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Showdown

Competitive Pokemon battles: a ranked queue with ELO, leaderboards and seasons, player and automated tournaments, draft tournaments, and the Draft Factory format. Built on Battlecore.

What it does

  • Ranked queue. Players queue for a format (a ruleset). Showdown pairs two players, checks both teams against the format rules, shows a team preview, sends both to an arena and starts the battle. The result changes ELO and is saved to match history.
  • Ranked rewards. Both players get money after a ranked match. Playing the same opponent over and over pays less each time, and also moves ELO less.
  • Leaderboards and seasons. Per-format leaderboards, past seasons, personal stats and history.
  • Tournaments. Players and staff create single-elimination tournaments for any format. Staff can also set up automated tournaments that run from templates.
  • Draft tournaments. Players draft their team from a staff-made Pokemon pool, then move to the events server to play the bracket.
  • Draft Factory. A ranked format with the official Showdown Gen 9 Draft Factory matchups. Teams are handed out, not brought, and the match is played on the events server.
  • Mutual draws. In a Showdown battle, /endbattle offers a draw instead of quitting. The opponent must accept. A ranked draw changes no ELO and pays nothing.
  • Watching. Match starts are announced in chat with a click-to-watch link.

Requires Battlecore. Server-side only. Clients install nothing.

How players use it

/showdown (aliases /sd, /ranked) opens the main menu. Left side: Ranked Queue, Leaderboard, Arenas, Past Seasons. Right side: Tournament Hub, Tournament History.

Play ranked:

  1. Open /sd, click Ranked Queue, and left-click a format. Or type /sd queue gen9ou.
  2. Your team is checked against the format. If it breaks a rule, you are told which one.
  3. When matched, both players see a team preview and pick a lead. If you wait too long a lead is picked for you.
  4. After a short countdown you are sent to an arena. When the battle ends you go back where you were.

Right-click any format in the queue, leaderboard or tournament menus to see its full rules. /sd ruleset info <format> shows the same thing in chat.

Command What it does
/sd queue <format> Join a ranked queue
/sd leave Leave the queue
/sd status See your queue status
/sd stats [format] [player] ELO and win/loss record
/sd leaderboard <format> [page] Top players for a format
/sd history [player] [page] Recent matches
/sd watch <arena> Watch a match in that arena
/sd tournament Open the Tournament Hub
/sd tournament join <id> Join a tournament
/sd tournament bracket [id] See the bracket
/endbattle In a Showdown battle: offer or accept a draw

You cannot queue while you are in a tournament or already in a match.

Draft tournaments: when the draft starts, take turns picking Pokemon in the draft menu. If time runs out, a pick is made for you. After the draft you are moved to the events server, where the bracket is played with your drafted team. Your own Pokemon are not touched.

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