Tournament: Raid Group Forest Cup

Before the month ends, my raid group certainly has to hold the tournament or cup for the Forest theme, and that happened to be today, the very last day of the month. This month had a lot going on (aside from the obvious current circumstances), so the tournament was forced to be scheduled on this very day. That is still better than no tournament at all, since my raid group is in it for the long haul anyway and needs to serve the needs of its fighting Trainers as well as that of faraway guests thanks to the stand-in remote format.

Unfortunately, it seems the last-moment circumstance took a toll on the tournament. This time, only 17 participants were present at the time check-in was closed, and one dropped soon after with another dropped later on for continued absence during the matches, leaving 15. Three others didn't check in, essentially dropping out just before it started; 13 others stated interest but didn't follow up, which is a shame, since they could have made the tournament more lively. This tournament, by all standards, had a rather small number of participants, unlike most previous ones.

Like the previous tournament, the tournament staff also laid down a few ground rules. Using the 10-minute window for "technical difficulties", if a Trainer did not respond to a challenge request for a match within that time, there was the consideration to declare a loss for the not-responding Trainer, and this happened for the Trainer who was continually absent for the matches, who was eventually dropped after the third round. A timer system was also implemented, though matches that progressed rather slowly due to connection issues obviated the system.

As with some recent tournaments, I didn't do so well in terms of rankings: I was third from the bottom, not including the two who were dropped. However, in terms of winnings, they seem to be more evenly spread out; everyone won at least once and 10 won at least twice not counting bye wins. I salvaged my only match win in the third round and I had a close call in the fourth and a bye in the fifth; the rest was a washout. This was even with what seems to be a considerably OK team of Pokémon. Something about my execution doesn't seem to be right. Another interesting thing occurred: I only had to remove and add one friend (a common occurrence in remote tournaments as I've previously mentioned) and that friend is someone I wish to be friends with, while I fought the same Trainer twice in two rounds for the first time ever. Otherwise, things still turned out "meh".

At this point, everyone is ready to move on. It's the end of the month and the theme, and everyone is ready for a new theme and new challenges starting tomorrow - more on the former soon. At least before moving on, my raid group had the chance to hold the necessary tournament for the theme. Not many may have participated this time, but that's the least of the problems (aside from that which occurred with a few participants in this one). There is always a chance for certain happenings during the tournaments, and this tournament had a bit of that.

One year ago: A New Pokémon "Wave"

Two years ago: Off We Go... to Alola!

Three years ago: I Need More Rumble World Players