National Pokémon Association 3 is Starting Soon
It’s been almost a year since the last season of the National Pokémon Association started, and we’re back at it for another! Last season had 12 teams with 72 players total fight it out for that #1 spot on top, which led to the Seafoam Islanders’ victory. This season we have a few changes from last season that I’m sure some people might be excited about. Unlike other tournament held here on Nugget Bridge, the NPA does not give any Nugget Bridge Circuit points.
For those who don’t know, the NPA is a team tournament held here on Nugget Bridge that lets players join together and work as a team to try to best the competition. All 16 teams play in 8 rounds with the top 6 making playoffs. The last remaining team in the playoffs will become the champions for this season. Unlike the Dodrio Cup, there are no special rules that the players must abide by. All matches will be played in the Standard format. Just a reminder the rules are:
- Players must use Pokémon X or Pokémon Y
- All matches are played in Doubles format
- Pokemon above Level 50 will be brought down to 50 for the match while those below 50 will stay as-is
- Players choose 4 of their 6 registered Pokemon after team preview
- Species Clause: No two Pokémon can share the same Pokédex number.
- Item Clause: No two Pokémon can hold the same held item.
- Pokémon must be bred or caught in Kalos
- Pokémon must be part of the Central Kalos Dex (1-150), Coastal Kalos Dex (1-153), or Mountain Kalos Dex (1-147)
Players sign ups will start August 1st. There will be weekly coverage going on throughout this season, so even if you aren’t drafted be sure to follow all of that!
Tournament Structure
- Each week, teams will go head to head in a fight to win the best of 6 games. So the winning team for the week will have to win 4 or more games. If the week goes 3-3, the week is recorded as a tie for each team. A win is worth two points, and a tie is worth one point.
- The 6 matches will consist of 6 standard ruleset matches between each member of the team.
- There are 8 weeks in the season, two weeks for playoffs, and a week for finals for a total of 11 weeks
- Each team will consist of the 1 manager and a minimum of 6 battlers. Each week, each manager must submit a roster of what 6 players they are using for the week to Duy and Biosci. Managers are not allowed to play in the weekly games, but are encouraged to help the team practice.
- Managers must post saying they’re subbing an inactive player out to put in another player. Once a player is subbed in that week, they must either play or the match will be decided on activity.
- All games will be played on Nintendo 3DS systems using Pokémon X or Pokémon Y
Managers
A thread will go up Saturday July 19th to see who is interested in managing this season. Duy and Biosci will personally decide who manages each of the teams with some input from advisors. All managers will be decided upon by the end of July 30th.
Draft
Players will have a chance to sign up from August 1st to August 17th, and the draft will be held on August 22nd (subject to change). The draft will happen in the synIRC channel #npa. The draft this year will be an auction, which you can learn about here (if you have questions about it, just comment below). As a manager’s turn comes around, they will quickly choose who to nominate and the bidding will commence. It’s recommended that a manager come into the draft with a set of players already in mind to draft.
Details of the draft will be worked out soon.
Trades
If teams wish, they may trade for players from other teams for players of their own or cash for the mid-season auction. They will first start out by proposing the trade to the team manager they want to deal with. If both managers agree to the trade, PM the trade info to Duy and Biosci using the forum PM system. Once you receive approval, the trade is official and considered done. If a trade is done mid-week, the player swap is done immediately even if the player still has a match yet to finish that week. The player can be subbed out for the team substitute or subbed in for the new player.
No more trades may be made after mid-season is over.
Mid-Season and All-Star Week
There will be a mid-season break after week 4 for teams to pick up new players in the mid-season auction and conduct final trades for the season. While this is going on, the current 12 players with the best records will be able to participate in All-Star Week.
Playoffs
The playoffs will contain the top 6 teams from the season. The top 2 teams will earn a round 1 bye while the remaining 4 fight it out to move onto top 4.
Related Posts
Nugget Bridge Update →
GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset →
2016 Pokémon World Championships Date & Location Surfaces →
Looking forward to another great season! Islanders looking to defend the title =] Good luck to all the managers and players!
Is there going to be a farm league this year or too early to tell?
Will there be more than 3 issues of NPA News this time?
Hey! Come join us at #celesticstars
As a manager last year I learned not to build my team around one super star who could end up retiring and leaving the league early to pursue his political dreams. However, we still advanced to the playoffs and put up a great fight in our top 4 loss. This year we are poised to go even deeper in the playoffs and look to make a run at the championship with a brand new team of players. Look out NPA.
Will the Flames make a comeback under my leadership, or will I be passing on the torch to a different manager? WHO KNOWS??
I’m away on the 22nd, and I’m going on vacation in late October… who will carry the Flames to victory?
Auction, eh? I did a few of those for fantasy football leagues. We had some crazy things like people blowing $80 of their $200 budget on Adrian Peterson or LeSean McCoy and then they would be left with $1 rookies or 4th stringers to fill out their teams. The Pokemon comparison is like buying the rights to Mewtwo then having to fill out your team with Surskit and Caterpie. The teams that won, in general, were balanced (though that could be mitigated by playing free agency well, like those lucky people who picked up Josh Gordon…).
So, basically, I look forward to watching people throwing money around all over the place in a desperate attempt to acquire all the imoutos, all the Magmas, or ryuzaki. May the best spender win.
Oh yes. Want to do this and prove my worth.
Hype
I’ll try to keep the spreadsheet up to date with the teams being decided and whatnot, if you ever notice anything during the season that’s wrong or have any suggestions before the sheet layout becomes permanent, send them my way.
In other news, #kakaw
I just had the silly idea of managing. Should I manage? Should I play? Should I _____? The world may never know.
Only if you manage something silly like the Dewford Dewgongongongongs.
Looking forward to seeing some great battles among top players. I would love to play but I wouldn’t get picked.
It seems really fun but I don’t think I am gonna get picked
Dewgongalongagongs? I like this Randy. I like this.
This is interesting me, but I have pretty much no knowledge about how the team drafting works. For a new player like me who’s just looking to participate, anyone have a primer of things I should know? Like, how to sign up and all that jazz.
You could read the “Draft” portion of the opening post.
I’ve been trying to get my MLG CoD clan into Pokemon, and I think this is a great way to do it! Even if I don’t, I still plan on entering the draft myself
I’m down, I’ll be picked in the last round with the last pick :3. I’m confident in my skill set to make some noise!
I am new to Nugget Bridge any chance I can participate in the tournament?
I hope I don’t suck this time!
This looks fun as hell. I’d suck as a manager. So going to try as a player, hah!
So I am new to VGC this season with my Nats this year being my first in-person event (finished 6-3 picking up my last lost in round 9 to a WG Aegislash) and can therefore assume I won’t get picked up. Would you consider having a LCQ type tourney where top 6 finishers make up a team.
Going to try to manage again this year, should be a blast
I’m even more involved with the community this year and definitely know what makes a good team. Although if I’m not if make a solid later round pick too.
Auction draft should be fun, I am looking forward to playing in this!
Definitely won’t attempt at managing, but I’ll attempt at being drafted ^-^
Sounds fun! ^^ I don’t have the experience to manage, but I’ll sign up as a player when the time comes. >: 3
Hope there is a way to prove some worth before the draft, I haven’t been super active in any of the regional tournaments this year but I am definitely capable of succeeding in this meta, I have followed the circuit religiously and would love to participate!
So if we have 6 players who want to be in a team, what are the chances we’ll all get onto the same team?
This sounds like fun
Auction draft sounds awesome, should make things more balanced. Should assign people a point value to start with so it won’t be abused.