Implementing the Random Match Ladder in SU

[Jibaku]

Okay here goes nothing...
/me awaits flames

Hi guys.

A Random Match ladder is something that I have had in mind ever since the release of Black and White. For those of you who don't know what Random Match is, it's the official ladder in the cartridge, consisting of five different rulesets: Single Battle, Double Battle, Triple Battle, Rotation Battle, and Wonder Launcher Battle. They have an official leaderboard for each metagame, accessible in the Pokemon Global Link site (not available yet internationally at this time of posting, however). Anyways, I won't bother posting out the full ruleset since they're likely floating around somewhere (think Battle Subway rules, except with Team Preview).

This thread has some information:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101802

Enough about what it is and more into why I'm suggesting this. Although I suppose it's probably better doing the actual competitions in game anyways, I think having this set of ladders can be helpful to us. It serves as a quicker method of learning the quirks in the metagame, and allows us to see the metagame from their perspective and be prepared (to take on the laddering challenge? possibly future official tournaments?). It can be extremely disappointing to train Pokemon in game for this only to find out that you get pounded hard consistently. The vgc ladders help us do this already, and I don't see why we can not extend it to cover the rest of the official metagames. And it's also one thing to note that the official ladder isn't put up yet internationally and getting a "head start" is neat.

Although (if implemented), even if our state of the metagames do not match with those seen on WiFi, it is not a loss at all. Utilizing our ladder and their ladder side by side, I think it is great to have the ability to transform our top-tier mindsets into the game and see how it fares, and likewise we can learn greatly from the difference in metagames and bring back unique ideas from their side and enhance our understanding of "the official game".

Thoughts? Comments? Hates? Loves?

 

[locopoke]

I've been actively playing Nintendo's official metagames since the release of B/W. They're very enjoyable and I would love to see them implemented on our PO server. It would be nice to practice against players here on Smogon to prepare for when the leaderboard goes up at the end of March.

 

[Theorymon]

I agree 100% with locopoke here. I too have been playing random wifi on BW since it came out, and I feel that having a practice ladder for these metagames will do nothing but good.

 

[Sixonesix]

I suggested this four months ago and nobody listened... :(

But yeah, obviously I support this idea.

 

[Destiny Warrior]

I like this idea, because I feel having this kind of reference is always handy. This lets us learn about the singles, doubles and triples metagames in a new way(not including rotation and WL because atm they aren't implemented).

 

[Philip7086]

I'm not very familiar with this, so can someone explain it a little further? Namely, do users not get to choose which type of match they will play, or do you just bring 6 Pokemon and the format (Singles, Doubles, Triples, Rotation) is randomly selected? I have no objection to something like this being implemented on our ladder, but there are obvious technical restraints to such a thing. For example, as far as I know, PO does not support Rotation battles or Wonder Launcher.

 

[Theorymon]

You get to choose the kind of battle. When I played on my Japanese game, I always chose the option that let me play singles.

 

[Faladran]

Sounds like a great idea. One of the advantages of PO is that you can test out a lot more teams and get in a lot more practice in a short amount of time, so it's a lot easier than testing over wifi.

 

[Jibaku]

@ Philip####

Before entering, you get to choose between one of the 5 rulesets to play in, and as far as I'm concerned no randomization of the metagame happens while you're in the "find battle room".

As far as rotation/wonder launcher go, don't worry about implementing those if the simulator is incapable of executing them.

 

[Firestorm]

I'm all for more games we can play without having to deal with creating rules and banlists.

 

[PK Gaming]

Sounds good to me. I've always wanted to play Rotation and Wonder Launcher Battle on a simulator. I'd imagine that they would somewhat difficult to program though.

 

[Jibaku]

Any more opinions on this?

 

[haunter]

The idea is excellent and the new ladder would definitely birng more players (especially causal ones) to our server. If Super has the time, and the skills, to put this idea in practice, then I see really no reason to not do it.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

I'm unsure if anyone's really interested, but I went ahead and "tested the waters" as it were by implementing all three of the currently possible metagames (singles / doubles / triples) on the CAP server. I tested them with a few different people and they look to work exactly as intended. This was more as a proof of concept than anything, though I've left the metagames there in case anyone wants to test them out. If I can do them, then Super can on SU.

That said, I really do support having ladders for these metagames. This is about as close to a Nintendo-supported singles meta as we'll ever get, and the doubles and triples metas are also very fun. I think since we've already shown that we support Nintendo's meta by going full steam with VGC, we should absolutely do the same with these.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Hate to bump this with a double post, but it's relevant now that the CAP server has become the SU server. With that shift, it now means that all three of the possible-to-implement Nintendo ladders (BW Singles, BW Doubles, and BW Triples) are implemented on SU for your enjoyment and practicing benefit.