[Present]

Generally, it seems Gamefreak doesn't make ingame too difficult for newer gamers who do not understand the mechanics (or most likely never heard of them). On the other hand, veteran players, like most people on smogon are, will find the ingame to be quite easy. I remember that it took me quite some time to establish the difference between special attack and attack, because I did never notice the special or physical symbols for the attacks (gen 4 was my first gen). Most likely, new people won't know these things either. I remember my first battle against gardenia and me insisting to beat her with grotle. It really isn't that smart a choice actually.

This counts for most things actually: physical / special split, move effectiveness (the not so obvious ones, water-grass-fire is logical, while things like dark-ghost-psychic are more difficult to fond out), even stab would take a while.

A well, most people I know that play a new game will look in the Internet for information on the game anyway, unlike me back then.

edit: one more thing which might be a little difficult for newer players is finding out the typing of new pokemon you encounter (instead of looking it up on the Internet)