLT and Workshop. Tournaments regularly and daily take place there, 24/7, with special custom rules. The room has its own leaderboard, so tours give out points. We also have a sample team thread for Tours Plaza tournaments! To join the room, type /join toursplaza into the chat
How can I check if a tournament has signups open in another room?
Type /tours in the chat for a list of tournaments. The ones that have already started will be specified. Note that this only shows you ongoing tournaments in public rooms.