Nugget Bridge Circuit Season 3 Set to Begin
Big news for everyone who has been awaiting the next season of the Nugget Bridge Circuit! We’re back, bigger, and better than ever! Black and White are behind us and we now enter the age of X and Y. Along with that big change, the Nugget Bridge Circuit Season will have some major changes.
The most important and newsworthy changes:
The end of the season Nugget Bridge Invitational will have more players (32) and new ways to qualify. Now you don’t have to participate in a glut of Live Tournaments in an attempt to qualify. Like the past the Top 16 from the Live Circuit will receive invites, but in addition to that the Top 8 from the Nugget Bridge Major, the Top 2 Coro Coro Cup teams, and the last Invitational Top 2.
The Nugget Bridge Major will now be “separate” from the Live Tournament Circuit. The tournament will no longer award points towards an invite, but will now just give automatic invites to the Invitational as outlined above. Great prizes and tournament play will still play a part in the Major.
The Nugget Bridge Major will now be Swiss plus Top Cut. The Major has a history of some surprising bracket busters causing big names to lose early, and while we lose that moving to Swiss, the tournament becomes more in line with the modern day Video Game Championships.
A new team based tournament that gives invites to the Invitational for the top 2 teams. The rules will be based on the Coro Coro Cup tournament that was run in Japan during the 2013 VGC season.
Tournaments will no longer be seeded. This was a fun experiment for the first 2 seasons, but it was just more hassle than it was worth. It also often tilted the playing field a bit and we saw the same people get paired up over and over. Tournaments will still be in a bracket, but they will now be randomly assigned.
More than one Live Tournament a week. Still a work in progress and a lot of it depends upon the attendance numbers. If people play, we will continue to provide them a place to.
Late night live tournaments. In a bit of an effort to include Australia and North Americans who can’t make the other times we will begin a trial run of late night live tournaments. If we get the numbers, we will continue running these long term.
Circuit Points have been revamped. With the loss of the Major counting for points and more Live Tournaments, the best finish limit will be changed and points themselves will receive a makeover.
While the Standard ruleset for for the VGC ’14 season has not been announced, here on Nugget Bridge will we use Kalos Dex Only in the meantime. Item clause and Species clause all apply to Nugget Bridge Tournaments. The current rules allow for every Kalos Dex Pokemon with the exception of Yveltal, Xerneas, Mewtwo, and Zygarde. These rules are subject to change at any time and once we get the official ruleset from TPCi we will switch over to them.
The schedule right now isn’t 100% set in stone but what you can look forward to this season:
- Live Tournaments every week from now until around US Nationals time. Days will be subject to change at a moments notice due to unforeseen TPCi influences or other important events in the World of Pokemon.
- The Nugget Bridge Major starting in Late-January/Early-February.
- Coro Coro Cup Rules tournament starting in Mid-April.
- Nugget Bridge Invitational Mid-July.
We here are Nugget Bridge are excited for the upcoming Nugget Bridge Circuit Season and you can find more specific details like schedule and point values in the Online Tournament section of the forums. And last but certainty not least I personally want to thank all of our tournament hosts who help make tournaments on Nugget Bridge possible; without them we couldn’t provide the fun and excitement of the Nugget Bridge Circuit. Next time you play be sure to give some thanks to your host.
About the Author
makiri started playing VGC in 2008 and has been an advocate for VGC play since then. With three Regional Championship victories and multiple other high placings, makiri is a seasoned competitor ready to impart knowledge of the game to others.
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So for the corocoro cup, is there going to be team names? Like all the possibilities of the trios found in the game or otherwise? And how would signing up for teams work? Would there be captains?
If so, I wanna call dibs on The Genies, js.
What are the format of the live tournaments?
I do have some questions about the format. Are we allowed to use Pokemon in the Friend Safari that is in the Kalos dex (e.g. Rough Skin Garchomp)? If one would set up the battle, will it be Double Battle, Flat Rules? Will this be single or double elimination? In addition, will it be best of 1, best of 3, or something else? That’s all the questions I have for now.
Boomguy: Live format, if not told otherwise, usually is single elimination best-of-1.
Knockfan: Yes, yes, and see above.
Pretty amazing changes imo, looking forward to being involved in it!
…Oh, and Islanders to win Corocoro as well?????
Is the circuit played strictly on simulators? Or is on our 3ds. Sorry for a new guy question
Nugget Bridge Circuit games are played on the console; no simulators.
Exact format isn’t 100% decided but I’ll probably just let people come up with their teams and names by themselves. No captains per say but each team would need to come up with their lineup and work together on their in game teams since there can be no duplicate Pokemon across the team.
For now single elimination best of 1, we will occasionally have Swiss and best of 3 in certain circumstances.
Yes! If it can be caught in the game and is part of a Kalos Dex you can use it, thus Friend Safari mons are perfectly legal. Double Battle, Flat Rules, much like the TPCi VGC. Single elimination, best of 1 as mentioned above.
It is strictly played on 3DS with rare exceptions made to play on simulators.
Awesome then im pumped
how do I sign up?
In?
Where please?
The tournament threads will tell you how to sign up in the OP. For live tournaments, when the sign up phase is going on just simply post your 3DS friend code to be signed up for the live tourney.
Are egg moves that can only be gotten from non-Kalos dex pokemon allowed or no?
If the Pokémon is in the Kalos Pokedex (External), and is not Yveltal, Xerneas, Zygrade or Zygarde or whatever it’s called, or Mewtwo, it is allowed. There are no restrictions on moves or anything.
Well. This is awesome.
When do you guys update the rating information? 2 weeks of live tournaments has gone by already
Is there anyway to watch games from the live tournaments, or really any of the tournaments, after the fact? Seeing others battle in a competitive environment I feel is one of the best ways to understand the game and become a more complete player (right after playing of course).
Waiting on a few lives to finish so I can make sure the numbers I have for winning are right and not too big to overcome for non-winners.
Sometimes people will be streaming, so if you check the right sidebar you can often see who is streaming during the tournaments.
Is that a mistake? x_x
No?
Sorry but I have another question, do tournaments always stay Bo1 or do we ever do a swiss and top cut?
There are usually Swiss tournaments prior to Regionals so people get practice for that. Swiss tournaments are very time consuming though so we don’t do them all that often. The Major will be Swiss but doesn’t take place over one day so a lot more manageable.
ok, thank you
I’m relatively happy with how the new points are working out so you can check out your current rating External.
Just a reminder, things like the best finish limit may change later on since that is not something I can accurately emulate with the current results.
Sorry for this noob question, but I am a noob. Can we drop on this tournament at any time or do you have to start from the beginning. I am just starting out playing competitively outside Showdown so some of these topics are outside my understanding. I am not even sure what a Swiss Tournament is. Teach me wise ones.
You can play in any tournament from the start. In the OP there are a number of pre-scheduled tournaments, if you signup for those during the signup period then you can play in those tournaments. The same goes for other unscheduled tournaments, if you signup during the signup period then you may play in those tournaments. You must signup to play in a tournament, you cannot just join in the middle of one.
Swiss tournaments are where you play a set number of rounds win or lose. Even if you lost you may still be able to be declared the winner later.
Extremely helpful. Thank you.
So if I want to Participate for Friday’s tournament 9PM EST, I want to sign up around 10PM Central correct?
No, you sign up at 8PM Central.
Really? but if the tournament starts at 9 Est, then it would be 11 Central.
Which time zone are you talking about? I thought you meant CST.
EDIT: NVM, i’m stupid, i was looking at PST time instead of EST…..Yeah you’re right it suppose to start 11 pm CST, sign up starts at 10 PM CST.