Announcement World Cup of Randbats 2023 - Announcements and Administrative Decisions

[eva]

World Cup of Randbats 2023
Hosted by Javi, sharpclaw, and Syrinix
with help from Amaranth

Logo by Syrinix ​

Pokémon players around the world, unite! Then, split up again into regions! It’s time to band together with your compatriots, cheer each other on in your native tongues, and — best of all — throw teambuilding out the window. Welcome to the second ever World Cup of Random Battles!

Qualifiers
We will be holding qualifiers for this year's WCoR! 11 teams are already qualified to participate in WCoR 2023 based on their performance last year. 7 spots will be open for other teams to compete in the qualifiers for a chance to enter the main tournament.

The structure of the qualifier round will be an 11-team round robin, where the top 7 teams by the end of this stage will be able to participate in the regular season.

Already Qualified Teams

Asia
Benelux
Brazil
Canada
China
Germany
India
Italy
Latin America
US Midwest
US West

Qualifying Teams

Africa+Europe
Bangladesh
France
Mexico
Oceania
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
US Northeast
US South
Venezuela

Map of US Regions

Structure and Formats
This year’s WCoR will feature every main generation of Random Battles. Each team is led by two captains, who themselves count among the total roster of 12 starters and 3-5 substitutes.

This year, the structure of WCoR will be an 18-team round-robin. In the regular season, players will be placed into groups of six for each slot, where they will battle all five of their opponents. Players will be assigned to each group randomly, and each team will play each other team at least two times and no more than five times.

Teams will be ranked based on records. By the end of the regular season, the eight teams with the best records will be eligible to compete in the playoffs. If two or more teams within the top seven have identical records, their seeding will be coin flipped. If there is a tie in records for the last spot, the teams will face off in a tiebreaker series which will consist of three Bo3 matchups: Gen 9 Random Battle and one format chosen by each team.

Formats

Gen 9 Random Battle bo5
Gen 9 Random Battle bo3
Gen 9 Random Battle bo3
Gen 8 Random Battle bo5
Gen 8 Random Battle bo3
Gen 7 Random Battle bo3
Gen 6 Random Battle bo3
Gen 5 Random Battle bo3
Gen 4 Random Battle bo3
Gen 3 Random Battle bo3
Gen 2 Random Battle bo3
Gen 1 Random Battle bo3

Teams and Eligibility
Players may only play for the regions associated with their forum IPs. Tournament hosts will not consider any other means of identification for regional eligibility. Please do not submit real-world identifying documents such as passports or birth certificates.

Further details on niche team eligibility

If a player has IPs to prove they spend extended periods of time in multiple regions within the past 12 months (e.g. students who attend university in one region and live in another), they can note their eligibility to join a team associated with either region. Hosts will review these applications on a case-by-case basis.

Players with significant periods of residency prior to the past 12 months, but after their Smogon account was made, may apply to join the team associated with their old IPs used to access Smogon. Hosts will consider these applications on a case-by-case basis, but as a general rule, the minimum amount of time we will consider is one year of residency in the old region. As referenced above, you MUST be able to verify said residency via forum IPs; if your IPs do not reflect this prior residency, your application will not be accepted. Eligibility for the rejected team will be forfeited.

"Cultural eligibility" rules were removed in earlier editions of WCOP (the tournament structure on which WCOR is based), and have not been reinstated. Therefore, WCOR does not use them either.

As a reminder, hosts reserve the right to reject any player they deem to be insufficiently eligible, e.g. a player whose IP drastically changes shortly before the start of the tournament.

Prizes
The players in the winning team of this tournament will be eligible for a shared team custom avatar, and inducted into the Random Battles Hall of Fame!

IMPORTANT DATES
Captain Signups: July 17th - July 27th
Qualifier Team Player Signups: July 31st - August 6th
Qualified Team Player Signups: July 31st - August 13th
Qualifier Round: August 7th - August 20th
Regular Season: August 21st - September 10th
Playoffs: September 11th
(Everything on this post is subject to change) ​

 

[eva]

UPDATE on the structure of the Regular Season for WCoR:

This year, the structure of WCOR will be an 18-team round-robin. In the regular season, players will be placed into groups of six for each slot, where they will battle all five of their opponents. Players will be assigned to each group randomly, and each team will play each other team at least three times and no more than four times.

Teams will be ranked based on records. By the end of the regular season, the eight teams with the best records will be eligible to compete in the playoffs. If two or more teams within the top seven have identical records, their seeding will be coin flipped. If there is a tie in records for the last spot, the teams will face off in a tiebreaker series which will consist of three Bo3 matchups: Gen 9 Random Battle and one format chosen by each team.

The OP has been edited to reflect this change. Apologies for any inconvenience

 

[eva]

Captain Signups are now live! If you wish to captain a team for WCOR, make sure to sign up by Thursday, July 27th at 11:59 PM -4!

 

[eva]

Good morning, we have a few updates that we'd like to announce for WCoR!

Update on the Structure of the Qualifiers for WCoR 2023:
This year, the structure of the qualifier round for WCoR will be an 11-team round robin, where the top 7 teams by the end of this stage will be able to participate in the regular season. Further details will be provided when the qualifier round goes up.

Number of Substitutes:
We will be allowing teams to pick between 3-5 substitutes for their roster.

Team Updates:
Team Europe+Oceania will not be returning this year since Team Oceania has fielded its own team. We will be merging Europe with Africa to form Team Africa+Europe. Both Team Africa+Europe and Team Oceania will participate in the qualifier round.

Team South America has expanded to add players from remnants of Central America and the Caribbean. This team is now known as Team Latin America and will be automatically qualified.

The OP has been edited to reflect these changes.

 

[eva]

I'm pleased to officially announce our captains for the teams participating in WCoR 2023!

Qualified Teams
Asia - longhiep341 and articoo
Benelux - Wubben and Chains of Markov
Brazil - Thiago Nunes and Beraldo
Canada - Rage and susciety
China - Separation and dragonitenb
Germany - Sylveon used calm mind and MichaelderBeste2
India - Piyush25 and Dj Breloominati♬
Italy - LoSconosciuto and Amaranth
Latin America - Irpachuza and pokeblade101
US Midwest - bobomania and PrinceOfAllTacos
US West - MrSoup and BigFatMantis

Qualifying Teams
Africa + Europe - Xceloh and Petros
Bangladesh - MaswoodShaheb and Xboy
France - Clementine and Tuthur
Mexico - luisin and Elian
Oceania - Drifting and damien the genius
Spain - Dorron and TheSergio235
Turkey - Perish Song and Mete08
United Kingdom - Roginald and Celever
US Northeast - za and Casual dot exe
US South - clean and Theia
Venezuela - Raahel and disgusting

Reminder that player signups will go live on July 31st!

 

[eva]

The Player Signups thread is now live!! If you are eligible to play for a qualifier team, make sure to signup before SUNDAY, AUGUST 6TH @ 11:59PM GMT-4! If you are eligible to play for a qualified team, make sure to signup before SUNDAY, AUGUST 13TH @ 11:59PM GMT-4!

Make sure to also keep an eye on the Regions & Rosters thread to see the official rosters for each team!

Since the qualifying team signups will close earlier, this means that we will be starting the Qualifiers round on August 7th! The dates for the start of the Regular Season and Playoffs will be affected by how long the Qualifiers round will last

 

[sharpclaw]

Since it's come up a couple times, a few points of clarification about eligibility.

1. Given WCoR2022's identity as the inaugural WCoR, in which both teams and eligibility requirements were still nascent, there will be no grandfathering. The eligibility rules for WCoR2023 are the standard.

2. If a player qualifies for a country that is fielding a team, they do not qualify for a corresponding regional/continental team. If a player has IP history to indicate eligibility for multiple countries, and not every one of those countries is fielding a team, they may qualify for both a country team and a regional/continental team.

Examples:
--Sofia has lived in Uruguay her whole life. If Uruguay is fielding a team, Sofia does not qualify for a continental or regional team (South America, LatAm, etc), period.
--Kwame lives in England but goes to school in Finland, and has IP history in both countries. If Finland is not fielding a team on its own, but there is a Europe team, Kwame qualifies for both England(UK) and Europe.

 

[eva]

The Qualifier Round is now live! Tune in to see 11 teams battle it out for a chance to compete in the main stage of this tournament!

With that being said, the signups for qualifying teams have officially closed. If you’re eligible for a qualified team, make sure to sign up before August 13th! Keep an eye on the Regions & Rosters thread for the remaining qualified teams to post their roster in as well!

We would also like to make players aware that the Gen 7 Random Battle format is undergoing a major update, where a roles system similar to Gen 9 Random Battles will be implemented. This update may go live sometime this week so if you’re slotted into Gen 7 Random Battles, please make sure to plan and prepare accordingly

 

[sharpclaw]

Due to an error in eligibility, there has been a change in Team Oceania’s lineup. User sjneider does not qualify for Oceania, and has been removed from the team; as captains were unaware of this error, they have been allowed to add another sub to their team, and then slot one of their subs into the Gen 9 Random Battle Bo5 spot.

 

[sharpclaw]

Given the ever-updating nature of Random Battles overall, and especially the incoming Gen 7 overhaul (which has been delayed due to forces beyond hosts' control, but is still inbound), a note about where to play matches:

Players should note that smogtours only updates weekly, whereas changes to Randbats are pushed to PS immediately. If you choose to play on smogtours, know that you risk playing a suboptimal version of Randbats. As such, hosts strongly recommend playing all matches on PS. Moreover, if one player wants to play on PS but the other insists on smogtours, a sub can and will be forced—or in extreme cases, an act call can and will be made—in the PS player's favor.

 

[sharpclaw]

Amir has been banned for reasons unrelated to WCoR. Team Africa+Europe has subbed in saba to play the remainder of their Gen 1 games; affected managers and players have been tagged elsewhere, so not tagging again.

 

[sharpclaw]

Now that the qualifying round is complete, a few administrative decisions:

1. Venezuela is banned from fielding a team next year. Both captain and player behavior was substandard throughout the tour, from submitting a dodgy preliminary roster to scheduling games poorly. Venezuela players will still be able to play for other teams next year (e.g. LatAm, if South America fields a team, etc), but the country will not have its own team next year.

2. luisin and Elian are banned from captaining next year. Although behavior was less egregious than Venezuela's, above, Mexico also had major scheduling problems that stemmed from management (for example, failing to sub out a player who only scheduled 1 of their 4 required games).

3. The following players are banned from Randbats tours for 6 months + the next iteration of WCoR for quitting the tour outright: devin (Turkey), Irene-2002 (Spain).

 

[eva]

1. Mashing has been banned for reasons unrelated to WCoR. Team Latin America has subbed in Sadlysius to play their Gen 3 games; affected managers and players have been tagged elsewhere, so not tagging again.

2. Re: Irene-2002/Ina fable's Randbats Subforum tour ban
Ina fable has submitted a formal appeal for her tour ban, where she provided proof that she was still willing to play for Team Spain despite leaving the Spanish Community Discord server (which contains channel dedicated to WCoR). Upon review, hosts determined that that it was poor communication—from both Ina fable and Team Spain's captains, to each other and to hosts—rather than player apathy that resulted in Ina fable not continuing to play in the tournament. Hosts have thus accepted her appeal and lifted her subforum tour ban.

 

[sharpclaw]

1. Mashing has been banned for reasons unrelated to WCoR. Team Latin America has subbed in Sadlysius to play their Gen 3 games; affected managers and players have been tagged elsewhere, so not tagging again.

The times, they are a changin'! Mashing's ban has been nullified and reversed. Given the circumstances in this specific case, hosts have ruled that Mashing may return to the main roster on Team LatAm; Sadlysius returns to their original position as sub.

Relevant tags

LatAm managers: Irpachuza pokeblade101
Mashing's opponents: BlackKnight_Gawain Indulge in dreams kaori mad dawg Stockings

 

[eva]

Official Seedings - Top 8

1. China
2. Latin America
3. US Northeast
4. US West
5. India
6. Benelux
7. US South
8. Africa + Europe

Proof of Drawings

Playoffs Bracket

Officially Qualified Teams

Africa + Europe
Asia
Benelux
Brazil
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Latin America
US Northeast
US South
US West

All other teams will have to participate in the qualifier round in order to enter the main stage in next year's iteration of WCoR

The Playoffs Round will go up shortly after all teams have sent in their lineups!

 

[sharpclaw]

Upon review, hosts have learned that devin's actions during the tour were mischaracterized, and they did not leave their team or give up playing unexpectedly. devin's current ban on Randbats tours (WCOR '24 and otherwise) is hereby reversed.