Birkal
We have the technology.
Please note that the below thoughts are all pretty irrelevant for the purpose of this thread. You don't need the paragraphs within this hide tag to participate in the project!
Hiya! This is my 1k post on Smogon, so that's a cool thing. To celebrate, I wanted to first give a bit of background on my time spent here. For those of you who don't know, I got my roots started in Smogon in the Overused forum about a year ago. Although most Smogon users associate me with the Create-A-Pokémon Project and the Orange Islands, this was the first Smogon community that actually accepted me and my thoughts. Both Matthew and Vader played a huge roll in me getting started out by talking with me and giving me feedback. I eventually went on to create the Dark Horse Project in January, which lasted for three months. Along the way, I earned my Community Contributor badge for my work; it was a huge honor. The project had to shut down in April because I was becoming too involved with other projects on Smogon (drawing for The Smog and starting up the Dream World Project, to name a few). Since then, my activity in Overused has been relatively low, unfortunately. While I've moderated and provided general feedback, I want to get more involved again, and that begins with this project!
So that brings us to the present. While I am still working in other projects all over Smogon, I'd like to show my specific appreciation for the Overused community. You were the guys that got me started out on my journey here, and I'm so thankful for that. So, that's why I decided to start this new project and dedicate my 1k to all of you. The community here has given so much to me, so I'd like to try and give some back.
To the sadness of some, I'm not going to throw in a bunch of shout outs here. Just to everyone that I interact with, both on the forums and on IRC: know that you guys are the reason I keep coming back. I've made so many friends here on Smogon, so thanks for accepting me for who I am! If you're a weirdo and want to send some sort of congrats, do it in VM or PM since this topic serves another purpose, haha. I'm so thankful for all of you; y'all are awesome =)
Hiya! This is my 1k post on Smogon, so that's a cool thing. To celebrate, I wanted to first give a bit of background on my time spent here. For those of you who don't know, I got my roots started in Smogon in the Overused forum about a year ago. Although most Smogon users associate me with the Create-A-Pokémon Project and the Orange Islands, this was the first Smogon community that actually accepted me and my thoughts. Both Matthew and Vader played a huge roll in me getting started out by talking with me and giving me feedback. I eventually went on to create the Dark Horse Project in January, which lasted for three months. Along the way, I earned my Community Contributor badge for my work; it was a huge honor. The project had to shut down in April because I was becoming too involved with other projects on Smogon (drawing for The Smog and starting up the Dream World Project, to name a few). Since then, my activity in Overused has been relatively low, unfortunately. While I've moderated and provided general feedback, I want to get more involved again, and that begins with this project!
So that brings us to the present. While I am still working in other projects all over Smogon, I'd like to show my specific appreciation for the Overused community. You were the guys that got me started out on my journey here, and I'm so thankful for that. So, that's why I decided to start this new project and dedicate my 1k to all of you. The community here has given so much to me, so I'd like to try and give some back.
To the sadness of some, I'm not going to throw in a bunch of shout outs here. Just to everyone that I interact with, both on the forums and on IRC: know that you guys are the reason I keep coming back. I've made so many friends here on Smogon, so thanks for accepting me for who I am! If you're a weirdo and want to send some sort of congrats, do it in VM or PM since this topic serves another purpose, haha. I'm so thankful for all of you; y'all are awesome =)
Please read through this opening post before posting in this thread. There are very specific guidelines on what this thread is about; failure to follow them may result in an infraction. Thank you for your time.
Hello and welcome! The purpose of this thread is to connect the Overused community (all of you reading this thread) with the Overused Council. Many moons ago, we had to do away with the "Now Playing thread" in this forum because it was becoming highly clogged with petty bickering and pointless fighting. Smogon as a whole did away with suspect voting and switched over to the council system. While this new system has certainly lead us into more peaceful times as a community, I fear that we also may have developed ignorance and lethargy towards the tiering process of Overused.
Well no more. I've contacted each of the council members of the OU council and all of them have agreed to facilitate with the project. In a nutshell, this thread is an public platform for any Smogon user to ask meaningful questions about the Overused tier and get thoughtful answers from the metagame's leaders. Since it is not-so-common knowledge, let me remind you of who exactly sits on the current Overused council:
Each of these five users have agreed to answer questions that the public may have about the Overused metagame, no matter how specific or general it may be. They'll be able to use their past experiences and current thoughts to help answer your questions as best as they can. Feel free to present any thoughts, questions, and discussion points you may have about the tier to the Overused council in this thread. However, there are rules to this that must be followed so that this process runs smoothly. Please read the below rules before posting. If they are not followed, then your post has the potential to be deleted and possibly even infracted. You have been warned.Aldaron joined Smogon in mid 2007. His creative mindset has allowed him to consistently bring in new and innovative ideas to Smogon. In terms of his work in OU, he is probably best known for being the one to suggest a Drizzle + Swift Swim ban with the Aldaron proposal. He's also the head leader of Smogon's premier IRC channel, #pokemon. It's nigh impossible to find a day where Aldaron isn't chatting about the current state of OU with the public within the channel.
Bloo is the current leader of Smogon's tutoring program: Battling 101. He's also a hit on the tournaments scene, with a solid victory over the Smogon Frontier. Recently, he won the World Cup of Pokemon VII which is a testament to how well he is keeping tabs on the current trends in OU. Although he allegedly specializes in stall-based teams, he's undoubtedly proficient in all styles of play.
Earthworm essentially runs the Tournaments section here on Smogon. As the Tournament Director badge leader, he's constantly working with other leaders to set up meaningful, fun, and fair tournaments. He's also racked up quite a few trophies over the years for his work in OU, including his triumph as the Champion of the 6th season of the Smogon Tour. His extreme dedication to DPP OU means that he can use his past knowledge to help guide the future of out present Overused metagame.
Haunter is the leader of Smogon's RMT forum, which is one of our most active forums. His dedication indicates that he's not only working with up and coming battlers on their OU metagames skills, but also with experienced team raters on how to better understand the tier itself. He's also an administrator (~) of Smogon's simulator: Pokemon Showdown!, which means that he's constantly keeping up to date with current OU trends.
JabbaTheGriffin has the inhuman ability of running two tiers at once; Jabba is both a member of the OU council and the leader of the UU Senate. He's able to use his experience in one metagame to aid the other, which makes him a versatile thinker. Also, he's known for bringing up discussion points to get the community involved in the tiering process. He's been working on tiering in Smogon since 2007; you can read more about his history in the most recent The Smog Interview.
- This thread is for in-depth questions about the Overused metagame. If you have a simple question (e.g. what is Politoed's best moveset?), ask them in our Simple Question, Simple Answer thread. Similarly, this isn't a thread for asking personal questions to the Overused Council; do that on your own time.
- Absolutely do not complain about the current tiering process here. This is a thread for intellectual questions and answers about the current metagame, not about how the metagame is run. If you, for some reason, absolutely must talk about the tiering process, then take it up with the Overused council in private message form.
- Do not ignite discussions or debates within this thread; you are only allowed to ask questions. The general flow of things should be that a user asks a question, and then an OU council member will respond to it. Do not respond to posts or type up rebuttals. You're allowed to reference other posts to clarify your questions, yes. Just make sure that your posts are more question-based than discussion-based and you'll be fine.
- Please be thoughtful, polite, and practice patience. Each of the council members is very busy with their work on Smogon; they will answer your questions whenever they find the time. The best questions in this thread will undoubtedly be the ones that are descriptive and provide support to claims. Those are the questions that will likely attract the council and get thoughtful answers. Furthermore, don't be upset if your question isn't answered. The OU Council has the right to not answer every question but rather, to pick the ones they find most appropriate.
- Please do not try to start a debate and "win people over to your side." That goes hand in hand with the above rule, really. This is a thread for asking questions openly, true, but it is certainly not for trying to convince the public of your views. So don't bandwagon an opinion. This is a public question and answer thread, not a public podium.
As you can probably tell, this thread shouldn't be overflowing with posts. It is primarily meant for users who understand the Overused metagame and have serious questions on the current state of the tier. Remember, this thread is a privilege, not a right. If it goes poorly and people use it for improper conversation, I'll just lock it. The other Overused moderators and I will do our best to filter out bad questions so that when the OU council views this thread, they won't have to waste their time reading thoughtless questions. Please don't disappoint us; use this thread as a resource for the community to learn more about the Overused tier. As always, if you have any questions, shoot me off a PM. I can't wait to see what kind of information will come forth from this thread!