hosted by me with cohosts Mambo and f(x)
Little Cup was introduced in Pokémon Stadium 2 as one of the "Stadium Cups," or particular modes in which the player had stipulations on his or her team. The stipulation for Little Cup was that only Pokémon hatched from eggs could participate, which included only Pokémon that could evolve but had just been hatched at, in accordance with ADV mechanics, level 5.
Though players slowly began to pick up this odd tier due to its uniqueness in star Pokémon and viable strategies, it was not until DPP that Little Cup (LC) finally had a chance as a competitive metagame at Smogon under the direction of vader, who brought it over from Stadium 2 with the earliest medium for LC communication, the Little Cup Forum. A few mechanics had changed with breeding, and the logistics of the tier had changed as well; for example, eggs now hatched at level 1, but LC was still played at level 5, which allowed easy application of EV spreads.
DPP LC brought forth a small, tightly knit community and strategies that predominantly revolved around hyper offense. By BW, LC began to progress both as a metagame and as a community. The introduction of Eviolite allowed more balanced strategies to prosper, and the community thrived. When XY LC arrived, the metagame became entirely refreshed, the playerbase growing quickly and LC evolving into an even more fun, enriching environment. Little Cup's evolution continued throughout the duration of XY and is now ORAS LC.
Although the tradition of LC has kept every Pokemon at level 5, this presents a few frustrations that make the metagame unplayable in the eyes of high-level players and newer players alike. Speed ties, crazy damage rolls, Berry Juice and move incompatibilities have deterred people from immersing themselves into the metagame and the community. This tournament (and concept as a whole) is aimed at decreasing these factors and eliminating some entirely in order to increase LC's appeal and add new flavor to an already balanced metagame.
Some of the new mechanics that are introduced with this change:
- The larger range of Speed numbers mitigates a lot of Speed ties (however some remain with Pokemon that share Speed stats i.e. Drilbur and Archen)
- Damage rolls are more consistent due to larger HP numbers (some weird rolls still occur though due to low level)
- Berry Juice is still a useful item for recovery and isn't entirely obsolete, but it is severely nerfed and SturdyJuice is no longer as effective
- Pokemon now have access to Dream World moves (i.e. Gastly with Sludge Wave)
- EVs are now much more customizable yet they still remain on the same scale. This means that bumping a level 5 Pokemon to level 10 with their level 5 EV spread will still be effective spreads; however, there is now a number in between each stat. For example, while 156 will normally jump to 236, level 10 Pokemon hit the next numbers at 156, 196, and 236. I probably explained this poorly so if you have any questions about it, feel free to post and I'll try to answer them (playing around with sliders is helpful for figuring this out).
Teambuilding for this shouldn't be too much of a hassle; you simply need to bump your current team's levels up and adjust for Eviolite numbers. Keep in mind new threats that will rise thanks to the level bump and the current threats that only got better *cough* Diglett *cough*. Life Orb is no longer as effective when it comes to HP loss, as 19 HP isn't possible to achieve
This minitour is not only for fun but also to gauge the community's interest in the prospect of changing LC's level cap to 10. Although this is a tournament, feel free to post your thoughts on how the metagame changes and whether you think this change would benefit or harm the metagame we've worked hard to balance and refine.
Also save replays for discussion
People:
macle
fiend hound
mambo
fatty
thefenderstory
rhythms
quotecs
kopaka
unfixable
sparktrain
coconut
sammy-kun-sama
tazz
leremyju
am
hawkstar
shrug
jac
op
omastar42
metaphysical
frogtaco
infamy
The avalanches
joltage
absdaddy
raseri
jellicent
heysup
tuo
tricking
yagura
real
apt-get
xzern
qsns
lasagne
ninedge
merritt
flame emblem
rowan
the quasar
aaraons aron
sken
-tynamo-
fran17
queenlucy
godland
kumiho
rzl2000
silentmango
tewmew
blizzardly
h&mberkeley
vakatalesau
gggd
kingmidas
zoroakforever
blinkie
cheir
pandom
inscribe
cheeck pouch
brazillian army
phantom sandslash11
ROUND 1
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/level-10-lc-minitour.3533388/page-3#post-6134492
Little Cup was introduced in Pokémon Stadium 2 as one of the "Stadium Cups," or particular modes in which the player had stipulations on his or her team. The stipulation for Little Cup was that only Pokémon hatched from eggs could participate, which included only Pokémon that could evolve but had just been hatched at, in accordance with ADV mechanics, level 5.
Though players slowly began to pick up this odd tier due to its uniqueness in star Pokémon and viable strategies, it was not until DPP that Little Cup (LC) finally had a chance as a competitive metagame at Smogon under the direction of vader, who brought it over from Stadium 2 with the earliest medium for LC communication, the Little Cup Forum. A few mechanics had changed with breeding, and the logistics of the tier had changed as well; for example, eggs now hatched at level 1, but LC was still played at level 5, which allowed easy application of EV spreads.
DPP LC brought forth a small, tightly knit community and strategies that predominantly revolved around hyper offense. By BW, LC began to progress both as a metagame and as a community. The introduction of Eviolite allowed more balanced strategies to prosper, and the community thrived. When XY LC arrived, the metagame became entirely refreshed, the playerbase growing quickly and LC evolving into an even more fun, enriching environment. Little Cup's evolution continued throughout the duration of XY and is now ORAS LC.
Although the tradition of LC has kept every Pokemon at level 5, this presents a few frustrations that make the metagame unplayable in the eyes of high-level players and newer players alike. Speed ties, crazy damage rolls, Berry Juice and move incompatibilities have deterred people from immersing themselves into the metagame and the community. This tournament (and concept as a whole) is aimed at decreasing these factors and eliminating some entirely in order to increase LC's appeal and add new flavor to an already balanced metagame.
Some of the new mechanics that are introduced with this change:
- The larger range of Speed numbers mitigates a lot of Speed ties (however some remain with Pokemon that share Speed stats i.e. Drilbur and Archen)
- Damage rolls are more consistent due to larger HP numbers (some weird rolls still occur though due to low level)
- Berry Juice is still a useful item for recovery and isn't entirely obsolete, but it is severely nerfed and SturdyJuice is no longer as effective
- Pokemon now have access to Dream World moves (i.e. Gastly with Sludge Wave)
- EVs are now much more customizable yet they still remain on the same scale. This means that bumping a level 5 Pokemon to level 10 with their level 5 EV spread will still be effective spreads; however, there is now a number in between each stat. For example, while 156 will normally jump to 236, level 10 Pokemon hit the next numbers at 156, 196, and 236. I probably explained this poorly so if you have any questions about it, feel free to post and I'll try to answer them (playing around with sliders is helpful for figuring this out).
Teambuilding for this shouldn't be too much of a hassle; you simply need to bump your current team's levels up and adjust for Eviolite numbers. Keep in mind new threats that will rise thanks to the level bump and the current threats that only got better *cough* Diglett *cough*. Life Orb is no longer as effective when it comes to HP loss, as 19 HP isn't possible to achieve
This minitour is not only for fun but also to gauge the community's interest in the prospect of changing LC's level cap to 10. Although this is a tournament, feel free to post your thoughts on how the metagame changes and whether you think this change would benefit or harm the metagame we've worked hard to balance and refine.
Also save replays for discussion
People:
macle
fiend hound
mambo
fatty
thefenderstory
rhythms
quotecs
kopaka
unfixable
sparktrain
coconut
sammy-kun-sama
tazz
leremyju
am
hawkstar
shrug
jac
op
omastar42
metaphysical
frogtaco
infamy
The avalanches
joltage
absdaddy
raseri
jellicent
heysup
tuo
tricking
yagura
real
apt-get
xzern
qsns
lasagne
ninedge
merritt
flame emblem
rowan
the quasar
aaraons aron
sken
-tynamo-
fran17
queenlucy
godland
kumiho
rzl2000
silentmango
tewmew
blizzardly
h&mberkeley
vakatalesau
gggd
kingmidas
zoroakforever
blinkie
cheir
pandom
inscribe
cheeck pouch
brazillian army
phantom sandslash11
ROUND 1
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/level-10-lc-minitour.3533388/page-3#post-6134492
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