Hi guys, Aldaron here. Im a current Smogon Administrator and a member of the OU Council. I just want to take an opportunity here to talk about the tiering process and clarify some common misconceptions about the Smogon metagames. It seems like there is a lot of potential tension / misunderstanding with how or why we take certain actions, so I hope to straighten out some issues. First, we are simply a fan-made community that loves playing online, 6 v 6 singles Pokemon. We dont consider ourselves official or anything like that: we just play Pokemon with specific rules. We fully acknowledge these are fan-made rules and the only places we attempt to enforce these rules are on OUR servers and forums. If you have your own servers and forums, please, by all means, use whatever rules you wish to use. Now, over the years, weve built up a following because weve become the premier resource and community for online, 6 v 6 singles Pokemon, and because of this weve taken steps to legitimize a process for shaping what we call our OU, or Overused, tier. Remember, this is simply the tier we choose to play on our servers and for our community: were not claiming we are official or that you have to play by our rules on your own servers. Play whatever you want, whenever you want! About our community though... we have a process. And honestly, we believe it is a great process because IT LEAVES THE POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE COMMUNITY. All we, the OU Council, do is determine which Pokemon are suspects and what order to test them in. This step is necessary because we as an online fan community have limited resources in terms of time and personnel and therefore have to ensure we use these limited resources as efficiently as possible. So basically, all we, whom the people often disparagingly refer to as the Smogon elite, do is determine what is put up for a test. YOU all determine the results by qualifying and voting. What actually determines what gets suspect tested is a combination of forum posting from qualified players, opinions from experienced battlers (particularly those who distinguish themselves over in the tournaments section), and the experiences of the OU Council. We try our best to suspect Pokemon or strategies that we feel are questionable to the metagame. You are welcome to disagree, but remember, the final decision rests in YOUR hands... simply qualify and vote! So to quickly clarify: 1.) We dont claim we are official. We are simply a fan-made community that enjoys playing by our rules on our servers. Please, play whatever it is you wish to play on your own servers. When we ban something, we are only banning it in OUR community; were not asking you to do the same. 2.) In spite of this, we still try to put the future of our metagame in the hands of YOU, the people, as much as possible by giving voting power to YOU. All you have to do is qualify and vote. 3.) We even determine what to suspect based on your feedback, so please feel free to talk to or contact us however you wish. Play in our tournaments, play on our ladders, and post on our forums and youll notice various opportunities to speak your mind. I hope this post has clarified some concerns you may have with how we run our metagame. Remember, were just an online fan community playing a game we love. We welcome your enthusiasm and constructive criticism and hope youll contribute to our wonderful environment! ~Aldaron
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 21:13:12 +0000
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