Tournament Type Breakdowns
Type A - Worth the most points, most standard tournaments and will all contain only SV.
Type B - Must contain SV tiers, but may feature other tiers, and they will not be as standard as the ones in Type A.
Type C - Tournaments that cannot offer too many points due to their format or lacking SV, will offer the least of the three.
Point breakdowns can be seen in the "Scoring Information" tab of the spreadsheet.
Tournament Information
SV NU Kickoff - Type C
This is a simple No Johns tournament, which means each round must be completed in 4 days. Extensions will be given in extraneous circumstances, but they are only 2 days long. Since this is an untraditional format, and the tier will be in Alpha for the entirety of the tournament, it will be Type C.
NU Swiss III - Type A
Swiss is back as a Type A tournament, but will be structured differently than you're used to. For one, there will be several more rounds, with 7 rounds for 128 people or 8 rounds for 256 people. Secondly, players will be automatically eliminated from the tournament entirely if they accumulate 3 losses. This is in contrast from previous iterations where players would not get eliminated no matter what. If you're in the tournament, you're still playing for a playoff spot.
NU Open - Type A
A single elimination tournament that is a part of the 2023 Grand Slam. Only the NU Tournament will count for points towards our circuit.
NU Smogtour Tiers Tournament - Type B
This tournament will be a Best of 3 tournament. Each round, players will start by playing a match of SV. After the first match is completed, the loser will pick one of SS and SM to play, as long as the tier hasn't been picked before. This is intended to give SS and SM an individual that isn't Classic.
NU Ladder Tour - Type B
As with last year, there will be 4 qualifying cycles with 6 qualifiers in each cycle. This leads to a 24 player playoff, with the top 8 receiving byes.
NU Classic - Type C
A tournament series that includes all Pokemon tiers from RBY to ORAS, where players gather points from individual tournaments to qualify for the playoffs. Playoffs guarantee circuit points for the participants, and will include Single Elimination Best of 5 sets with 5 of the tiers from RBY to ORAS with seeding based on individual tournament performance.
NU Seasonal 2023 - Type A
Our standard double elimination tournament. These have been hosted in last year's circuits and need no introduction. However, since Swiss is Type A, there will only be 1 Seasonal this year.
How the Circuit Has Changed
The circuit has changed A LOT from last year's, which I admit was both boring and a bit messy. One of the most important additions this year is that we have definitive start dates for all of our tournaments, meaning that the circuit should not run nearly as far behind as it did last year. If you want to keep up accountable, signups should be going up a week before every one of these dates listed.
Swiss has been added as a Type A tournament in place of another Seasonal. The reasoning behind this is twofold. Firstly, there is not nearly as much time in the circuit as in previous years due to the awkward timing of SV NU's release. Swiss will be a shorter tournament and allow us to host more and more interesting events throughout the year. Secondly, having 2 Seasonals is quite competitive, but is hard to get people interested in due to their overall length. Therefore, we've decided to follow UU's lead in having 1 Seasonal in our circuit, at least for this year.
Finally, we've split Classic into two tournaments. Firstly, we have the Smogtour Tiers Tournament, which coincides with a desire to try and get Bo3 back into the mix now that it will be 3 tiers that a lot of our playerbase is familiar with again. SS and SM will be represented a lot in the team tours that we run, so I hold no concerns about their exclusion from Classic proper. RBY and GSC will be making a return to Classic, and now that there's only 6 tiers, it should hopefully be a bit cleaner to run.
If there's any questions about the reasoning or suggestions on how to change this, let me or any of our Forum Moderators know and we'll discuss it. Thank you, and let's hope for a great year!
"Unofficial" Tournaments / Team Tournaments (TO BE DISCUSSED IN A FUTURE THREAD, NOT FINAL)
NUPL XI
Hosted by: TBD
Range: April-May
NUWC
Hosted by: TBD
Range: July-August
Smogon Champions League (Trophy)
Hosted by: TBD
Range: September-November
NUCL
Hosted by: TBD
Range: October-December
