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 →
If there is a tie for the last playoff spot, will all tied teams make the playoffs?
Nah, rps tourney to break ties.
I will graciously accept the management position offered to me by ZachDro
This looks amazing :D.
Biosci should probably answer the question in regards to doing this before or after mid-season, but I believe you can sell players back mid-season and get a full refund.
I could get behind that
No divisions this year. The schedule has already been created, but I’m waiting until the last four teams are announced to draw names for the slots. You can see the setup External. I simply put 16 teams into a schedule generator and randomized 8 rounds of matches and made sure teams couldn’t play each other more than once. I’ll probably have one of the commissioners draw team names to match the letters.
Really excited for this year’s NPA! Love that there’s going to be more teams and bigger rosters this year so more people have a shot to participate.
The ‘buying players’ is also a pretty amazing concept just to level the playing field and ultimately, at least ensure some lesser known players actually have a legitimate opportunity to be a part of a team.
I was kinda bummed about not being chosen last year but heck, there were hundreds of players not chosen and this year it’s probably going to be the same case now that our community has grown so much. Regardless, NPA is genuinely one of the most exciting online tournaments in VGC from the draft to team shenanigans to NPA News.
I’d love to work with Kinneas on NPA News this year if he’s willing! My schedule will definitely open around mid August and early September is always a low-period at Uni. Who knows, maybe we’ll have more than three issues this year?
Really excited for this years NPA, even if I’ll just be a spectator. I’m hoping that over the next year I’ll grow in respect throughout the community to be chosen as a player. Good luck to everyone!
How do I join a team? I wanna play 🙂
An update on NPA news:
Right now, the (approved) situation is that NPA News will take two forms this year: a weekly video segment, featuring Dozz with help from Duy and me (and feathers?), and the fine literature magazine written by me and Crow. The video will likely be a bit more serious and feature recaps, interviews, best plays, power rankings, and whatever else comes to Dozz’s head. The magazine will hopefully run articles along the lines of what made NPA News great. With this setup, we hope to create content that appeals to everyone.
We for the most part are not looking for help with the news. We’ll contact you if we need an interview or a quote or something, but please don’t flood our inboxes asking to help out.
Dozz is already in the works on the first video episode! Keep an eye out for the handsome Englishman as he brings you the biggest story of the week, and with the help of his guests, discusses what to expect from a season in the NPA, and outlines some of the changes for this season. A brief history of the NPA will also be provided for those newer users and also the users too old to remember.
We look forward to bringing you the scoop!
Yeah people still don’t know how to read the OP.
I want join in!
, got a question. I’m gonna pick the team that I want join in?
No… if a manager thinks you’re good enough for his team, he’ll draft you. You don’t get to just choose a team to play on.
Thanks for answering my question Aaron Zheng, I need to practice for sure to be good enough. Are you one of the Managers?
No, I’ll be playing.
With full refund, it would be the best interest for everyone to spend all of there money in the first draft because any players they grab will be essentially free come midseason (sell them back at full price). Towards the end of the initial draft (when the players are cheaper), coaches can just grab as many players as possible because even if they don’t play you are preventing another team from grabbing them as a free agent. The full refund method does not penalize “bench loading.”
I want to mention this now although I feel it should go without saying.
Being a part of the NPA is a commitment. Whether it is being a manager or a player, you have a responsibility to allot a certain amount of time to pokemon each week. I understand that there are many who are eager (perhaps some more eager than others) to join the association, but before you try to prove your worth before the managers who are NOT even finalized yet, let’s take it back a notch and slow it down. Look at your schedule and look at the NPA’s. Can you make time for the NPA? Many of you start school around the middle of the season. Others have a job. Please take that into account. Some managers last year experienced problems with commitment issues. We do not want people rushing into the draft or rushing into a team and fail to commit to your team when other things comes up.
Also, read the freaking OP before you jump on and say you wanna join. How do you even know you wanna join without reading the details of NPA?
Hoping to return as a player this year. I think that honestly the NPA is the highlight of the season; it features the best players in the world all going head-to-head in a format that allows them all to show everyone what they’re made of; and most importantly for those competing, you form friendships and alliances that last so much longer than the duration of the tournament. The whole community is involved, from managing to playing to spectating to speculating and predicting results every week. People make an effort to stream, people make an effort to publicise their matches; it’s a great opportunity for the whole community to learn from some of the best in the business, and a fantastic way to fill the off-season.
Hype <3
Wow, someone’s jumpin’ the gun a bit there!
Way to misquote me!
When mods can no longer remove the “last edited” message, they’ll know who to blame.
unreality was here rushan is a nerd!
I’d be interested in managing a team. I’m not gonna be drafted anyways.
This sounds like a lot of fun!
Hope to be apart of it.
Sounds cool, looking forward to more news
Will there be a wildcard meta battle? They were the best bit, since you could use old teams. Though most of it would need to be done on sims, unless they are gen 6 metas (VGC 14, battle spot, mono type, etc…) or old VGCs adapted to gen 6 rules.
You mean the OP actually has relevant info???!!!!
The sarcasm is real here. :X
Even though I’m upset I can’t use 6 leftovers.
honestly got no idea how this will go for a first timer to this style game, but sure ill offer my self up to play, when the time brings itself of course
Why the decision for no wildcard slot?
I would assume it’s because the wifi doesn’t work on ds games anymore. That, and ps wouldn’t do these metas any justice, either
I’ve been away from NB for too long, so I will be attempting to make my comeback this NPA. That is, if anyone wants to waste a roster slot on me! (Aiming to be Mr. Irrelevant.)