Tournament DCL I - Format Discussion

[Theia]

Hi everyone, with the inaugural edition of Draft Champions League starting up soon, we'd like to open a discussion on the format of the tour. As of right now, we plan on having eight teams and eight slots. The current locked slots are:
SV Paldea Draft
SV Paldea Draft
SV Paldea Draft
SS Galar Draft
SM Draft
ORAS Draft

Additionally, we will not be considering adding:
Ubers
Old Gen Low Tier/LC
Any OM format (AAA, Mix and Mega etc.)
Any Fakemon format (CAP, Radical Red, Insurgence etc.)
GSC
RBY
Posts related to these formats will be disregarded.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the last two slots for this tour should be, so please offer your opinions in this thread! Please keep discussion civil and productive. We'll be closing this thread in roughly one week.

 

[FSF Iceik]

Iv been DYING for another mix and mega draft league,played one in gen8 and I had so much fun

Edit: I can't read kekw

 

[Chairman Rose]

Maybe one VGC or doubles draft would be cool. Doubles drafts are really fun too.

 

[Aryan3003]

why no natdex

 

[Techno]

LowTier & LC would make sense as the last two, but vgc would also be cool to see

 

[StreetCredCookie]

hoping to see vgc draft in this tour

 

[Rissoux]

I personally think the community likes SM and ORAS so much as past gens and since we'll be drafting in those metas anyway, i'd love seeing an additional SM and ORAS slot each. SS is only included as a formality but shouldn't be given the same treatment without a signature mechanic available for use.

 

[PJB]

If an older gen of draft is picked, Gen3/Gen4 would be imo the best two to choose from.

 

[Toxinalpaca]

I think there should be a SV low tier draft, as it’s a unique and fun format that almost anyone can play. For the last slot I’d love for it to be VGC. Vgc draft is so damn fun and different from everything else here and adds so much more people into this

 

[DrMario64]

Gen 9 national dex would be fun with the ability to use so many different gimmicks and tools (with whatever restrictions need to happen bc unrestricted tera and z moves are bonkers)

 

[jscurf2]

I think bw draft has been explored enough where it is doable and would be a fun challenge

 

[Swagata Mitra]

Man these draft tour has been really great, really enjoyed my time in these tours and would love to join in the champions league,

Also I would suggest Adding Nat Dex draft with no Z moves & limited tera and low tier draft in the last two slots...draft players really love nat Dex drafts and I also have taken part in a lot of those, and low tier is a preety fun format where I think you can discover a lot of mons which have potential and niche but ar generally ignored in regular drafts

 

[FistToYourDoom]

ADV or bust

 

[Cyril tbh]

Ive played both AAA and CAP draft, but CAP espescially is one of my favorite ways to draft

 

[JD Twigs]

Would love to see a National Dex format without Z moves that is Tera limited added, feel like those leagues make up a large portion of the draft community at this time and a slot for that would be nice. I also think a Low Tier slot for current gen would be nice, say like 12 points or lower from the current SV tiers?

 

[ultraplayer]

I sure hope we get some Ubers, CAP, gen 8 LC, or something interesting like Gen 1, that'd be neat!

Give me SV LC so I can be good at something other than ORAS!

 

[MonkeBoi215]

FFA Draft seems like a great idea let’s make it natdex with z moves and Tera too

another idea is low tier(12 points) super low tier(8 points) and super duper low tier(4 points)

 

[fortunate sun]

As much as i love SM/ORAS (these would be my reasons for signing up), I don't think its practical to give them more than one slot for a standardized tour. Not really enough slots to justify

certainly wouldnt be against it though lmao

 

[EndlessGadgets]

ADV or DPP would be cool options especially to continue exploring these metas that havent been refined that much yet

 

[Arcaninebr 2.0]

De dizer tô muito empolgado as regras são bem boas e sólidas mas algumas coisas foram mas ou menos em relação as banições de Pokémon entendo que e para ficar balançando e para ter mais variedade mas dificultou muito as minhas estratégias pois tive que improvisar para resolver esses furos mas foi até que legal

 

[MonkeBoi215]

I personally think the community likes SM and ORAS so much as past gens and since we'll be drafting in those metas anyway, i'd love seeing an additional SM and ORAS slot each. SS is only included as a formality but shouldn't be given the same treatment without a signature mechanic available for use.

What’s the signature mechanic in ORAS last I recalled USUM has megas too

 

[blittius]

no adv=good tour

no lc= good tour


Yw

 

[Professor Shuckle]

Let each team pick a format to double up between SwSh, USUM and ORAS.

If that is not feasible, then one of the following:
1. Double up SwSh and USUM (sadly ORAS has to be left behind since it is the oldest)
2. Double up SwSh and alternate the 8th slot between USUM and ORAS every week.

 

[a fairy]

I wanted to share my own personal thoughts on the potential format.

The logical final two slots in my eyes are Low Tier and Little Cup, in the style of the two C-Type tournaments we are hosting/will be hosting in the upcoming weeks and months.

Perhaps I put too much thought into the fact that this will be the first DCL, but I think in this situation it is important to not pull in something that is outside of the scope of the circuit’s current plans. While other formats do have value, to add them over formats that exist already in our circuit seems odd to me.

LT and LC are in our circuit after considerable discussion and planning, we have tiering lists for both of them and folks on our staff team and in our community who are invested in both. Adding a different tier would need a tiering structure we do not currently have. While I have no doubt that there are solid tiering lists out there, and perhaps hosts that would allow us to take inspiration, this is a short turnaround for a slot for DCL.

We already have our hands tied due to the release of the first DLC content for SV, requiring us to update a tiering list for the tier that has three slots already. LT and LC by nature of being modern generation tiers will also require some updating, but the difference between creating/adjusting an entirely new list as opposed to managing lists we already have seems like a better use of our time.

We have many opportunities between this DCL and next to run small non-circuit tournaments in formats such as other old-gens, doubles/VGC, or other more niche formats. It’s also not impossible that some of those may be legitimate considerations for the circuit either. We have two tournaments we’ve run/will run this year that can fit into those two final slots for DCL. It makes sense to me to use those formats.

 

[Concept Everything]

The slot allocations I would like to see are the following:

SV No Tera Preview
SV Tera Preview
SV Tera Preview
SS
SS
SM
ORAS
ADV/DPP/Doubles

SV Paldea Dex without Tera preview is where we started as a format, because of this I would like to have one slot return to our roots and have no Tera preview.

Because of how common National Dex Draft is in the Draft community, I believe it would be best to ignore it for this iteration of DCL. I’d like to see SV Paldea Dex with Tera Preview instead, these are our most commonly ran tours and always have the highest signup turnout. This will ensure that more players are given an opportunity to be drafted in case they happened to miss one of the previous tournaments as this format is one of the easier ones to learn.

After SV the most played Draft Format is SS, because the metagame has been developed and the overall consensus of the format being positive I believe this would be a good addition.

SM, this is personally my favorite Draft format, Z-moves and Megas what more could a person ask for. If SS isn’t given a second slot then I would like to have it allocated to SM. It heavily reminds me of a more refined ORAS format which is why I would like to propose two SM instead of ORAS.

ORAS is the starting point for the draft community as a whole, because of this it should be included. Most players currently active in the draft community started in ORAS, because of thisI believe it would be a great addition to DCL.

The next slots are a bit more randomized, although the playerbase for each tier is more niche and diverse than the last I believe it would be good to give them at least some form of recognition.

DPP is the fan favorite generation for a large portion of the playerbase as a whole, because of this there would be a semi sizable turnout for player signups and overall good players not known in the draft community would be more likely to signup even if it was just for this slot.

ADV is my personal favorite metagame of all time, although the draft pool is a lot more limited in the Pokémon and roles you can draft I believe it would be an interesting metagame to see develop and played in a highly competitive setting. The physical special split being included would be interesting in seeing how people build each week to try and counter team each other.

Doubles/VGC this is the last other slot I would like to potentially see, the Doubles community is frequently left out of team tours and with a lot of overall doubles players playing draft it would lead to interesting metagame and counter teaming developments each week.

People either hate or love BW, because of this I’ve decided to not put it in my recommendations. I feel that it’s something a large portion of the player base would not be interested in other than for circuit points or a custom avatar. Because of this the overall skill level and playerbase would be a lot lower than the rest of the tiers I’ve talked about.