Almost all tournaments in the Monotype room (not including Monotype Random Battle tournaments) will follow the following rules:
1. Scouting (looking at a future opponent's games) is banned - showdown should physically stop you from doing this. 2. Revealing anything about your opponent's team in the chat is banned, as this might allow a future opponent to gain an advantage over them. 3. Switching teams is allowed, so long as all the teams you use are valid for the tournament you are playing.
Tournaments are run from time to time in the room by the Room Staff (% and higher), although Drivers (%) are unable to start tournaments if for some reason The Lord Monotyke isn't in the room. Note that the staff are often busy though, so while it's fine to ask for a tournament every now and again please don't bug them too much! The tournaments can be in a number of formats, ranging from standard Monotype and Monotype Random Battles to more unusual tournaments such as Monothreat or Mono OM tournaments.
If there is text with a blue background (known as walled text) in the room during sign-ups, be sure to read it! This will tell you if you have to follow certain rules in this tournament, such as only using a rock-type team or bringing a Tier Shift Monotype team. Normally this text will tell you exactly what your team has to be like, but if you're not sure feel free to ask! You can read more about Mono-OMs (often played in tournaments) here or learn about the Monotype Monthly Championship (a special kind of monotype tournament hosted four times a day in the room) here.