Tournament Type Breakdowns
Type A - Worth the most points, most standard tournaments and will all contain only SS.
Type B - Also will contain only SS tiers, and they will not be as standard as the ones in Type A.
Type C - Contains a mix in of older generation NU Tiers alongside SS NU, but will offer the least amount of points.
Point breakdowns can be seen in the "Scoring Information" tab of the spreadsheet.
Tournament Information
NU League - Type A
Our standard double elimination tournaments. We've been hosting these consistently for the last few years so nothing more needs to be said.
NU Ladder Tour - Type B
As with last year, there will be 4 qualifying cycles with 6 qualifiers in each cycle. This leads to a 24 player playoff, with the top 8 receiving byes.
NU Open - Type A
A single elimination tournament that is a part of the 2021 Grand Slam. Only the NU Tournament will count for points towards our circuit.
NU Homefield - Type C
At signups each player will sign up with a specific NU generation (gsc->ss), this will be their "home" tier as they should have the advantage in that tier. Following this a Single Elimination tournament will start, with Game 1 being the player on the lefts home tier, and Game 2 being the player on the rights home tier. If they tie 1-1 after the two tiers, game 3 will be a tiebreaker SS game.
NU Swiss - Type A
Each round of a swiss tournament you are matched up against someone that has the same record as you. This goes on for a set number of rounds, after which the top "x" records will go onto a playoffs. Playoffs will play out as a single elimination bracket, and will be seeded based on the records from the playins. Points will also be given to those not in playoffs based on record, so there is always going to be an incentive to keep playing.
NU Bo3 - Type C
This will be a simple Single Elimination tour that is just a simple Bo3 of SS/SM/ORAS each round between the two players.
Last Chance Qualifier - Type B
This will be a Single Elimination Tournament with shorter deadlines as a chance for players who are near playoffs to get a chance to make it in.
Why the Circuit is so different this year
I know our circuit looks quite a bit different from the last couple years and there are good reasons why. For one, last year we did not have as much time due to NU not being out at the start of the year, as well as some delays with regards to DLC. We also had some concerns with how inflated certain tournaments were, and some of that was due to the lesser amount of tournaments we had, and the other due to our lack of time. This year we are able to mix in more Type Bs & Cs, while making it so the Type As are able to give more points/are seen as being just as prestigious as the other tournaments. Hopefully this does result in a playoffs that are seen as more fair, and we will have to reflect back at it for the 2022 circuit when the time comes.
Also since this is a question that pops up a lot, I will address why old gens are not a preminent part of our circuit, especially NU Classic. Our main reasoning behind this is the fact that our ribbon playoffs only feature SS, so players being able to qualify/gain points without having to play any SS games does not make any sense. We tried to find a comprimise this year with two new Type C tournaments in Bo3/Homefield that also feature Old Gens alongside SS, but we do not want to include old gen only tournaments as a qualifier for our circuit.
"Unofficial" Tournaments / Team Tournaments
NU Classic (SM/ORAS/BW/DPP/ADV)
Range: September-October
NUPL IX
Hosted by: TBD
Range: June-July
Replacement Team Tournament (Trophy)
Hosted by: TBD
Range: September-November
NU Snake II
Range: November-December
