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.
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I really love the idea of working with managers and other people to get better week by week. I’d love to be apart of any team!
Managers better put on a good show for the auction draft in IRC, I’m getting some popcorn.
I’m interested to see who gets drafted for this. I hear they’ll all be good guys, with solid team presence
Would be keen to get in on the action with this as a player to play against others. Definitely look forward to this coming around and starting though regardless!
Declaring for the draft.
I’m really interested in seeing how managers allocate their draft pool, because unlike in actual fantasy sports, you can’t exactly quantify a player’s worth in Pokemon (or at least, it’s very difficult). As someone who’s played fantasy sports a lot it’ll be a lot of fun seeing how that unfolds.
Also, players don’t have to be present at the draft, right?
With this draft type, I might actually get picked. Also, how will you decide how much each player’s worth?
Players won’t have to be present for the draft, no.
The worth of each player depends on how much someone wants to spend on them. You could bid for Cybertron to the moon and back, but then you’ll have slim pickings after you spend all your money on one player.
Where’s my mug?
Yeah, there’s only so much value one player can have. A player auctioned for that kind of price would have to win every game they play, and I can’t think of anyone that you can pretty much guarantee a victory for (there’re too many variables in just one game). It’ll have to come down to differentiating between the middle ground players, which will be a task for the managers that I’ll enjoy watching.
THis sounds like so muuch fun. Hope i can participate as a player, but i think i will be undrafted 🙁
I have one question and I apologise if it’s already labelled up there but I’ve given it a few read throughs to be certain.
Is this in Wi-Fi format or is it a physical event where your team must show?
That also means no Pokemon Showdown.
This sounds wonderful! Call a press conference! I’m declaring for the draft! (Nobody shows. Dreams are broken 😛 )
I approve of this message.
I cant wait in ready to prove my worth
Hoping I’ve done enough this year to show I can cut it. The best is yet to come folks, always improving
The draft will be fun to watch in any case
Really looking forward to this one – I’ve learnt a lot over the past year and being noticed on Showdown quite a bit makes me happy and I hope that I’ll be able to participate. Good luck to everybody; this’ll be a great format! 🙂
Whoooooos ready for free agency???
This guy!!!!
For those who want to show their skill before the draft, I’m pretty sure Team Managers will hold “tryouts” as uswhere you can show of your skills.
For those who want to show their skill before the draft, I’m pretty sure Team Managers will hold “tryouts” like last year.
For those who want to show their skill before the draft, I’m pretty sure Team Managers will hold “tryouts” like last year.
I’m new to this, so I just had 2 questions:
– I live in Australia, so am I still eligible for participation?
– I am in the Seniors division in the Official Play!Pokemon tournaments, so can i still play in this?
I AM SO READY!
I WILL SHOW MY WORTH
I’m open to any manager challenges, bring it on lads. I’ll show I’m worth it :3.
How many teams are there going to be?
Last year there were 12 teams, so looks like this year there will be 16?
Hoping I can commentate the draft again, you all know why
Is it because you’re a great guy with a strong team presence?
This looks really interesting, I’m down!
I hope this time Alaka finally picks me… Wut?