The RU Senate

There will be a two-party system: one of a permanent senate, another composed of a rotating council. The council will be chosen at the end of each round, but their seats are not permanent. The senate members have been chosen on their merits for dedication to the tier, metagame knowledge, and skill. The senate members will decide the suspects and combine their votes with those of the council.

In the unlikely event that a majority (5/7) of the senate disagrees with a majority of the non-senate voters (for example, if a majority of the non-senate voters vote to ban Omastar, but a majority of the senate members vote to not ban Omastar, Omastar will not be banned that round).

The senate:

Senate Leader: SilentVerse
seat 2: ShakeItUp
seat 3: august
seat 4: Texas Cloverleaf
seat 5: DittoCrow
seat 6: Molk
seat 7: complete_legitimacy

The rotating council will consist of 6 people to have an odd numbered vote; the senate and council will combine their votes for a total of 13. At the end of each round, both Oglemi and SilentVerse will handpick the council based on battling skill, forum posts, and IRC discussion. Having constantly high ratings on the ladder and winning challenges within the RU forum, making good posts which show knowledge in the forum, and sparking discussions in #rarelyused will all help you to get on the council. Furthermore, the person with the most points at the end of the round will earn a spot on the rotating council; earning various awards will help as well. See: RU Awards for more info.

Non-senate voters will receive the Tiering Contributor Badge after they have reached 8 total tier-related votes across all tiers and generations. The non-senate seats are repeatable each round.

The end of each round and the requirements to get on the rotating part of the council will be posted periodically.

Because of the Pokemon Showdown! situation, I'll be extending the round to August 13 to give two more weekends for the council to reach a decision. I'll have a decision made on that Friday, August 10 on whether or not we have members handpicked in place of the ladder placements with this system. That'll give the handpicked members, should we go that route, a chance to talk to the council members and such to reach their own decision.

If we don't have handpicked members for this upcoming vote it'll just be a pure Council vote.

Me and SilentVerse have decided to include 5 non-senate voting members for this upcoming vote (5 because Honko will not be voting).

Congrats to the following:

august
Ciele
complete legitimacy
Double01
Ningildo

You guys will be taking part of the vote on Nidoqueen and Moltres Monday. Be sure to get in contact with the other senate members to discuss the suspects and formulate a reasoning as to why you want to see the suspects either be banned or stay in the tier.

P.S. PM me and SV with your votes, we're not using the Blind Voting this time

Votes:
Nidoqueen
Moltres

Congratulations august for becoming a member of the RU Senate! Thanks Honko for all your previous hard work!

Oglemi and I have decided not to use a rotating council for this quickban vote. Senate members, please PM me and Oglemi your votes as quickly as possible.

Votes:

[url=http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4376774&postcount=24]Gothitelle Quickban Vote
[/URL]

Alright senate members, please PM me and Oglemi your votes for whether or not you would like to see Cresselia and Durant get a retest. In your vote, either say "Retest _____" or "Do Not Retest ______", and please try to give a little explanation explaining your votes as well.

Votes:

Cresselia
Durant

There will be a vote on whether Cresselia and Durant should stay BL2 or move down to RU. The round ends on November 11 at 11:59 pm EST. At this time, an alt ID thread will go up for the ladder and rotating council seats will be chosen shortly after. There are 5 rotating council seats this round (Pocket has the 6th) and a few ways that seats are given out:

1. Win the RU Awards
2. Be #1 on the ladder at 11:59 pm EST on November 11th (when the round ends)
3. One for IRC discussion in #rarelyused
4. misc, usually including one of the above criteria (high on the ladder, being on irc, and forum posting)
5. misc, usually including one of the above criteria (high on the ladder, being on irc, and forum posting)

Here is the np thread

Congratulations complete_legitimacy for becoming a member of the senate! Thanks Omicron for all your previous hard work!

Alright, Oglemi and I have decided on our rotating council for this round:

1. Pocket
2. Yonko7
3. Windsong
4. Honko
5. Silvershadow234
6. col49

Furthermore, Double01 will be replacing ShakeItUp for this vote.

You guys will be voting on whether or not you would like to see Cresselia and Durant unbanned from BL2. Please PM both Oglemi and me your votes, and either say Keep Cresselia/Durant Banned,or Unban Cresselia/Durant. Please give a little explanation in your votes as well, and try to get them in ASAP!

The RU Senate will be retired for now. Thanks everyone for all your hard work! I will explain what we will be doing for this round voting-wise shortly.