News PageSmogcast Live #2Posted on May 21, 2013 04:00PM
 Come watch the second live Smogcast! The first half is discussion of auto-weather Pokemon such as Politoed and Ninetales; the second half is questions from Pokemon Showdown users. Featuring panelists PKGaming, chaos (only for Q&A), reachzero, kokoloko, JabbaTheGriffin, LonelyNess. Oh, and don't forget to subscribe to Smogon's YouTube channel, as every week we will bring you a new Smogcast! ~chaos Smogon Tour Season 15 Finals UnderwayPosted on May 13, 2013 09:17AM
 After 9 weeks of grueling competition, 16 players earned a chance to fight for the prestigious Smogon Tour trophy, marking a start to the Smogon Tour season 15 finals. Join in on the fun and excitement of these finals by cheering on your favorites to win the whole tournament. Round 1 is currently underway, and if you want to see how things play out, make sure to see keep a close eye on things until all of the dust settles and a winner is crowned! A huge thank you goes out to Zracknel for the incredible art displayed in the thread! ~Bloo Recently in C&CPosted on May 01, 2013 03:43PM
Lots of analyses were contributed in the month of April! The Black 2 and White 2 updates are nearing completion. Thanks to all of our contributors! If you're interested in writing for the site or are interested in editing its current content, head on over to the C&C forum and see what you can do to help. Uber
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If you find an error anywhere onsite, grammatical or content-wise, then please post it in the objective or subjective small changes thread. Hope to see you around! ~Oglemi and DittoCrow CAP 5 Malaconda PlaytestPosted on Apr 26, 2013 08:14PM
 The Create-A-Pokemon community would like to present to you our newest creation: Malaconda! After 82 days of intense debating, creative submissions, and community voting, our ship has arrived at the harbor. Although the voyage was filled with hazards, arguments, and conflicting visions, we managed to work together and complete the journey. Malaconda is a Dark / Grass Pokémon that's designed to serve as an equalizer of the types; it's a threat to certain Water- and Dragon-types. Specifically, it's meant to take down some of sun teams' most imminent threats, including Politoed and Latias. It's got a few nifty tricks too; don't be surprised if it regenerates its Berry with Harvest or paralyzes your Ground-types with Glare!  Since we've finished creating our new Pokemon, it's time for the official CAP 5 playtest to begin! The playtest is limited to a two week period where competitive Pokemon battlers will play in a metagame consisting of Black 2 & White 2 Overused Pokemon and Malaconda. This isolated test will determine how well Malaconda held to its original concept. Perhaps you'll develop a synergistic sun team featuring Malaconda utilizing LumRest, or fight against the competition with your favorite rain and sand teams. If you like to experiment and battle in a fun, creative, and combative environment in OU with an entirely new competitive Pokemon, check out Pokemon Showdown! to get your fix. If you're interested in CAP in general, head on over to the CAP forum, where we're running a variety of side projects. We still have to decide on Malaconda's third ability (it's going to be non-competitive) and Pokédex entries, so please join us and vote for those! Scope out the CAP sub-site if you're looking to discover more information on CAP. We're always on the lookout for new members who want to get involved with our community. It doesn't matter if you're a veteran battler, a savvy artist, or an energetic debater, we'd love to have you on board! CAP is always cooking up something new, so why not join in on the fun? ~Birkal DPP Beta Ladder Added to Pokemon ShowdownPosted on Apr 23, 2013 08:17PM
For the first time since its inception, Pokemon Showdown now features a ladder for a past generation. Veteran DPP players can rejoice at the fact that they can once again ladder for the 4th generation. For newer players, there's never been a better time to learn up on the tier and try it out. Let's give a huge thanks to the PS staff for making this possible. Those peeps are awesome! Now get out there and play some DPP! ~Jellicent The Elite Four: Charity Water EventPosted on Apr 21, 2013 09:50PM
From April 22nd - April 29th, Sephazon of YouTube is hosting a Pokemon themed charity stream for Charity Water. The donation goal for the event is $50,000 (you can donate and learn more here); the stream is being conducted on the official Elite Four Twitch account. The stream will be divided into three hour shifts, which other great Pokemon experts, let's players, and fans will be taking over. Guests include popular YouTubers Marriland, TheJWittz, and SuperSkarmory; you can find the full schedule here. Pokemon Showdown is standing alongside Sephazon and his goal by providing him with the necessary tools to get the word out about this charity event. As the premier online Pokemon simulator, Pokemon Showdown will be hosting all online battles that will be used over the week. The PS staff will also announce highlight events of the fundraiser throughout the upcoming days, so stay on the lookout for those announcements. Best of luck to Sephazon and his Pokemon-playing friends on striving for positive change in our world! ~Birkal The Smog #26Posted on Apr 07, 2013 08:30PM
 The latest issue of Smogon's web-zine, The Smog #26, has been released! As always, the team is trying interesting and fresh things, with the introduction of the new Spotlight articles, as well as some fresh articles like kd24's ADV Player Bio: reyscarface, a competitively-focused interview-style article with one of Smogon's most successful modern ADV players. However, regular readers will still be excited to see familiar series continued and revisited—for example, kokoloko's Underused 201: Battling is an indepth exploration of battling strategy that even non-UU players should find informative, and cookie has written another installment of How Moves Work. Meanwhile, Ubers fans will be delighted by shrang's Enlightenment: A Guide to Working Out Arceus Formes from Team Preview, and those with a mind for speculation will find Crystal_'s GSC and ADV Underdogs that Would Have Hit Big in RBY fascinating. Finally, Layell has the masterminds behind the hilarious and incredibly ambitious Pokemon Showdown April Fools Day prank covered in The Many Styles of the April Fools' Sprites. Of course, there's still plenty of entertainment, strategy, metagame, and community content left for you to discover, so enjoy! As always, please do drop by the forums and let us know what you think in our release thread! ~jumpluff Recently in C&CPosted on Apr 01, 2013 02:42PM
It's been a busy couple months in C&C, and that's no April Fools' joke. While Pokemon XY is drawing ever closer, there's still a lot to do for the remainder of BW. These are the analyses and articles that have been added to the site in the months of February and March. Thanks to all of our contributors! If you're interested in writing for the site or are interested in editing its current content, head on over to the C&C forum and see what you can do to help. Uber
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If you find an error anywhere onsite, grammatical or content-wise, then please post it in the objective or subjective small changes thread. Hope to see you around! ~Oglemi and DittoCrow Smogon Mentorship Program LaunchPosted on Mar 09, 2013 06:53PM
 Have you ever wanted to get more involved in Smogon's community? Well, we want you to join us! Today, we're proud to introduce the Smogon Mentorship Program to the public. We are a group of Smogon veterans who are dedicated to helping outsiders understand how our community functions. We want to answer all of your questions about competitive Pokémon, posting intelligently, and getting socially involved with the thousands of Pokémon lovers on Smogon. If you're browsing our forums, any user with a blue "Mentor" tag in their postbit would be thrilled to answer any questions you may have. While you're there, drop by our Introduce Yourself! thread to teach us a little about yourself.
Want to learn more? Check out the Smogon Mentorship sub-site to read our philosophy statement, browse through the list of Smogon Mentors, and learn about each of the individual communities here at Smogon. Hope to chat with you soon! ~Birkal Smogon Tour Season 15Posted on Mar 08, 2013 01:04PM
The time for one of Smogon's most challenging tournaments has arrived! The fifteenth season of the Smogon Tour begins on Friday, March 15th and will last for 9 weeks. The Smogon Tour tests your OU skills across the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation of Pokemon against some of Smogon's best players. Last season, McMeghan rose above the rest to be crowned Smogon Tour champion. Do you have what it takes to follow in his footsteps? If you think you do and want to be part of the excitement, make sure to check the Smogon Tour schedule to see when the tours will be happening, and the Smogon Tour forum for sign-ups! ~Bloo The Smog #25Posted on Mar 04, 2013 07:40PM
 The latest issue of Smogon's web-zine, The Smog #25, has been released! As mentioned in the Note from the Editor, The Smog has never been operating under a greater or more efficient system, and the results of our labor are reflected with each release. This time around, our latest issue comes exactly one month after our previous one, making it the fastest consecutive release in the three-years history of The Smog. More important, as we become prompter with our public releases, we continue to work hard to maintain a variety of topics filling in our pool of articles to ensure we are always bringing content that appeals all types of audience. If you like what you read, then by all means head over to our forum thread to give us some feedback and a Luvdisc! If you aren't familiar with our previous issues, you can always check them out in The Smog section of the website to get your fill. If you're considering joining The Smog production staff as a writer, an artist, or a coder, look into The Smog sub-forum for more information. Don't hesitate to send the Staff private messages if you have questions; we won't bite! ~Setsuna Deoxys-D Banned from OverusedPosted on Feb 27, 2013 05:46PM
 With a 59.34% pro-ban majority, Deoxys-D, the last of Deoxys's formes allowed in the OU tier, has been banned to Ubers. The discussion on the freshly ended suspect test can be found in the OU Suspect Testing Round 10 thread. Our best battlers on Pokemon Showdown! earned the right to participate in the vote on whether Deoxys-D should stay in Overused or not. The actual voting phase was conducted in Policy Review; the votes can be read here. Thanks to everyone who took part into the test. Check out our Overused discussion forum to chat about the current metagame and to find out what will be suspect in the upcoming weeks. ~Haunter The Smog #24Posted on Feb 05, 2013 10:01AM
 The latest issue of Smogon's web-zine, The Smog #24, has been released! We're hoping to make this our best year yet, and we're off to a strong start. Perhaps you'll be able to find something new to check out with the new year's first issue? We've got a well-balanced issue featuring articles on a number of interesting things going on around Smogon, and hopefully some will catch your eye! kokoloko's first installment of Underused 101 features a detailed, well-explained guide to UU teambuilding and threats that should get you off to a good start in the metagame, while some authors have put together a set of articles on the emerging and fast-paced Smogon Doubles metagame designed to get you integrated. On a different note, if you're looking for a truly unique and creative strategic challenge and would like to socialize with other Smogoners, the History of Smogon Pathfinder might be for you! Our recurring and much-loved mainstay Smeargle's Studio Update is here to keep you updated on what our thriving and talented artist community is up to, and just as the fifth BW CAP commences, Deck Knight has written CAP Policy Review: Getting the Bugs Out of Our System to examine the numerous radical policy shifts the project has recently experienced following its fourth iteration. Generation VI is approaching, and this year will only get more exciting as more news, more users, and more hype start to flood in! We'll be with you all the way, and we appreciate your continued readership. As always, we'd love to help new contributors get involved, so why not stop on by our Article Approvals subforum and apply with your article ideas sooner rather than later? Either way, enjoy! ~jumpluff 5th Generation Create-A-Pokémon 5 UnderwayPosted on Feb 04, 2013 12:08PM
 The Create-A-Pokémon project has just begun making a new Pokémon in the CAP forums! The local phenomena known as the Create-A-Pokémon Project labors to construct an entirely new Pokémon for competitive battling on our simulator: Pokemon Showdown!. Throughout the next several weeks, we'll have intense discussions, heaps of user-created submissions, and votes from hundreds of Pokemon battlers across the globe. In order to function, CAP requires the talents of many individuals, including artists, writers, and most importantly: competitive battlers. Over the next several weeks, we'll be voting as a community on the typing, stats, ability, movepool, art design, sprites, and name of our very own Pokémon. This will be our fifth CAP for the fifth generation of competitive battling. As is customary, our Pokémon is being created for Smogon's Overused tier, which includes the new ban on Tornadus-T. This time around, the CAP 5 process is being led by long time CAP veteran jas61292. Thanks to some recent changes in CAP Policy, he will be accompanied by four other CAP leaders to help manage the enormous task of creating a Pokémon. As the sixth generation approaches, we as a CAP community will be working hard to pump out a few more creations before October hits. Remember, CAP is a public project, so why not make an account on our forums and start voting now? It's a choice I'm sure you won't regret! Visit the CAP sub-site if you are keen on learning more about the project. ~Birkal Apex 2013 Stream LivePosted on Jan 11, 2013 01:36PM
The Pokémon stream at Apex has ended, but you can still discuss the largest grassroots Pokémon tournament in the United States on the forum thread. ~Firestorm Pokemon X & Pokemon Y AnnouncedPosted on Jan 08, 2013 08:00AM
Through Pokemon Direct, Satoru Iwata has officially announced the new generation of Pokemon! I am proud to present to you Pokemon X & Pokemon Y. Both games will be featured on the Nintendo 3DS and be released globally in October 2013. This game appears to have quite a few updates, most notably a switch to 3D Pokemon models and environments. The trailer also showed off the three new starters (Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie) and the two new box legendaries. You can see the entire trailer for yourself on Youtube. Currently, we don't know what this will mean in terms of Smogon's tiering process, but you can expect us to keep playing Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 competitively on our official simulator: Pokemon Showdown. Once the new generation is released, we will bravely venture forth into a new era of competitive battling. Until that point, swing on down to the Orange Islands to discuss Pokemon X & Y in this thread, where we will be consolidating all of the pre-release information as it comes. Welcome, my friends, to Generation VI. ~Birkal Apex 2013Posted on Jan 01, 2013 05:33PM
The new year is here and that means what may be the largest independently organized Pokemon tournament in North America is just about here as well! Apex 2013 takes place at Rutgers University in New Jersey from January 11th - 13th and Pokemon Black & White 2 will join other games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition on the roster. With cash prizes up for grabs, you can be sure the competition will be fierce! If you're unable to make it, the event will also be streamed live by the kind professionals over at CLASH Tournaments. Pokémon starts on Friday at 5:00 PM EST and the stream itself will begin at 8:00 PM EST. For full details, check out the forum thread. ~Firestorm The Smog #23Posted on Dec 28, 2012 04:25AM
 The latest issue of Smogon's web-zine, The Smog #23, has been released! Thanks to ToastPlusOne and Setsuna, the main page and magazine as a whole have received a lot of lovely visual enhancements, so make sure to check those out. The last issue of 2012 features nearly 40 articles, covering every metagame and almost every activity and section of the community, as well as including a host of entertainment articles to amuse you these holidays. We have a truly diverse community, and this issue displays it in full glory, with the latest on everything everywhere. A highlight article for you all is Smogon 2012 in a Nutshell, a summary of the busy year Smogon University has had. In keeping with the season, we've featured plenty of wintry content, such as Weather Analysis: Hail, Unopened Christmas Gifts: NU Ice-types, and PokéTour: Snowpoint City. Lastly, we're running our annual Smog Awards, so make sure to recognise this year's standout users! Say farewell to 2012 and get excited about 2013 with the latest issue of The Smog, and let us know what you think in the forum thread! A feedback poll will be coming soon, as well as new information on how to get involved. We hope you'll all be inspired to try something new in 2013, whether that be the projects, metagames, and playstyles we've written about, or even The Smog itself! ~jumpluff Smogon Premier League Season 4 Sign-UpsPosted on Dec 10, 2012 12:33PM
 As SPL commissioner, I am pleased to announce that it is time for the fourth season of the Smogon Premier League to start! Managers have been picked and sign-ups for players are currently underway. If you'd like to play for a team and are confident in your abilities in VGC '13, BW Ubers, BW Overused, BW Underused, BW Rarelyused, BW Neverused, DPP Overused, ADV Overused, GSC Overused, and/or RBY Overused, get your name on the list! You can keep up with the action as the season progresses in the Smogon Premier League forum! ~Fabbles VGC 2013 Rules OutPosted on Nov 28, 2012 01:18PM
 The rules for the 2013 season of VGC have now been announced! This season will be following the same ruleset as the GBU metagame; all the same Pokemon from last season, in addition to the Therian forms, will be allowed. Black 2 & White 2 tutor moves will also be allowed. Thanks to our good friends over at Nugget Bridge for this information! For more information on the ruleset, check out the VGC Rules thread and the VGC subforum. ~Solace |
