As we bid farewell to this iteration of the tour and I finally acquire the permissions to write in this subforum; I want to bring up a concern in regards to the tour setup and possible steps that can be taken to avoid it in the future. This is regarding Smogon Tour , one of the most prestigious and historical tournaments on this forum. Its format is clearly distinct and unique from your more standard tournaments, which is exactly what makes it so popular. The close proximity of games gives a plethora of competitive matches for spectators to watch, whilst allowing the players to play successive high calibre games without the need to wait several weeks. And obviously, with the tournament being in such a distinctive format, it’s been remodelled several times in the past few years in order to “perfect” it. Whether that be tiers or an increase in the number of tournaments in a week. But there’s one big flaw which has been brought up several times, yet keeps getting overlooked. Timings.
Addressing the elephant in the room, the current times are incredibly unsuitable for those in Asian and Oceanic time zones. Given the growth of these communities in recent times, it feels quite unfair to brush this legitimate concern aside.
Current Timings:
• 6 pm GMT -4 on Fridays
• 4 pm GMT -4 on Saturdays
• 2 pm GMT -4 on Sundays.
Translation to some Asian/Oceanic countries:
India: (3:30AM Saturday, 1:30AM Sunday and 11:30PM Sunday)
China: (6AM Saturday, 4AM Sunday, 2AM Monday)
Australia: (10AM Saturday, 8AM Sunday, 6AM Monday during their summer when daylight savings are reserved ; 8AM Saturday , 6AM Sunday , 4AM Monday otherwise)
Majority of these timings are very early in the morning, which collide with unavoidable activities such as sleep and work. And again, this is just a major inconvenience for most people. The only really “reasonable” time listed above is the Friday timing for Australia. You could make an argument for India’s Sunday timing being sensible, but a lot of these tours drag on for 2+ hours, and roughly lasting until 2AM, which interferes with the sleep schedule of many.
Growth of Asian Communities on Smogon:
Roughly 8 years have passed since the last change in tournament timings, around Season 14. Tony also made a thread concerning this topic roughly 3 years ago. Notable time has passed since both of these changes/proposals respectively, and Asian communities in particular have experienced significant growth. Several more Asian based teams are competing in the likes of WCoP and POWC, with the percentage of signups from Asian/Oceanic gradually increasing within recent times.
Although it is not by virtue of the timings alone , the representation of Asia + Oceania in ST has been skewed to a great extent in recent editions of the tour. I have compiled the data of the qualifiers of the past 5 seasons in order to get my point across more directly / visually :-
Proposal:
There has been a substantial growth of Asian communities within Smogon since previous proposals of changing the times. Right now, it is practically impossible for anyone living in Asian/some Oceanic countries to compete. It wouldn’t be fair to neglect these growing communities and persist with these inconvenient timings, especially when this is the only official tournament which occurs twice a year. A participant from the US has three suitable timings to choose from, whilst only being allowed to select a maximum of two. Asian/Oceanic communities virtually have 0, which honestly should not be the case for a tournament that occurs as frequently as this one
.
I’d like to make a proposal for the change in the existing timings to (one of) the following:
•9PM GMT -4 on Fridays
• 5AM GMT -4 on Saturdays
• 1PM GMT -4 on Sundays.
Conversions:
For Friday:
For Saturday:
For Sundays:
This proposal aims to give 2 reasonable times for each “major” timezone to attend. Albeit some time zones have more favourable times to attend, it is still way more inclusive than previously. The screenshots above aid to help visualisation, so the dates can be ignored.
UTC-7: 6PM and 10AM are reasonable.
UTC-4: 9PM and 1PM are reasonable.
UTC-3: 10PM and 2PM are reasonable.
UTC+1: 10AM and 6PM are reasonable.
UTC+2: 11AM and 7PM are reasonable.
UTC+5:30: 2:30PM and 10:30PM are reasonable.
UTC+8: 5PM and 9AM are reasonable.
UTC+10: 11AM and 7PM are reasonable.
These are obviously some significant, imperfect suggestions. And in a hypothetical, reasonable, situation where a time change is seriously considered, these should be further discussed, even if they’re not as significant. Any change should be changed, especially if it can benefit growth by catering to quite a growing playerbase.
The other proposal is potentially having different times for each smogon tournament season. One that caters to the wider demographic, whereas the other one caters to the current demographic. With a tournament that is as unique and frequent as this, there shouldn’t be a reason for those with unfavourable time zones should suffer by not being able to participate.
Time changes are something that have been discussed in the past, and with the constant growth of Asian communities, I feel like something, however small, should be considered.
Addressing the elephant in the room, the current times are incredibly unsuitable for those in Asian and Oceanic time zones. Given the growth of these communities in recent times, it feels quite unfair to brush this legitimate concern aside.
Current Timings:
• 6 pm GMT -4 on Fridays
• 4 pm GMT -4 on Saturdays
• 2 pm GMT -4 on Sundays.
Translation to some Asian/Oceanic countries:
India: (3:30AM Saturday, 1:30AM Sunday and 11:30PM Sunday)
China: (6AM Saturday, 4AM Sunday, 2AM Monday)
Australia: (10AM Saturday, 8AM Sunday, 6AM Monday during their summer when daylight savings are reserved ; 8AM Saturday , 6AM Sunday , 4AM Monday otherwise)
Majority of these timings are very early in the morning, which collide with unavoidable activities such as sleep and work. And again, this is just a major inconvenience for most people. The only really “reasonable” time listed above is the Friday timing for Australia. You could make an argument for India’s Sunday timing being sensible, but a lot of these tours drag on for 2+ hours, and roughly lasting until 2AM, which interferes with the sleep schedule of many.
Growth of Asian Communities on Smogon:
Roughly 8 years have passed since the last change in tournament timings, around Season 14. Tony also made a thread concerning this topic roughly 3 years ago. Notable time has passed since both of these changes/proposals respectively, and Asian communities in particular have experienced significant growth. Several more Asian based teams are competing in the likes of WCoP and POWC, with the percentage of signups from Asian/Oceanic gradually increasing within recent times.
Although it is not by virtue of the timings alone , the representation of Asia + Oceania in ST has been skewed to a great extent in recent editions of the tour. I have compiled the data of the qualifiers of the past 5 seasons in order to get my point across more directly / visually :-
Proposal:
There has been a substantial growth of Asian communities within Smogon since previous proposals of changing the times. Right now, it is practically impossible for anyone living in Asian/some Oceanic countries to compete. It wouldn’t be fair to neglect these growing communities and persist with these inconvenient timings, especially when this is the only official tournament which occurs twice a year. A participant from the US has three suitable timings to choose from, whilst only being allowed to select a maximum of two. Asian/Oceanic communities virtually have 0, which honestly should not be the case for a tournament that occurs as frequently as this one
.
I’d like to make a proposal for the change in the existing timings to (one of) the following:
•9PM GMT -4 on Fridays
• 5AM GMT -4 on Saturdays
• 1PM GMT -4 on Sundays.
Conversions:
For Friday:
For Saturday:
For Sundays:
This proposal aims to give 2 reasonable times for each “major” timezone to attend. Albeit some time zones have more favourable times to attend, it is still way more inclusive than previously. The screenshots above aid to help visualisation, so the dates can be ignored.
UTC-7: 6PM and 10AM are reasonable.
UTC-4: 9PM and 1PM are reasonable.
UTC-3: 10PM and 2PM are reasonable.
UTC+1: 10AM and 6PM are reasonable.
UTC+2: 11AM and 7PM are reasonable.
UTC+5:30: 2:30PM and 10:30PM are reasonable.
UTC+8: 5PM and 9AM are reasonable.
UTC+10: 11AM and 7PM are reasonable.
These are obviously some significant, imperfect suggestions. And in a hypothetical, reasonable, situation where a time change is seriously considered, these should be further discussed, even if they’re not as significant. Any change should be changed, especially if it can benefit growth by catering to quite a growing playerbase.
The other proposal is potentially having different times for each smogon tournament season. One that caters to the wider demographic, whereas the other one caters to the current demographic. With a tournament that is as unique and frequent as this, there shouldn’t be a reason for those with unfavourable time zones should suffer by not being able to participate.
Time changes are something that have been discussed in the past, and with the constant growth of Asian communities, I feel like something, however small, should be considered.
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