ginganinja
It's all coming back to me now
Smogon’s OU tiering is ruled by a council of five people. The purpose of this thread is to introduce the five OU senators to the public and to explain how they'll handle the tiering process for the OU tier in Pokemon X/Y.
The council (in no particular order):
blunder: blunder is one of the most well respected tournament players; between his tour success this season, easy to get along with personality, and his quality YouTube content, what's not to like? blunder is a very knowledgeable player with plenty of experience in the Gen 6 metagame, actively following and competing in tournaments as well as being a very active ladder player. His activity and metagame knowledge will most certainly benefit the Council.
boudouche: boudouche has been a very active tournament (and ladder!) player for a while now (years) and is actively involved in ORAS ever since it came out. He offers a lot of interesting thoughts on the metagame behind the scene, and these reasons are why he's in the Council.
CrashinBoomBang: CBB is surely known by many for his his love for positive Speed natures and opinionated views about certain Pokemon, but is more than capable of seeing the other side of an argument. Between years of competing and managing in SPL and actively contributing to different areas of Smogon, CBB has plenty of experience of competitive Pokemon and contributing. CBB's unmatchable mindset and experience will not only prevent the Council from making any repeated mistakes, but also will help us do our best to avoid making any new ones.
Finchinator: Hey, I'm Finchinator! I've been playing competitive Pokemon since September 2011 and I've transitioned from angry PO ladder kid to tryhard Smogon tournament player over the years. I am pretty much dictator of PO ORAS OU currently and I also used to co-lead BW NU on PO back in the day. Also, I've played in tournaments like SPL and WCOP in BW OU, XY/ORAS OU, and XY NU. BW is my favorite generation because it's where I started, what I enjoy the most, and what I find myself the best at playing wise, but ORAS is fun and has plenty of promise. I'm very much looking forward to the release of SM and the new generation of competitive pokemon that shall come alongside it. Hopefully, my fellow council members and I can work together to help make the end of ORAS OU and the future SM OU the best they possibly can be!
M Dragon: M Dragon represents the Tournaments section within the council, where he’s known as a tournament director and a long-time tournament player. He was also an avid ladder player during the D/P/Pt era and is a former Smogon Pokémon Online moderator. His extensive knowledge of the metagame along with his multi-year competitive battling experience makes M Dragon an essential presence in the council.
PDC: PDC has been playing competitive Pokemon for quite awhile (since 2008), transitioning from a ladder player in BW to a bigger tournament player in XY / ORAS. He has had a lot of success in the 6th Generation from Smogon Tour to SPL and plan to continue to play in further tours. He was part of the WCoP winning team when the tournament first featured ORAS OU.
TDK: TDK is Head of the OU Council and known as the US East teambuilding fanatic or as the guy who builds a lot of teams. He is one of the main driving force of OU C&C and helps a lot to keep the Viability Thread ranking up to date. Much like PDC, he was part of the WCoP winning team when the tournament first featured ORAS OU and one of their most active teambuilder.
As for the procedure, the council will employ towards handling bans within two protocols: 1) quick bans and 2) suspect tests.
I) Quick bans will be made when a certain aspect (be it a Pokémon, an ability, a move, an item or a combination of the aforementioned) of the metagame becomes so blatantly broken that passing it through a formal suspect test would be a waste of time and effort for everyone. From now on, quick bans will be made according to the following circumstances:
The council (in no particular order):
blunder: blunder is one of the most well respected tournament players; between his tour success this season, easy to get along with personality, and his quality YouTube content, what's not to like? blunder is a very knowledgeable player with plenty of experience in the Gen 6 metagame, actively following and competing in tournaments as well as being a very active ladder player. His activity and metagame knowledge will most certainly benefit the Council.
boudouche: boudouche has been a very active tournament (and ladder!) player for a while now (years) and is actively involved in ORAS ever since it came out. He offers a lot of interesting thoughts on the metagame behind the scene, and these reasons are why he's in the Council.
CrashinBoomBang: CBB is surely known by many for his his love for positive Speed natures and opinionated views about certain Pokemon, but is more than capable of seeing the other side of an argument. Between years of competing and managing in SPL and actively contributing to different areas of Smogon, CBB has plenty of experience of competitive Pokemon and contributing. CBB's unmatchable mindset and experience will not only prevent the Council from making any repeated mistakes, but also will help us do our best to avoid making any new ones.
Finchinator: Hey, I'm Finchinator! I've been playing competitive Pokemon since September 2011 and I've transitioned from angry PO ladder kid to tryhard Smogon tournament player over the years. I am pretty much dictator of PO ORAS OU currently and I also used to co-lead BW NU on PO back in the day. Also, I've played in tournaments like SPL and WCOP in BW OU, XY/ORAS OU, and XY NU. BW is my favorite generation because it's where I started, what I enjoy the most, and what I find myself the best at playing wise, but ORAS is fun and has plenty of promise. I'm very much looking forward to the release of SM and the new generation of competitive pokemon that shall come alongside it. Hopefully, my fellow council members and I can work together to help make the end of ORAS OU and the future SM OU the best they possibly can be!
M Dragon: M Dragon represents the Tournaments section within the council, where he’s known as a tournament director and a long-time tournament player. He was also an avid ladder player during the D/P/Pt era and is a former Smogon Pokémon Online moderator. His extensive knowledge of the metagame along with his multi-year competitive battling experience makes M Dragon an essential presence in the council.
PDC: PDC has been playing competitive Pokemon for quite awhile (since 2008), transitioning from a ladder player in BW to a bigger tournament player in XY / ORAS. He has had a lot of success in the 6th Generation from Smogon Tour to SPL and plan to continue to play in further tours. He was part of the WCoP winning team when the tournament first featured ORAS OU.
TDK: TDK is Head of the OU Council and known as the US East teambuilding fanatic or as the guy who builds a lot of teams. He is one of the main driving force of OU C&C and helps a lot to keep the Viability Thread ranking up to date. Much like PDC, he was part of the WCoP winning team when the tournament first featured ORAS OU and one of their most active teambuilder.
As for the procedure, the council will employ towards handling bans within two protocols: 1) quick bans and 2) suspect tests.
I) Quick bans will be made when a certain aspect (be it a Pokémon, an ability, a move, an item or a combination of the aforementioned) of the metagame becomes so blatantly broken that passing it through a formal suspect test would be a waste of time and effort for everyone. From now on, quick bans will be made according to the following circumstances:
- Before the council makes the final decision, a thread will be posted in Policy Review, so that everyone who has posting privileges in that forum will get the chance to weigh in and potentially influence the decision. The thread will stay open for approximately one week;
- When the decision is made, the council will post a thread in the OU Forum. The post will provide the reasons behind the ban.
- The council identifies a potentially unhealthy aspect of the metagame and posts a discussion thread about it in the OU forum. The purpose for this is to see what the playerbase, at large, thinks;
- If there's enough demand for a suspect test, the council announces a suspect test. A suspect ladder is then implemented on Pokémon Showdown and a formal suspect thread is posted in the OU forum, for people to share their experiences on the ladder and to discuss the effects of the suspect in the metagame. For those that are interested in voting, they are required to achieve a certain rating/deviation on the ladder;
- After the account identification phase occurs, eligible voters vote on the suspect along with the council members (who are automatically qualified for voting);
- If the suspect achieves a certain majority, it is banned from the metagame (or unbanned, in case of formerly banned subjects).