Tournament: Raid Group Voyager Cup

The voyage of the Voyager theme for SLA Pokémon Go tournaments also has to pass through my raid group, and so my group held its tournament (cup) on this very day. Due to current circumstances and the impacts thereof, it is likewise a remote tournament as with my raid group's Toxic Cup last month. Admittedly, the way things are executed remotely has its ups and downs - some things to like and not to like - and those things are apparent for this tournament and the general course of things as they were for the previous one.

The composition of participants for this tournament was not much different from the previous one; there were those from my raid group, those that still maintain ties whether near or far, and and those that are just loosely linked, including one of the top national Trainers, who has Elite status. What was quite different is that this tournament only had 27 participants (26 by the end), which is low by most remote tournaments. What might be a contributing factor is that the current time of year might be regarded as one of "detachment" with other affairs, and therefore not as many wanted to take part (or could - 16 were actually interested but didn't follow up, and 4 failed to check in).

Another contributing factor may be that the participants have conflicting affairs - as in, other tournaments taking place at or nearly the same time. Because of the remote format, it becomes possible to have very many tournaments in which a Trainer can participate, and sometimes some of those tournaments may overlap. In the case of this one, another tournament partially overlapped the first few rounds of this tournament, and that one was quite problematic. My raid fellows who organized the tournament then quickly laid down a few ground rules in order to keep the tournament fair and going. Aside from that, it was a matter of battling.

There were only five rounds in this tournament, but I didn't fare too well in any of them. In the first, third, and fourth rounds, I lost twice and won once, while I blew out in the fifth. The only consolation for me was a bye win in the second round, aside from the three minor battle wins. In all, I finished fourth from the bottom, one of my worst showings yet. I also met no one whom I had already befriended, requiring me to add and remove Trainers in between rounds; it is probably the most arduous part of these remote tournaments aside from the battles themselves, which may be no-brainers given the right teams.

I enjoy the ability to spar with many others beyond my raid group, even though it may be considered cumbersome to some extent, especially if I'm not already friends with them before. Sometimes, this may also make things protracted; it occurred to me in this tournament for the last round, and my match became the very last one to be completed after waiting for around an hour. Even with the relaxed stipulation of a lax-timed last round, it may put things on edge as well. And as with the previous tournament, delays and dropouts did occur.

It should still be appreciated that everyone can compete, even in these difficult and strange times, with the same format but a few changes, most particularly from different places. That is something to like even with the changes that are necessary for this to occur, which may lead to some things that are less liked. And with that, the voyage of my raid group's tournaments continues, likely expecting the next theme. There ought to be some things - hopefully a lot of things - to be liked at that point as well.

One year ago: Raising the Pokémon Go Level Cap
Two years ago: Working with Shuffle's Item Limits
Three years ago: In Pursuit of Collections