Thursday, March 30, 2023

Adjudication for PvP Tournaments

One of my Pokémon Go fellows is a rightfully great Trainer. I know this because that Trainer not only competes in local PvP tournaments and very well in that regard, but also had been asked to become a referee or judge at a prestigious national PvP tournament, part of a certain festival a few months back. That brings to mind that there are some ways for adjudicating (that is, making rulings and resolving problems) in Pokémon Go PvP and its respective tournaments, though this may differ from one tournament to another.

In that (live) tournament, the person I referred to above oversaw one of the matches - the "highlight" match of a round - and could be referred to if a questionable outcome occurred during that match. Ideally, such tournaments, in line with those of the VGC brethren, would need a few more referees or judges that can deal with the issues of the other competitors and provide solutions if the need arises. The means are quite possible for live tournaments and may need to be utilized in the best possible way.

As evident in some remote tournaments, particularly those hosted through the Silph Arena toolkit, they can have referees or judges (that is, "tournament staff") to handle issues. They work on them as they would for live tournaments, except that they would likely require video proof of the battles in question to make the necessary resolutions for the issues that may come up. Of course, Factions, the team competition arm of Silph Arena, already has a special-purpose function for this, which I've already mentioned in a few short thoughts: the dispute submission system and the associated Arena Referees for its management. It becomes clear that even for remote tournaments, this seems necessary.

Even with the barest of information (at least, before the battle), referees or judges can settle conflicts that come up during battles. Yet, they might also benefit from having the information already on hand, which in VGC is handled with the use of "team sheets" or in TCG with "deck lists", the former notably containing information about not just Pokémon species but also their moves among other info. For Pokémon Go, this seems to be a novel prospect, however, and only minor headways seem to be made in this area, with a certain tournament thus far having required Trainers to disclose their moves. After only a couple of years into official World Championship runs, this may be a matter to look into.

Back to that Pokémon Go fellow of mine, that person is someone who many parties depend on in Pokémon Go PvP and matters of judging them, including in the Silph Arena and even now as the individual and team (Factions) progresses in that area. And that's a crucial point of the tournaments, because problems inevitably arise and someone needs to solve those problems as they occur, even if the tools at hand for doing so are meager. At least with the right person and the right ways, there may be little to worry about.

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