Hey pals the old live tour hosting guide is extremely outdated and i wrote this (alongside Zebraiken, McMeghan, IFM and Jirachee) for the Smogon Tour hosts so i'm making it public to help host unofficial tours and to have a public place of easy access for the IFM-Kris bracketmaker. The stuff here is valid for any individual, live tournament on Smogon.
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Step 1. Get permission to host your tournament
This thread details how to. If it's a suspect tour, you just need to get permission from the tier leader of the tier in question.
Step 2. Post the thread.
Fill out the fields in IFM's SmogTour OP Generator, then copy & paste the result in a new thread. Mind you, this is built with Smogon Tour in mind, you'll have to make some adjustments to fit the type of tour you're running, but it's a good place to start.
You should post the thread at the exact time the Tour starts, you can use many resources to get the exact time (my favourite is this one.)
Keep in mind that Smogon's own internal clock gives the wrong time, and that the time you should follow is the real world's.
Step 3. Keep tabs on the number of players entered; at around 5 minutes after thread posting, you should be ready to create pairings.
You have a short moment here to settle down, open any tabs you need to, and clear away any remaining distractions. I would recommend having the following links open on your computer & very little else:
* smogtours - duh
* your tour thread - duh
* starting (smogon) bracketmaker - quickly gathers sign-ups
* ifm-kris's bracketmaker - necessary for creating brackets
* pastebin.com - useful for creating a quick paste of your player list to confirm you have the correct number of players
* JetOU's Compatibilizer - useful for getting the playerlist
You can check to see how many unique sign-ups you have with the Starting Smogon bracketmaker. You can copy & paste the link to the thread (make sure it's the link to the OP, not to the most recent post!) and enter it to see. For example, this thread (https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/season-26-week-7-sm-ou-1-won-by-quaze.3643042/) has 135 players that signed up, making it a 128-person tournament (the 7 people that didn't get in are ordered by signups, so you even have your substitutes already ordered for you. Handy!). You can copy & paste that link to confirm for yourself, and to look at the interface.
Use the Smogon bracketmaker at about 5 minutes after your initial post to count how many individual players you have signed up. (The matchups at the top of the page will always be randomised, don't worry about them.)
Step 4. Create pairings.
Using the number of players you have signed up, determine how big your tournament will be.
REFERENCE: How big should my tournament be? IFM-Kris's bracketmaker should handle this automatically, but you can cross reference it with this list to double check it.
Get the playerlist from the starting Smogon bracketmaker. You can do that by putting the thread into the on-site bracketmaker. Those pairings won't be used and instead are just useful for getting the playerlist!!!
The next step is to make this list compatible with the IFM-Kris bracketmaker. For this you will use JetOU's Compatibilizer (https://thejetou.github.io/Compatibilizer.htm) just paste the matchups you got from the Starting Smogon Bracketmaker into this and click the compatibilize button. Now paste the list of names you got into the IFM-Kris bracketmaker to get your Round 1 Bracket.
Make sure First Come First Serve is checked, then simply hit generate pairings, and copy round 1 from the bbcode at the bottom.
Step 5. Check your numbers.
Once you have you bracket, paste it into pastebin to check if the numbers are correct. If your tour has 128 players, you will have 64 lines on pastebin, If you have 63 lines, you missed a pairing and this has to be fixed before you post. If you have 65 lines, you've got an extra line somehow and this has to be fixed before you post. If you have 40 lines something went catastrophically wrong and you should ask a Tournament Director for help and probably start over. This is especially important in Round 1 because that's when it's most likely to matter but you should check your numbers before every round, this will reduce the number of mistakes you make significantly. Only move to the next step if the number of lines checks
Step 6. Update wins & losses.
This is probably the most challenging step of all, but mostly because it requires nimble fingers and some concentration. Players that have won must PM you telling you that they have won, so you must edit your OP and bold their name. You can do this in any way you like, but here's my advice:
Once there are only about 10% of matches left in Round 1, generate Round 2 pairings. This is the MOST IMPORTANT factor of the speed of your tournament: if you are willing to start the next round while you're waiting on only a few games, your tournament will go MUCH MUCH faster and everyone will be very happy. Don't get too ambitious though, if there are still 5 games going on, it's probably wise to let a couple finish before moving on to the next round.
Step 7. When there are very few matches left to be completed, create pairings for the next round and post the next round.
Hit generate pairings when you are ready to make the next round. When there are uncompleted matches from the previous round they will be included in a separate list above the new pairings. When a player wins one of these matches you can click their name and the incomplete pairing in the next round will be changed to represent the correct pairing (If you misclick on one of the incomplete pairings, you will need to sub the winner in for the loser that you misclicked on).
If you have incomplete pairings from the previous round, but the majority of matches are finished you will have to use the sub tool to update the match from 2 rounds ago.
Example:
You are ready to make a new round but the previous pairing of Luigi and Quite Quiet hasn't finished. You can still make the next round, but you would need to sub in the winner for "(Luigi vs Quite Quiet)".
Step 8. Repeat 6-8 until a winner is determined.
Congratulations! You're in easy mode now.
Update the wins as they come, try to post next rounds when only a few matches are yet to complete, and enjoy watching a few Pokemon games. Don't forget to check every round before you post it - you don't ever want to miss an extra game and throw off your whole bracket.
Step 9. Replays
Once the tour is done grab the replays from the semifinals and finals and put it in the thread op.
Once more, for effect:
1. Post the thread.
2. Keep tabs on the number of players entered; at around 5 minutes after thread posting, you should be ready to create pairings.
3. Create pairings by using the Smogon Bracketmaker first, then the JetOU tool, then the IFM+Kris bracketmaker.
4. Check if the number of pairings is correct by using pastebin. A 128 man tournament's pairings should display 64 lines in pastebin.
5. Update wins & losses.
6. When there are very few matches left to be completed, create pairings for the next round and post the next round.
7. Repeat 5-7 until a winner is determined.
8. Put the replays from the Semifinals and Finals in the thread OP.
Step 10. Miscellaneous
The previous 8 steps covers the process of hosting, this section is dedicated to other aspects of the process.
Substitutions:
If there are byes:
After round 1 starts roughly 5 minutes after the signups are posted you'll have a few people asking to be subbed in, if you have any byes left over from when you were making pairings, substitute the people asking to be subbed in over the bye on a first come first serve basis. The bye you replace with the player is chosen at random, so not necessarily bye 1 then 2 etc.
If there are no byes:
Up until about halfway through the first round people will be pm'ing you to say that their opponent isn't online or isn't responding, after confirming that their opponent is indeed not online and a few minutes have passed since you posted matchups you may sub people in vs those whose opponents aren't there (though if someone says something like "hey opponent i'll brb wait a bit", you can be more lenient) always on a first come first serve basis. After about the halfway point of the round has passed i don't recommend subbing people in anymore since that'll cause delays to the future rounds. If someone's opponent was DQ'd before their game due to being an alt or something like that, they get priority in obtaining a sub.
Activity wins:
Activity wins past Round 1 only happen at the end of the round, so if a guy is complaining that his opponent isn't there during Round 2, his opponent has until Round 3 is posted to show up.
Endless Battles:
If it comes to your attention that a battle is taking too long, or that it might go on forever as is sometimes the case in stall vs stall, contact a Tournament Director to take a look at it. You don't have to do this for every battle involving stall, but if a match is 1 full round behind the rest of the tour, you should contact us ASAP as that is never meant to happen.
Cheating:
And if at any moment in your tournament you feel a player is cheating immediately contact a tournament director and explain your suspicions, we're much better equipped to investigate cheating than you are.
------------------
And that's it, easy as pie. If anything remains unclear to you after reading this guide talk to me on discord (get backer#0509) and we'll figure it out
-----
Step 1. Get permission to host your tournament
This thread details how to. If it's a suspect tour, you just need to get permission from the tier leader of the tier in question.
Step 2. Post the thread.
Fill out the fields in IFM's SmogTour OP Generator, then copy & paste the result in a new thread. Mind you, this is built with Smogon Tour in mind, you'll have to make some adjustments to fit the type of tour you're running, but it's a good place to start.
You should post the thread at the exact time the Tour starts, you can use many resources to get the exact time (my favourite is this one.)
Keep in mind that Smogon's own internal clock gives the wrong time, and that the time you should follow is the real world's.
Step 3. Keep tabs on the number of players entered; at around 5 minutes after thread posting, you should be ready to create pairings.
You have a short moment here to settle down, open any tabs you need to, and clear away any remaining distractions. I would recommend having the following links open on your computer & very little else:
* smogtours - duh
* your tour thread - duh
* starting (smogon) bracketmaker - quickly gathers sign-ups
* ifm-kris's bracketmaker - necessary for creating brackets
* pastebin.com - useful for creating a quick paste of your player list to confirm you have the correct number of players
* JetOU's Compatibilizer - useful for getting the playerlist
You can check to see how many unique sign-ups you have with the Starting Smogon bracketmaker. You can copy & paste the link to the thread (make sure it's the link to the OP, not to the most recent post!) and enter it to see. For example, this thread (https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/season-26-week-7-sm-ou-1-won-by-quaze.3643042/) has 135 players that signed up, making it a 128-person tournament (the 7 people that didn't get in are ordered by signups, so you even have your substitutes already ordered for you. Handy!). You can copy & paste that link to confirm for yourself, and to look at the interface.
Use the Smogon bracketmaker at about 5 minutes after your initial post to count how many individual players you have signed up. (The matchups at the top of the page will always be randomised, don't worry about them.)
Step 4. Create pairings.
Using the number of players you have signed up, determine how big your tournament will be.
REFERENCE: How big should my tournament be? IFM-Kris's bracketmaker should handle this automatically, but you can cross reference it with this list to double check it.
You MUST have the minimum number of real sign-ups according to the list below in order to have a tournament of that size. No matter how much people complain, you CANNOT make a tournament larger than your maximum allotted size. (You can have a maximum of 10% of players being byes; an easy guide is below).
- to create a tournament with 12 players, you need to have at least 11 real sign-ups & maximum 1 bye (finals will be Best of 3, between 3 players)
- 16 players, 15 real sgn-ups & 1 bye
- 24 players, 22 real sign-ups & 2 byes (Bo3)
- 32 players, 29 real sign-ups & 3 byes
- 48 players, 44 real sign-ups & 4 byes (Bo3)
- 64 players, 58 real sign-ups & 6 byes
- 96 players, 87 real sign-ups & 9 byes (Bo3)
- 128 players, 116 real sign-ups & 12 byes
- 192 players, 173 real sign-ups & 19 byes (Bo3)
- 256 players, 231 real sign-ups & 25 byes
- 384 players, 346 real sign-ups & 38 byes (Bo3)
- 512 players, 461 real sign-ups & 51 byes
Get the playerlist from the starting Smogon bracketmaker. You can do that by putting the thread into the on-site bracketmaker. Those pairings won't be used and instead are just useful for getting the playerlist!!!
The next step is to make this list compatible with the IFM-Kris bracketmaker. For this you will use JetOU's Compatibilizer (https://thejetou.github.io/Compatibilizer.htm) just paste the matchups you got from the Starting Smogon Bracketmaker into this and click the compatibilize button. Now paste the list of names you got into the IFM-Kris bracketmaker to get your Round 1 Bracket.
Make sure First Come First Serve is checked, then simply hit generate pairings, and copy round 1 from the bbcode at the bottom.
Step 5. Check your numbers.
Once you have you bracket, paste it into pastebin to check if the numbers are correct. If your tour has 128 players, you will have 64 lines on pastebin, If you have 63 lines, you missed a pairing and this has to be fixed before you post. If you have 65 lines, you've got an extra line somehow and this has to be fixed before you post. If you have 40 lines something went catastrophically wrong and you should ask a Tournament Director for help and probably start over. This is especially important in Round 1 because that's when it's most likely to matter but you should check your numbers before every round, this will reduce the number of mistakes you make significantly. Only move to the next step if the number of lines checks
Step 6. Update wins & losses.
This is probably the most challenging step of all, but mostly because it requires nimble fingers and some concentration. Players that have won must PM you telling you that they have won, so you must edit your OP and bold their name. You can do this in any way you like, but here's my advice:
- Use CTRL + F on the bracket maker. If Luigi tells you he won, CTRL + F and search for Luigi and click his name.
- Every few minutes copy the bbcode for the current round into the thread over the previous pairings for that round and save the edit so the winners are updated correctly.
- After you save an edit, periodically ask players to check if they are bolded and tell them to let you know if they won but are not bolded. Some players neglect to let you know about wins.
- Close PM messages once you are sure you've recorded their match. It will clean up clutter.
Once there are only about 10% of matches left in Round 1, generate Round 2 pairings. This is the MOST IMPORTANT factor of the speed of your tournament: if you are willing to start the next round while you're waiting on only a few games, your tournament will go MUCH MUCH faster and everyone will be very happy. Don't get too ambitious though, if there are still 5 games going on, it's probably wise to let a couple finish before moving on to the next round.
Step 7. When there are very few matches left to be completed, create pairings for the next round and post the next round.
Hit generate pairings when you are ready to make the next round. When there are uncompleted matches from the previous round they will be included in a separate list above the new pairings. When a player wins one of these matches you can click their name and the incomplete pairing in the next round will be changed to represent the correct pairing (If you misclick on one of the incomplete pairings, you will need to sub the winner in for the loser that you misclicked on).
If you have incomplete pairings from the previous round, but the majority of matches are finished you will have to use the sub tool to update the match from 2 rounds ago.
Example:
You are ready to make a new round but the previous pairing of Luigi and Quite Quiet hasn't finished. You can still make the next round, but you would need to sub in the winner for "(Luigi vs Quite Quiet)".
Step 8. Repeat 6-8 until a winner is determined.
Congratulations! You're in easy mode now.
Update the wins as they come, try to post next rounds when only a few matches are yet to complete, and enjoy watching a few Pokemon games. Don't forget to check every round before you post it - you don't ever want to miss an extra game and throw off your whole bracket.
Step 9. Replays
Once the tour is done grab the replays from the semifinals and finals and put it in the thread op.
Once more, for effect:
1. Post the thread.
2. Keep tabs on the number of players entered; at around 5 minutes after thread posting, you should be ready to create pairings.
3. Create pairings by using the Smogon Bracketmaker first, then the JetOU tool, then the IFM+Kris bracketmaker.
4. Check if the number of pairings is correct by using pastebin. A 128 man tournament's pairings should display 64 lines in pastebin.
5. Update wins & losses.
6. When there are very few matches left to be completed, create pairings for the next round and post the next round.
7. Repeat 5-7 until a winner is determined.
8. Put the replays from the Semifinals and Finals in the thread OP.
Step 10. Miscellaneous
The previous 8 steps covers the process of hosting, this section is dedicated to other aspects of the process.
Substitutions:
If there are byes:
After round 1 starts roughly 5 minutes after the signups are posted you'll have a few people asking to be subbed in, if you have any byes left over from when you were making pairings, substitute the people asking to be subbed in over the bye on a first come first serve basis. The bye you replace with the player is chosen at random, so not necessarily bye 1 then 2 etc.
If there are no byes:
Up until about halfway through the first round people will be pm'ing you to say that their opponent isn't online or isn't responding, after confirming that their opponent is indeed not online and a few minutes have passed since you posted matchups you may sub people in vs those whose opponents aren't there (though if someone says something like "hey opponent i'll brb wait a bit", you can be more lenient) always on a first come first serve basis. After about the halfway point of the round has passed i don't recommend subbing people in anymore since that'll cause delays to the future rounds. If someone's opponent was DQ'd before their game due to being an alt or something like that, they get priority in obtaining a sub.
Activity wins:
Activity wins past Round 1 only happen at the end of the round, so if a guy is complaining that his opponent isn't there during Round 2, his opponent has until Round 3 is posted to show up.
Endless Battles:
If it comes to your attention that a battle is taking too long, or that it might go on forever as is sometimes the case in stall vs stall, contact a Tournament Director to take a look at it. You don't have to do this for every battle involving stall, but if a match is 1 full round behind the rest of the tour, you should contact us ASAP as that is never meant to happen.
Cheating:
And if at any moment in your tournament you feel a player is cheating immediately contact a tournament director and explain your suspicions, we're much better equipped to investigate cheating than you are.
------------------
And that's it, easy as pie. If anything remains unclear to you after reading this guide talk to me on discord (get backer#0509) and we'll figure it out
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