Little Cup Teambuilding Workshop Sessions

[Rowan]

credit goes to Electrolyte & Doubles for the idea and much of the OP.

We are going to start community teambuilding sessions in the Little Cup room in Pokemon Showdown. This should be a great opportunity for newer players to get experience with teambuilding for LC and to learn useful teambuilding tips. It's also a great way to become integrated with the LC community :)

(the next part of the OP is shamelessly copied from Electrolyte)

Here's how this is going to work:

These sessions will occur probably twice a month, maybe more or less depending on our schedules. We will alternate sessions on PS and IRC.

In these sessions, we will gather as a group and collectively create a team around a pre-determined, well-defined concept or idea. (In a CCAT fashion, basically.) Once that team is made, I (or one of the other hosts) will make a post in this thread summarizing the discussion, providing an importable for the created team, and adding explanations for the chosen aspects of the team. From then, this thread will be open for discussion on how the team works, ways to improve it, ways to use it, and matches it has undergone in the ladder, etc.

All are free to join in! Remember to have fun!


Coming Up With Team Starting Points
Usually, we will update this thread about a week or so in advance so that the community has time to choose a specific starting point to build the team around. There will be time given to submit ideas and then time to submit votes.

Idea Submission tips:
~Support your idea with reasoning! Keep in mind that the reason for building a team around an idea is just as important as what the idea is.
~Remember that the point of these workshops is for the community to grow and gain experience in building solid competitive teams, so NO GIMMICKS.
~Keep your starting points simple yet concise, so that there are many different paths to explore. However, avoid being too vague (like don't just say "offense!"). The point is to start off with an idea or a core to base the team around. (Ex: *This type of weather* with *insert Pokemon here.* or Team made around *this famous core* or Team designed to help *this Pokemon* sweep.)

We are also looking for people to lead these sessions; people that are able to arrange a time easily, people that are competent team builders, and preferably (but not necessary) have some sort of authority in our PS room. If you want to lead a session be prepared to make a post afterwards explaining the team-building process for anyone who can't make it. If you are interested in leading a session, please PM me.

Next session: THURSDAY 10th JULY 8.30PM, EDT

 

[Rowan]

Here's a starting point of my own so people know how this works:

Starting Point: Eviolite Spinarak + Cranidos

Explanation: Spinarak is often considered to be inferior to Surskit, but it has a better defensive typing along with better Attack and Defense allowing it to be a great Fighting- and Fairy-type counter with a reasonably powerful Megahorn and Poison Jab. Cranidos synergises well, being able to beat Fire- and Flying-types that threaten Spinarak, whilst Spinarak takes on the Fighting-types which have dangerous priority to stop Cranidos. A team based around Cranidos will help newer players learn how to give powerful offensive Pokemon the correct support.

 

[prem]

im just going to say this

NO CORE IS GOING TO BE BASED ON SOMETHING THAT IS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE. we have the teambuilding thread for that where the cores are generally very effective and common, so this should be more for a creativity experience. they should still be no terrible gimmicky teams tho

 

[OP]

Starting point: Bunnelby and Eviolite Houndour

Explanation: Bunnelby hits atrociously hard and has very few checks. Unfortunately, two of its checks, Misdreavus and Archen, are very prevalent in the current metagame. Using a specially defensive houndour in conjunction with Bunnelby allows you to severely cripple these pokemon and allow Bunnelby to sweep. Houndour is able to pursuit trap Misdreavus and can avoid the 2HKO from HP Fighting. Archen is a common switch-in to Houndour, and can be burned, rendering it useless in terms of counter Bunnelby. Obviously these two pokemon have next to no defensive synergy and hugely struggle with fighting types but that's what the rest of the team is for. A team based around this concept, similar to the cranidos+spinarak core, can teach newer players how to utilize powerful pokemon with proper team support and teach them how to eliminate or cripple checks for a sweep.

 

[GlassGlaceon]

Starting Point: Specs Vulpix and Ponyta

Explanation: The point of this core is for Specs Vulpix, one of the most powerful wallbreakers in the tier, to soften up Ponyta's Checks/counters so it can break through them easily with it's coverage or with it's sun-boosted fire attacks. Specs Vulpix hits disgustingly hard in the sun, 2HKO'ing/OHKO'ing most relevant mons in the tier with it's monstrously strong Fire Blasts and Overheats. Ponyta is just there to scatter the remains of any pokemon that thinks it can take Vulpix's Fiery onslaught, sporting sun-boosted flare blitzes, Fire blasts, and other fire moves that will all leave huge marks in anything not dented by pony. Ponyta also has great coverage, allowing it to check a lot of things that do stop Vulpix. This core will also be an extremely fun core to play just because of the sheer power intially brought with both of these respective pokemon :]]] . No, but in all actuality, Ponyta can muscle through most things vulpix can't break through, and it's honestly one of the most offensively imposing cores you can go up against, and I'd love to see what people could build out of this.

What can you learn?: This core will teach newer players how to put instant offensive pressure on their opponents and will also show them the teambuilding aspect of minor differences leading to a hugely different outcome due to the fact that ponyta's set can go a ton of different ways, such as a Flame Charge Set, a SunnyBeam Set, Or a Life Orb Set just to name a few, and each will come with their own things that wall/check/stop them. Also teaches newer players that when two planets go ham sammich, your opponent will begin to wiggle in fear

 

[boo836]

Starting point: Corphish + Fletchling

Explanation: Superpowereddude renewed my interest in Corphish as a wallbreaker. Providing knock off support and heavy hits, Corphish hammers quite a few Fletchling checks pretty hard. In some cases, they even have similar checks like Chinchou and Tirtouga that would be easy to cover with the rest of the team, while other checks are taken care of by the other. Fletchling is really the best cleaner in LC, so why not pair it with a wallbreaker that can support it?

 

[Rowan]

I had hoped for more suggestions but this is fine:

I'M GOING TO BE RUNNING THE TEAMBUILDING SESSION ON THURSDAY NIGHT AT 1.30 AM GMT+1, 8.30 PM EDT

there's a small chance I might be late or not able to make it, if there's a 'reserve' person that can run it that'd be great (Champion Fizz????)

please vote on the idea we're going to be building around by posting in bold, options are (names link to the post):
Rowan
Obvious Power
Glass Glaceon
Boo836

 

[The Avalanches]

Rowan

EvioRak is goddamn awesome.

 

[Corporal Levi]

gHOSTGLACEON

 

[doomsday doink]

Yeah Rowan I should be available then, so if you can't make it, I can take over

 

[Lord Alphose]

Glassglaceon's Pokemon look the most different.

Edit: Also, to Rowan and Fizz, I would be willing to help out.

 

[Kavatika]

Rowan obviously

 

[Superpowerdude]

Glass imo

 

[Aerow]

Rowan

 

[OP]

Rowan, Cranidos is so much fun to use and it'd be nice to see a webber other than surskit being used.

 

[doomsday doink]

Rowan cuz i did math and it works

 

[Expulso]

GlassGlaceon

 

[dsr95]

Faglaceon GlassGlaceon

 

[Fiend]

Voting for Obvious Power.

 

[mad0ka]

Voting for glass because sun's a thot

 

[Corporal Levi]

I honestly feel as if that session was sort of a failure. This seems like a great idea on paper and I was personally excited for it, but once it got started, people started contradicting each other with their suggestions, and blatantly silly suggestions were made, really slowing the discussion down; the session constantly wandered off track as people lost interest, and a few users felt the need to insult the overall chat's intelligence throughout, further making attempts at proper discussion over the subject fairly ineffective. I should also mention that most of the users who participated were fairly experienced in LC already; I only saw one new user try to actively participate, and he left half way through because I guess we weren't all that helpful. The entire ordeal sort of just came off as ridiculously poorly planned and disorganized, and the only way I could really see this working in a somewhat unruly community like ours would be for a single competent leader to govern the discussion extremely strictly, and take in suggestions through a rigidly structured system.
Sorry to be pessimistic, but after that session, I don't think this is going to work out if it continues to be carried on like this :X

Champion Fizz I wouldn't say it was really your fault; I don't think we could've gone very far regardless with the overall attitude of the chat.

 

[doomsday doink]

I honestly feel as if that session was sort of a failure

Yeah the way it turned out, it was more of a test run than anything else. It ended up as just a disorganized teambuild between experienced players and only one newer player was actually a part of it (gud job Yoshiebi). Also the fact that not everybody in the chat was involved in it and some people were just trolling (chrom), made it hard to actually spur up intellectual conversations regarding the team. However, we were able to create a decent team; it just doesn't really reflect the capablities of the LC room and those players who were involved. My apologies to those who blame the way I led it and whatnot. Personally, I think for future "workshops" we should decide on whose core we will be using before the actual designated timeslot. Also, here's a pastebin of the team we threw together: http://pastebin.com/pNqjXCj8

 

[Goldland]

Here's a starting point of my own so people know how this works:

Starting Point: Eviolite Spinarak + Cranidos

Explanation: Spinarak is often considered to be inferior to Surskit, but it has a better defensive typing along with better Attack and Defense allowing it to be a great Fighting- and Fairy-type counter with a reasonably powerful Megahorn and Poison Jab. Cranidos synergises well, being able to beat Fire- and Flying-types that threaten Spinarak, whilst Spinarak takes on the Fighting-types which have dangerous priority to stop Cranidos. A team based around Cranidos will help newer players learn how to give powerful offensive Pokemon the correct support.

I should add that spinarak might even have another niche along with cranidos, besides being slightly hard to pull: Spinarak is the single only pokemon on LC that can Spider web+ Baton pass specifically, allowing to pass trap into other pokemons, like cranidos.

 

[The Avalanches]

I should add that spinarak might even have another niche along with cranidos, besides being slightly hard to pull: Spinarak is the single only pokemon on LC that can Spider web+ Baton pass specifically, allowing to pass trap into other pokemons, like cranidos.

It might be a bit too difficult to pull off. Eviolite Spinarak is reasonably bulky, but it's best for checking Fighting and Fairy types, it's probably not bulky enough to take three hits, especially if one of them is Knock Off.

I admire your creativity and ambition, however :)

 

[Rowan]

Sorry I couldn't be there, our car broke down in London meaning we were stuck there and I obviously couldn't get home in time.

I will speak to people about 'what went wrong', hopefully I can be there next time and we can iron out some of the issues.