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Annnnd with our first tiering action of 2023 the 1v1 council has voted to quickban Cinderace from SV 1v1. While normally we would prefer to wait until the Annihilape suspect ended Cinderace has returned and proven itself to be about as broken as it was last generation prompting the council to take immediate action. While Libero did get nerfed this generation, this did little to slow Cinderace down with it immediately dominating the ladder. Basic Choice Band and Choice Scarf sets remained unaffected by the nerf and other sets such as Wisp, Taunt, or Bulk Up were not bothered by the nerf in the slightest. New possible counters such as Dondozo and speed boosted Great Tusk were rapidly circumvented with sets such as Passho Berry Counter or Electro Ball sets for Dondozo and defensive Choice Scarf Cinderace having a good Great Tusk matchup. Even Iron Bundle would end up being forced to pick and choose with it needing a speed boost to beat Scarf Cinderace and Specs to reliably KO Passho Cinderace sets. With all this being said the council felt that despite the nerfs and power creep, Cinderace is once again too powerful for the 1v1 meta. If the community feels like it is fitting the council is willing to suspect Cinderace sometime after the end of the Annihilape suspect test and interest for that will be gauged through our first tiering survey of the generation.
Rosa: Abstain
smely: Ban
nalei: Ban
DEG: Abstain
Waylaid: Ban
bo: Ban
HCTC: Hasn't voted
blanched: Ban
Lower turnout because of the holidays and without HCTC voting it stands at a 5 ban 2 abstain vote. Even if HCTC were to vote do not ban it would sit at a 5 ban 1 do not ban vote (5/6 ban) which is still a supermajority.
Looking ahead, as mentioned above the council is looking to have our first SV tiering survey sometime after the Annihilape suspect ends. The survey will feature Cinderace and other current top tiers such as Chi-Yu, Gholdengo, and Iron Valiant (or whatever else is fitting when the time comes). Hopefully this will give us enough time to take any action we need going into PL in late February/March or Home whichever comes first.
