Rate of the Week V2: Week 1

[IronBullet]

Rate of the Week
​

Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but not more than once. Unbadged raters can win the award multiple times.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Rater of the Week Hall of Fame which will be kept in the OP of every thread. Winners also earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all! :)

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Nedor (OU) and fran17 (LC)

 

[Yagura]

This week's LC winner is fran17! His rate is well-structured and contains effective and well-reasoned suggestions. First of all, fran17 started off by suggesting a viable moveset and EV spread for Meowth which is the team owner's favorite Pokémon. He also noticed that the team was weak to Fighting-types, so he suggested to replace Purrloin - the most dispensable member of the team - with Snubbull, which is one of the best checks in the tier to Fighting-types. He then recommends running Thunder Wave on Snubbull for speed control, a thing that his team would really appreciate.

fran17 continued his rate changing Aron's moveset, as his team needed a Stealth Rock setter, which is kinda mandatory on every team. He fixed Aron's spread as well, making it as slow as possible in order to benefit from Metal Burst. Then, he suggested running a set with Rock Polish on Cranidos which makes use of its high Attack stat allowing to be a fearsome late game cleaner, Zen Headbutt, and Earthquake. He recommended changing Cranidos' ability to Sheer Force to get some important OHKOs with Zen Headbutt against the likes of Timburr and Mienfoo; he also suggested a minor tweak to its EV spread to allow it to outspeed 18 Speed Pokemon holding a Choice Scarf after boosting.

At this point, fran17 noticed a weakness to Psychic- and Ghost-types, so he recommended adding Honedge with Pursuit to play mindgames with Gastly and Abra. He fixed Honedge's EV spread and replaced its item with a Berry Juice to improve its longevity. Finally, he noticed that Rock- and Ground-types such as Archen and Drilbur, respectively, caused trouble to the team, so he replaced Froakie with Staryu, which deals better with them and provides hazard control, which is essential to preserve Aron's Sturdy, it also has Psychic allowing it to check Croagunk which is a huge threat for the team.

Overall, fran17 has suggested efficient changes that improve the team a great deal making it more viable in the current metagame. His excellent rate has earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame, congrats!

 

[Enki]

This week's OU winner is Nedor! The format and structuring of his rate is excellent and it's very clear that he put a ton of effort into it. He starts off by making some minor fixes, such as making Latias bulkier to take on Electric-types, which are pretty annoying for this team to face, better. Adding Zen Headbutt to Jirachi's moveset to deal with Keldeo is a great suggestion as Ice Punch actually is not needed that much since he has different ways to deal with the likes of Landorus-T and Gliscor.

He then identifies common threats that can be very annoying for the team to face, displaying solid metagae knowledge in the process. He points out that Mega Altaria, bulky Charizard X, and Quiver Dance Volcarona can all be significant threats to the team, the latter especially if it runs Pasho Berry. He suggests running Roar on Suicune to help stop these threats.

He proposes running Focus Sash Breloom over the Life Orb set since Breloom frail and appreciates the ability to survive any hit, while Swords Dance is another good change as it helps deal with Pokemon like Gliscor and most Bulky Waters. Nasty Plot is over Taunt is a great suggestion as Mega Houndoom needs Nasty Plot to have any chance of breaking through stall and balanced teams. Nasty Plot allows Houndoom to get past Pokemon such as Mega Sableye, Gothitelle, Cresselia, Cefable, etc. He explains pretty well why Taunt and Nastly Plot in the same set is bad, since it cannot hit Pokemon such as Clefable and Azumarill, and most other Fairy-types.

His efficient suggestions along with the excellent structure and formatting of the rate has earned Nedor a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congrats!