Petition to Change The Double Elimination Format to Swiss Round System in Pokémon: Go

We, the undersigned members of the competitive Pokémon: Go community, put forth this petition to The Pokémon Company International and Play! Pokémon events in favor of altering the current Double Elimination Format at Pokémon Regional and International tournaments to a Swiss format in Pokémon: Go. We set forth the proposal of this change for the following reasons.

Disadvantages of the Double Elimination System

The current Double Elimination System has a number of disadvantages that discourage players from beginning or continuing competitive play, as well as discourages a healthier metagame.

1. The Double Elimination format is highly volatile, rendering it difficult for players to get full enjoyment out of the Pokémon Regional and International Tournaments.
   1. Over 50% of players are eliminated after playing only two rounds.
      1. This leads to less overall tournament play for players, when said players have often incurred significant financial expenditures to travel to these Regional and International Tournaments.
   2. The Double Elimination format’s volatility means players of exceptionally high caliber, such as previous Regional and International Tournament winners, can and often are eliminated 0-2, which discourages continued play.
2. “Rock Paper Scissors” (“RPS”)
   1. The term “Rock Paper Scissors” (hereafter “RPS”) has become highly popularized in the competitive Pokémon Go community due to the fact that clear counters and advantages exist within the metagame to certain Pokémon, and a “correct” choice (though luck is a majority factor) will automatically win the game for one player and the other will automatically lose. This is another discouraging factor to new players and to continued play.
      1. The purpose of this petition is not to suggest a change to this system; it is simply a part of the game. However, its existence makes Double Elimination a much less suitable format than Swiss for Pokémon tournament play.
   2. A brief explanation of RPS: If two players each have six Pokémon on their teams, and said teams are well-balanced, there is always a chance that even with two identical teams facing one another, one player will, based overwhelmingly on luck, have the “ideal” alignment to win the game. Any subsequent Pokémon swap will be counter-swapped down to the last Pokémon.
      1. Certain teams unequivocally win or lose certain matchups. There is no neutral play; essentially, if one player’s lineup is incorrect, a loss is automatic.
      1. Why this matters for the Double Elimination Format: As stated above, losing a game based solely off of a poor matchup, and being eliminated from a tournament due to such factors, is disincentivizing to both new players interested in competing and to current players that are actively involved in the game.
3. With the current Double Elimination format, players are siphoned into groups with differing starting times. These different starting times and groups create confusion.
   1. For example, at the North American International Championships in June 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana, some groups began at 9AM while others started at 1PM and later.
      1. This gives extra time and potential unfair advantages to players starting in later brackets as they are able to take more time to plan their teams, analyze the morning metagame, and have additional rest.
      2. Since call times for players’ groups are not posted until right before the event, undue stress is placed upon players due to the lack of certainty and preparation.
      3. Solution Offered: This could easily be solved by implementing the same rule system that is in place for the Video Game Championships (hereafter “VGC”), wherein a player must input their team on RK9 by the morning of the event, and all players commence tournament play at the same time in the morning.

Benefits of the Swiss Round System

1. The Swiss system is favored for its ability to provide a clear ranking of players with relatively few rounds, ensuring that participants play a balanced mix of opponents. It is particularly efficient for large tournaments where playing every possible match would be impractical.
   1. As has been seen, the competitive Pokémon Go community has been growing, which means more people are attending each tournament, and a Swiss system is now more practical to implement.
2. The number of rounds will be fixed with n number of participants, allowing for increased predictability, certainty, and timing.
3. The Swiss pairing system enables more participants to play against players of similar caliber to them, instead of randomly losing 0-2, thus being discouraged from attending future events.
   1. Under the Swiss system, players will be paired against someone who performed similarly to them in next round, hence players will feel like any incremental progress actually matters.
4. No eliminations will allow for more play for those who want the experience and have often spent significant amounts of money to attend the Regional and International tournaments.
   1. More Overall Play: It is a highly relevant point that more players will get more play overall at tournaments in the event of this change. The guaranteed engagement between more competitors would be beneficial to the growth of the game, especially since there is no other way that people play this format, outside a few grassroots events run by local organizers.
5. Players will be rewarded for consistency across the tournament instead of certain round wins essentially counting for nothing (as there difference between 2-1 vs 2-0 in the current Double Elimination format).
6. Players will feel more encouraged to try off-meta Pokémon, which will lead to healthier metagame overall and thus more enjoyable events.

Summary

The current Double Elimination format discourages players from attending and competing in Pokémon: Go Regional and International tournaments. It is an unhealthy system for the game due to the way the game itself operates. Both VGC and the Trading Card Game (“TCG”) were once single-elimination formats, but eventually did away with this in favor of the Swiss system. It is only natural for Pokémon: Go to follow suit, so as to create more homogeneity within the game itself, increase predictability and certainty, and allow more players to actually play in the tournaments they have traveled so far to attend.