Checking OUt OU Room!

Introduction

The OverUsed room on Pokémon Showdown! is one of the most popular rooms on the site. It's home to metagame discussion regarding Smogon's most popular tier and a variety of fun projects and activities to partake in such as the OU Workshops, room tournaments, and more! The room may be hectic at times, but it aims to provide a fun and relaxed environment for OU players of a variety of backgrounds.

How the room operates

As previously stated, the chat is definitely rather hectic at times. Considering the OverUsed room is one of the largest rooms on Pokémon Showdown, the chat might go a bit too fast for the slower typers out there. Nonetheless, the room's authority team tries its best to make sure the chat is under control and on topic, while also leading and partaking in quality metagame discussion.

The OverUsed room tries to provide a friendly environment for players of all backgrounds to discuss the wide variety of topics pertaining to OU. This metagame discussion that takes place in the room ranges from simpler things, like a newer user asking simple metagame questions, to more in-depth, specific discussion. It's quite common to see topics such as specific sets of a Pokémon, a Pokémon's rank on the Viability Rankings, projects on the OU subfourm, official Smogon tours, and more being discussed in the room. You might also see discussion topics such as the viability of certain lower-tier Pokémon in OU or what would happen if a certain Uber got unbanned. While these topics are fine, we have to make sure people don't go overboard with them; if you're discussing lower-tier Pokémon, they should really only be ones with a niche in OU, and if you're discussing the unbanning of certain Ubers, the topic should be discussed in moderation.

In addition to general discussion that is typically led by room staff and voices, you'll also be able to partake in regular room tournaments. These general room tournaments aren't typically scheduled, but they're hosted regularly, so it shouldn't be hard for you to hop on and partake in one! Also, these tournaments aren't limited to ORAS OU; you'll see a variety of tournaments being held for older generations, and if you aren't familiar with them, no biggie! The authority team links some sample teams (thanks to the people in the Ruins of Alph subforum) so you can jump right into an older tier you may be unfamiliar with!

Projects

The OverUsed room also houses a variety of fun projects to participate in. From workshops hosted in the OU Workshop subroom to larger-scale tournaments, there's a lot to do outside of the regular chatting and room tournaments experience!

OU Workshop is a subroom of the OverUsed room where a variety of workshops are held to hone players' skills. The workshops, usually monthly in nature, are typically focused on building around a core, but once in awhile you might stumble upon a workshop geared towards a specific project on the forums, like the Community Create a Team project! Currently, our workshops have slowed down to mainly focus on the Community Create a Team workshops and other aspects of the OverUsed room in general, but when they return to full activity, you'll be able to partake in workshops of a variety of themes: teambuilding, core building, improving your battling skills, and more!

As of right now, the only scheduled workshops are the ones advertised in the OU Workshop thread in the OverUsed forum and the ones advertised in the Community Create a Team thread. Any other workshops held are typically advertised ~10 hours before they start, allowing participants to jump right in and learn!

In addition to OU Workshops, the OverUsed room also occasionally hosts larger-scale tournaments, as seen on the OverUsed forum! The most recent example is the Back to The Future Tournament, which was hosted by the recently retired Room Owner BlackBloodz. Although these tournaments are advertised on the OverUsed forum, they feature a setup similar to our standard room tours: live signups with a "first come, first serve" basis.

How to be a good contributor to the room

Countless people approach our staff asking how they can be a good presence in the room. Sometimes they do this to get closer to earning room voice (+), and other times they just want to be a better member of the chat. Regardless, here's what we recommend to be a good contributor in the room!

Maturity

Being a mature user in the room is the groundwork to being a good contributor. If you're getting involved in petty arguments, insulting newer players, acting rude and disrespectful towards others, going off topic a lot, complaining about hax in the chat, or constantly posting memes, you won't be doing the best job of positively influencing the chat. If someone is saying something you think is wrong, aim to have a friendly debate with them rather than rudely arguing. If someone is new, try to guide them in the right direction rather than insulting them. If you notice the chat has gone a bit wild, try bringing up a new topic in an unforced way rather than getting involved in the mess or commanding people to stop (minimodding).

Knowledge

You don't have to be an OU genius in order to be a good presence in the room, but decent knowledge of the tier helps to make you a strong contributor. If someone asks a question and you aren't sure of the answer, don't give them potentially false information. Instead, it'd be best for you to just stay quiet and wait for someone else to answer. If you're having a debate with someone, make sure to be open to their viewpoint, especially if you aren't all that sure of your viewpoint to begin with.

Discussion

Joining in with the discussion correlates with both knowledge and maturity. If we see someone consistently giving quality contributions to discussion in the room, they'll shine as a great contributor in our eyes. We don't expect unranked users to be leading discussion, especially considering it's pretty difficult to do so without "!" commands, and usually, when you think you're "leading" discussion, it goes back to minimodding, which isn't a positive trait in the authority team's eyes.

While we're fine with people discussing Pokémon recently banned to Ubers and how Ubers Pokémon would potentially impact the OU metagame were they unbanned, when another, OU-specific discussion arises, the focus should shift towards that. Similarly, it's fine discussing lower-tier, niche Pokémon unless they're totally unviable.

Presence

We certainly don't look for people online 24/7, as we understand everyone has lives outside of PS, but if you want to be "noticed" in the room, a regular presence is appreciated.

Conclusion

The OverUsed room is a fantastic place to chat, learn, play, and participate on Pokémon Showdown. From discussing the meta to tournaments to projects in the room, we're sure you'll find something you enjoy! If you're a good enough presence, you might even find yourself with room voice one day!

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