What is the Friendly Series?
The Friendly Series is a low-stakes tournament series where the goal is just to play Pokemon, with a focus on formats other than current generation Doubles OU. Basically, it's formalized minitours! All standard Friendly Series tournaments will be run as hybrid Swiss and Single Elimination tournaments. Players will play three rounds of Swiss, and then all players at 3-0 and 2-1 will advance into a single elimination bracket. Players at 3-0 will be the first to receive byes, should byes be necessary. Players at 0-2 in round 3 of Swiss will still be paired. The goal of hybrid Swiss is to ensure everyone gets to play multiple games of Pokemon, and getting haxed out of your favorite alternate format week 1 of a minitour has always felt bad.
What is the Friendly Series schedule?
That's the neat part - there isn't one! At the beginning of each month, we will look at existing tournaments and see if there's room for a new Friendly Series tournament. If a Friendly Series has just left Swiss rounds, or if a much larger tournament like OSDT or Doubles Premier League has just kicked off, then a Friendly Series tournament will not be started. Then, if somebody else has proposed their own tournament, in the vein of past tournaments like Alphabet Cup, Maushold Cup, or Unscrupulous Tiering Director, that tournament will take the place of a Friendly Series slot. If there are no other major tournaments, and nobody has proposed another tournament, a Friendly Series tournament will have signups posted on the first Monday of the month. (This works out to a new tournament roughly every two months.)
The Friendly Series is designed to be flexible. However, the following tournaments are currently planned to run as Friendly Series events.
- "Oldgen Trios" - XY / BW / ADV open entry team tournament
- SV Doubles LC
- BW DOU
- ADV DOU
This will appear eventually:
- BDSP DOU
If you want to be notified when signups for a Friendly Series tournament are posted, subscribe to this thread! A post will be made here whenever a tournament goes up and when the Friendly Series skips a month.
What do I get if I win?
Friendly Series tournament winners will receive a role in the DOU Discord server commemorating their victory. At this time, no other rewards are planned.
How do I propose a tournament?
Send a message to the DOU forum mods - currently myself, Actuarily, zoe, and Yoda2798 - with your proposed format for approval. Proposing a tournament comes with the expectation that you are hosting the tournament. We're not against helping you out along the way, but if you've got an idea, we expect you to see that idea through. This has been the process for running minitours for a while, actually, but we just haven't written it down before.
The Friendly Series is a low-stakes tournament series where the goal is just to play Pokemon, with a focus on formats other than current generation Doubles OU. Basically, it's formalized minitours! All standard Friendly Series tournaments will be run as hybrid Swiss and Single Elimination tournaments. Players will play three rounds of Swiss, and then all players at 3-0 and 2-1 will advance into a single elimination bracket. Players at 3-0 will be the first to receive byes, should byes be necessary. Players at 0-2 in round 3 of Swiss will still be paired. The goal of hybrid Swiss is to ensure everyone gets to play multiple games of Pokemon, and getting haxed out of your favorite alternate format week 1 of a minitour has always felt bad.
What is the Friendly Series schedule?
That's the neat part - there isn't one! At the beginning of each month, we will look at existing tournaments and see if there's room for a new Friendly Series tournament. If a Friendly Series has just left Swiss rounds, or if a much larger tournament like OSDT or Doubles Premier League has just kicked off, then a Friendly Series tournament will not be started. Then, if somebody else has proposed their own tournament, in the vein of past tournaments like Alphabet Cup, Maushold Cup, or Unscrupulous Tiering Director, that tournament will take the place of a Friendly Series slot. If there are no other major tournaments, and nobody has proposed another tournament, a Friendly Series tournament will have signups posted on the first Monday of the month. (This works out to a new tournament roughly every two months.)
The Friendly Series is designed to be flexible. However, the following tournaments are currently planned to run as Friendly Series events.
- "Oldgen Trios" - XY / BW / ADV open entry team tournament
- SV Doubles LC
- BW DOU
- ADV DOU
This will appear eventually:
- BDSP DOU
If you want to be notified when signups for a Friendly Series tournament are posted, subscribe to this thread! A post will be made here whenever a tournament goes up and when the Friendly Series skips a month.
What do I get if I win?
Friendly Series tournament winners will receive a role in the DOU Discord server commemorating their victory. At this time, no other rewards are planned.
How do I propose a tournament?
Send a message to the DOU forum mods - currently myself, Actuarily, zoe, and Yoda2798 - with your proposed format for approval. Proposing a tournament comes with the expectation that you are hosting the tournament. We're not against helping you out along the way, but if you've got an idea, we expect you to see that idea through. This has been the process for running minitours for a while, actually, but we just haven't written it down before.
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