Smogon: Who we are/Why we do what we do.
Nov 14, 2014, 05:03 PM
Hello friends, I wanted to make this post to help some of you who might be curious/misinformed about Smogon. I see it in the chat here and there and I just wanted to try and help out. [:
The last thing I want is arguing in a great community like ours.
I have been a competitive player for years, and I was recently ranked #4 on the OU ladder for pokemonshowdown before I decayed/ladders rest, so I know what I'm talking about. We were founded in 2004. We were created to work on what VGC didn't have; A competitive format for singles. (6v6) For the simple reason of not everyone likes doubles. Now, let's get to what every non smogon player is confused by, or hates. Our bans. Let me clear by saying a few things, and please try to keep these things in mind.
1. We are not dumb. (most of us, at least.) We know what can kill whatever pokemon you name. So saying something like "Mega Blaziken can be OHKO'd by Talonflame" is not something we do not already know. I'll get back to this.
2. We do not see ourselves as law. Just like how there are bad cops, bad doctors, and bad people; There are bad Smogonites. Disregard these people and we encourage you to have fun in whatever way you see fit. HOWEVER; If you challenge a Smogon player to a battle and you have 6 Uber pokemon, and we DC without battling you; That is not us "rage quitting", we just simply do not want to fight it. Just like how VGC players will DC if they see the same thing.
3. Our bans are for us. Not for gamefreak, for VGC players, but for our community. We have a respective ban system, and it's not as simple as you think. There is no Smogon god that rules over us and says "Mega Blaziken is banned. Don't use it." We undergo a suspect test of the Pokemon. Where we look at damage calcs, speak to our community, and hold a voting system. (Not just anyone can vote, most are held on Showdown and you have to have a high rating.) and all of that will determine if it'll be banned.
Now, let's talk about the first one into more detail. We do not ban a pokemon because we "cannot beat it". That's a common misconception and I'm not sure where this all came from. PLEASE keep in mind that this is singles battles, with people that take the singles meta game very seriously. They know how to abuse a set, what to switch out on, what can take out what, and how to make predictions in a singles environment. Just like how VGC players know what their mons can live, can outspeed, if they can Two completely different things, but both equally as skilled. That being said, the problem isn't solved by "Throw in Talonflame, use bravebird, kill mega Blaziken. Done." Because the player would switch out into something that completely hard counter Talonflame. Heatran, Garchomp, Tyranitar, etc; and picks up the KO on Talonflame, switches back to Mega Blaziken, and sweeps. The issue is not just the pokemon, by its self. It's also determined on building a team around that mon, for flawless usage. If there's any more questions, feel free to ask. We support all play styles!
Too long, didn't read; I'm sorry if a smogon player was rude to you, that's not how we all are. We do not ban things because we don't know how to beat it. We ban something because it puts too much pressure on all teams making us HAVE to run 1-2 pokemon to counter it, we shouldn't have to keep running pokemon we don't want to just to counter something. Singles is very different from Doubles. Our bans are for our community only, it shouldn't affect others. We support all play styles, not to mention a lot of us are VGC players as well!
Have a story you wanna share about this? Feel free to drop it down below. c:
The last thing I want is arguing in a great community like ours.
I have been a competitive player for years, and I was recently ranked #4 on the OU ladder for pokemonshowdown before I decayed/ladders rest, so I know what I'm talking about. We were founded in 2004. We were created to work on what VGC didn't have; A competitive format for singles. (6v6) For the simple reason of not everyone likes doubles. Now, let's get to what every non smogon player is confused by, or hates. Our bans. Let me clear by saying a few things, and please try to keep these things in mind.
1. We are not dumb. (most of us, at least.) We know what can kill whatever pokemon you name. So saying something like "Mega Blaziken can be OHKO'd by Talonflame" is not something we do not already know. I'll get back to this.
2. We do not see ourselves as law. Just like how there are bad cops, bad doctors, and bad people; There are bad Smogonites. Disregard these people and we encourage you to have fun in whatever way you see fit. HOWEVER; If you challenge a Smogon player to a battle and you have 6 Uber pokemon, and we DC without battling you; That is not us "rage quitting", we just simply do not want to fight it. Just like how VGC players will DC if they see the same thing.
3. Our bans are for us. Not for gamefreak, for VGC players, but for our community. We have a respective ban system, and it's not as simple as you think. There is no Smogon god that rules over us and says "Mega Blaziken is banned. Don't use it." We undergo a suspect test of the Pokemon. Where we look at damage calcs, speak to our community, and hold a voting system. (Not just anyone can vote, most are held on Showdown and you have to have a high rating.) and all of that will determine if it'll be banned.
Now, let's talk about the first one into more detail. We do not ban a pokemon because we "cannot beat it". That's a common misconception and I'm not sure where this all came from. PLEASE keep in mind that this is singles battles, with people that take the singles meta game very seriously. They know how to abuse a set, what to switch out on, what can take out what, and how to make predictions in a singles environment. Just like how VGC players know what their mons can live, can outspeed, if they can Two completely different things, but both equally as skilled. That being said, the problem isn't solved by "Throw in Talonflame, use bravebird, kill mega Blaziken. Done." Because the player would switch out into something that completely hard counter Talonflame. Heatran, Garchomp, Tyranitar, etc; and picks up the KO on Talonflame, switches back to Mega Blaziken, and sweeps. The issue is not just the pokemon, by its self. It's also determined on building a team around that mon, for flawless usage. If there's any more questions, feel free to ask. We support all play styles!
Too long, didn't read; I'm sorry if a smogon player was rude to you, that's not how we all are. We do not ban things because we don't know how to beat it. We ban something because it puts too much pressure on all teams making us HAVE to run 1-2 pokemon to counter it, we shouldn't have to keep running pokemon we don't want to just to counter something. Singles is very different from Doubles. Our bans are for our community only, it shouldn't affect others. We support all play styles, not to mention a lot of us are VGC players as well!
Have a story you wanna share about this? Feel free to drop it down below. c:
