Scheduled Smacks have always been a staple in the tournament scene, being the go-to tournament for weekly knockout brackets. Unfortunately, in recent years, the applicant pool has taken a turn for the worst. Either due to a smaller pool of interested parties, or stagnancy within the tournament scene, is unknown. Fortunately, we are taking steps to try and rectify one of those. June 8th will be the official last ride for Scheduled Smacks under the current tiered rules format. As of June 15th, the format will officially migrate to Brawl rules.

Long live Scheduled Smacks!

Historically, Scheduled Smacks have run on a tiered format, divided by TW levels. This format led to the unfortunate problem that if only 7 people applied in one bracket, and 7 in the next bracket, all 14 would be unable to participate due to not enough entrants. Under the new Brawl format, TW will still play a part in dividing the brackets, but the rules allow for more flexibility in populating brackets. With the new flexibility, 8 of the previous 14 coaches would be able to participate in a tournament, leading to considerably fewer denied applications.

For those who have never participated in a Brawl-rules tournament, the brackets will be drawn as follows:

1. To ensure no coach has two teams drawn in the same bracket, the highest TW-valued team(s) of coaches who have entered many teams will be kicked from the group if:
(a) they have entered more teams than the maximum possible number of brackets for that week; or
(b) they have more than one team in the highest 8 TW-valued teams entered that week.
This step will be repeated until neither condition applies.

2. If there are 16 or more teams remaining in the application pool, the lowest 8 TW-valued teams coached by different coaches will be accepted into the group and a bracket created, numbered and started, with random placings.
Once there are 8-15 teams left one team will be selected at random and the closest 7 other teams by TW to that team (coached by different coaches) will be accepted into the group. A final bracket will be numbered and created for those 8 teams and the others will be kicked from the group and informed of their bad luck.

3. Any TW ties will be settled first by team with lowest TV then by earliest application time.

While this may seem complex, it's very simple. This ensures that a coach cannot participate twice in the same bracket, it also ensures that brackets are populated by TWs that are clumped together. While it is very possible that a bracket may include teams that would stretch outside of the traditional Smack tiers, it also ensures that as many coaches get to participate in Smacks as possible.

Now, with any rules change, there will always be people that don't like it. While we entirely expect that some people will choose not to participate in the new format, we also expect to draw much needed new blood to the format, and more importantly, increase the volume of weekly tournaments kicking off in the format.

So please, join us tomorrow, the 8th of June, as we bid adieu to the legacy rules of Scheduled Smacks, and join us on the 15th, as we welcome the new rules of Scheduled Smacks.