The Doubles Room: Double the Babes

Introduction

You know what they say: Doubles players get double the babes. Knowing this, you decide to hop on the Smogon Doubles ladder one day with that really cool new team Electrolyte posted in the Sample Teams thread in the Doubles subforum. "Wow," the handsome reader remarks, "this metagame is really fun! If only there were some sort of congregation of people somewhere that shared my passion for this incredibly entertaining metagame!" Have no fear, incredibly good-looking reader, for there is a place to talk about this amazing metagame! Look no further than the Doubles room on Pokémon Showdown! for a place where people from all around come to talk about the Smogon Doubles metagame and other doubles formats.

Competitive Discussion

The Smogon Doubles format has been growing in interest to the public eye since ADV when the format was first introduced. It wasn't until VGC took off that people wanted a more Smogon-oriented version of the format: one that lacked an Item Clause, used a 6v6 format instead of 4v4, and had custom banlists that would be decided by the community. Thus, Smogon Doubles was born. The Doubles room is most closely focused on discussion regarding the most current version of the Smogon Doubles format. Now, do you remember when I told you about "other doubles formats"? Of course you do. A reader as handsome as you couldn't possibly suffer from such critical short-term memory loss. Aside from the main doubles format, Smogon Doubles, people of the room also like to discuss Smogon Doubles UU and Smogon Doubles Ubers. Smogon Doubles UU is a tier in which only the least used Pokémon of Smogon Doubles are allowed. You can read more about Smogon Doubles UU in my other article about it, Double the Salt. In Smogon Doubles Ubers, every Pokémon species is allowed to be used, meaning even a Primal Groudon sun team may be used! In the room, SMogon Doubles UU is commonly abbreviated to "duubs" or "dubs uu," whereas Smogon Doubles Ubers is commonly abbreviated to "dubers.""

Notable People of the Doubles Room

Stratos

Stratos (formerly Pwnemon) is one of two people who lead the Smogon Doubles metagame. The other is Mizuhime, but she is not as relevant to the room on PS. Additionally, Stratos is also a very prominent voice over policy regarding the room and Smogon Doubles itself. He is also a pretty popular tournament player, known for being one of the best BW Doubles players.

Audiosurfer

Not only is Audiosurfer a room Owner, but he's also a global Driver. He also spearheaded the revamping of the Random Doubles format. Before his intervention, the Random Doubles format was a barren wasteland of Pokémon that were either relevant only in Singles or running a set that would make you look really dumb if you used it in Smogon Doubles. With his knowledge of Smogon Doubles, he and Joim revamped the Pokémon and movesets given in Random Doubles to portray a doubles format more accurately.

finally and Electrolyte

These two are probably in possession of the most pun-able names of all the room staff. Not only does Electrolyte have what plants crave, but he also topped the Random Doubles ladder. finally has hosted the SDPL (Smogon Doubles Premier League), which is the Doubles subforum's take on the SPL, a very popular team tournament of Smogon. Additionally, Electrolyte is a global Mod that is better at Random Doubles than the reader is at being handsome.

KyleCole

The only one on this list who isn't a room Owner, KyleCole is very well-versed with the room. He's notorious for coming up with unorthodox sets on his Pokémon. However, what sets him apart from the rest of the room staff is the fact that he currently runs a YouTube channel that is dedicated to producing Smogon Doubles-related content. At the time of writing this, he has well over 400 subscribers. Why is this important? Well, Smogon Doubles isn't exactly a popular metagame, as it's overshadowed by most Singles metagames. Exposing the metagame to a larger part of the internet is vital for the metagame to become more popular over time.

Conclusion

The Doubles room is very laid-back, and you can talk about almost anything that is relevant to Doubles formats there. Just don't talk about Beat Up Whimsicott + Justified Terrakion leads; everyone hates that crap. Anyway, whether you want to talk about the main Smogon Doubles formats, Smogon Doubles UU, Smogon Doubles Ubers, or that really cool Tailwind team that you built around Zangoose, the Doubles room is the right place to be.

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