Hey, I'm starting a new Puyo tournament series! Whether you're a new player just starting on their journey in comp Puyo or a veteran with multiple titles under your belt, Puyo Challengers is for you!
Challengers tournaments consist of two brackets: Tower and Throne Room. Both brackets will be run with the following ruleset:
Swiss bracket, 5 rounds (Round Robin if fewer than 6 players)
Rounds 1-4: FT5
Round 5: FT8
To qualify to enter Throne Room matches, you must satisfy one of the following conditions:
1. Finished the last Throne Room bracket you entered with a record better than 0-5
2. Finished the last Tower bracket with a 5-0 record
3. Won a major (>16 players) Puyo-only tournament since the last Challengers tournament you entered
You will not be allowed to enter Tower matches if you qualify for Throne Room.
I wrote up a bunch about the inspirations and intentions of Puyo Challengers. If you're interested in the what and why, check out the rest of the chost!
The Present
Puyo Challengers was borne out of seeing players struggle to gain points during the ranking season of Advent League 2022. What I realized was that there was a lack of support for players stuck somewhere in between the super casual #PlayPuyo monthlies run by EPPC and the super sweaty, best in the west competition in Advent League.
Despite being similar in structure to #PlayPuyo, the vibe I'm going for in Challengers is a little different. Whereas #PlayPuyo was intended to help newer players find quality matches close to their skill level, Challengers is meant to give players wanting to get into competitive Puyo recognition for their achievements on their journey towards the top.
I think where I want the break point between Tower and Throne Room is similar to the informal division between "Low Expert" and "High Expert" players if you ever entered my Puyo Nexus #PlayPuyo events. The 5-0 / 0-5 conditions for promotion and demotion are inspired by how Low Expert players performed in those old brackets.
A lot about Challengers is going to be in flux these first few weeks while I figure out what works best for everybody. I listen to feedback from everybody, so don't hesitate to offer your honest opinions!
The Past
I've been developing Challengers on and off for the past six months or so. Here's the initial concept I mocked up back in late October:

As you can see, the first incarnation was a modified version of Advent League. The general structure took inspiration from the Apex Legends Global Series. The overall idea was to run Advent League in a seasonal format where qualifiers and the league itself would run concurrently, rather than sequentially as it had previously.
This prototype was developed further with more detail in February:

Here, event and match scheduling were further set in stone, and the mutli-qualifier format for the challenger circuit was compressed into fewer tournaments.
At this point, you might be thinking, "Wait, this looks almost nothing like Puyo Challengers. What happened?" Well, after finishing the second prototype, I realized I needed to address two big issues:
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Commitment and sustainability. I've written about my troubles maintaining the mental bandwidth necessary to run the logistics and production for Advent League and FNPP/GTR. Under this new setup, not only do I need to be responsible for the managing the current league, but future ones as well. With the trouble I've had cat herding players and staffing up volunteers for my 2023 events, running a more involved event sounds like a bad idea.
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Player separation. By necessity, the two-tier league system is exclusionary. However, the main thing players into competitive puyo have said they want is more events to play in. Creating tournaments that restrict the most dedicated players from entering would be a huge mistake.
Upending the league structure into the much more portable format of Puyo Challengers takes a huge load off my mental, while introducing a higher tier bracket allows Advent League caliber players to still play in the events while introducing a carrot/stick for players that hopefully fills the void left by the removal of the league system. We'll see how it goes!
The Future
That being said, I know removing high production streams and a league structure with prize support is a big blow to comp puyo! It'd be cool to resume these once the meta of Challengers settles and we get a good idea of the right knobs to turn to make the setup fun and engaging. Currently my thinking is to eventually award ranking points for Throne Room performance into some kind of season finale event. I think it's also important to get this stuff figured out if the ~mysterious new Puyo game~ ends up getting released later this year so the competitive scene can hit the ground running on launch day.
Put simply, what the scene needs is more volunteers - more TOs, more bracket runners, more streamers, more commentators. I've been doing TO duties for no benefit out of an obligation to nobody for years, and I can't even remember the last time I even played Puyo seriously. I shouldn't be the person trying to drive this stuff.