Had fun playing this tour for cup, will give some thoughts on some mons.
(this is basically baton pass). BP I think is mostly fine in the tier, as while in the early rounds I did utilise it from the cursepass sample and it won all the games, it didn't feel 'broken'. Unless your opp heavily messes up, you will get max 2 passes, but more typically it will be one pass. Venomoth is a great pokemon but it doesn't have the typing to make it happen consistently, usually having to rely on sleep powder at lead to do so. Farfetch'd is more threteaning with SD and agility, but it takes a lot from attacks so it can fall a bit flat. Its def not broken but The main issue with BP is a pokemon which I'll talk about next.
Hitmonchan is broken. I think the primary reason why the meta is as offensive as it is, is due to Hitmonchan. Now, offensive GSC metas are fine and I honestlty prefer them, but frankly put I think the tier is too offensive, to the point where defensive playstyles do not feel great. I remember somebody saying in GSC cord that "I try not to have more then 1/2 mons have rest or any recovery" and while I have made teams with 3 recovery mons, that is the absolute limit. The two teams with 4 recovery mons that I made sucked ass and only won 1 match, which it did have to get pretty lucky to do so. IDT this is a good direction for the meta, and I'll explain further why hitmonchan is the mon to cause it.
While there are a lot of pokemon that have limited checks (arbok, murkrow, dunsparce, elekid etc), they usually have something holding them back. In arbok and murkrows case, they typically want to run non rest talk sets and thus most damage will stick more. In elekids case it really struggles to switch in and does need to choose its coverage if it uses restalk (psychic and ice punch are both important). Dunsparce can struggle to break through tang/rocks easily etc (though dunsparce is def bordering healthy territory at times).
Hitmonchan kinda just, doesn't really have many of these issues. Even a simple rest talk set has all the moves it wants with just a simple hp rock and hjk (I think bslam rest talk is prob chans worse set since it struggles to break through a lot of things). The only consistent checks are tangela and arbok. Tangela is annoying but runs into the problem of pursuit. While it only does 40% on switch out, thats going to add up over the course of a game, particularly if you are running something like rhyhorn to check normals (which if the opponent has furret is going to not be fun). Arbok suffers from the issue that it not only prefers non rest talk (thus being much easier to chip) but also can struggle with curse variants if they are rest talk, which a lot are I feel. Sure at +1 hjk isn't immediately threatening but it can boost constantly to just make sludge bomb do pitiful damage. That kinda leaves just slowpoke and drowzee as like, consistent checks, which IDT I want to really run those mons (and slowpoke has to run psychic otherwise it loses lol), due to the fact that murkrow is a top mon and they are pretty passive mons all around even with twave.
The sets are also varied and restrict counterplay. HP rock with rest talk is like, a good bread and butter set for its ability to threaten a lot of the meta naturally with its coverage and power. Curse rest talk struggle to initially wallbreak with their inability to break through the poisons but late game once they have been removed it is able to sweep teams easily. Curse 3A trades like crazy with its ability to threaten teams that think they can scout and then punish it. Thief 3A cripples the poisons for teammates and its own sweeping etc. Its just so versitile in what it can do that you can never truely answer defensively and I think the meta will be much better without it.
Seen a bit of complaining about this and I think its fine for the most part but I see where people are coming from. Endgame dunsparce is an amazing cleaner since its great bulk and high power after a boost or two, but it is definetely managable. Its best set in curse talk can't really break through the rocks and can't touch gastly at all (though gastly is a bit fringe) and while it can sweep teams, it isn't doing it instantly, it gives the opponent a lot of room to outplay initially. Curse HP sets either lack recovery or can't run rest talk, depending on what you choose, which means that you can either trade with it early or punish the resting turns with strong special damage (which most teams will have somewhat). Every other set is fine so yeah, good mon, maybe keep an eye on but for the most part its fine.
Now to talk about some cool mons
Raticate is firmly the 3rd best normal but I think it should be running different sets then people are currently running. Rest talk I do not like, I think it is basically just a worse furret even if super fang to chip down walls seems appealing but furrets better bulk and access to surf means it is not only more consistent at breaking, but also has less switch ins. Non rest talk sets I think are great though, utilising stuff like ice beam and thunderbolt alongside the free hit of super fang to chip anything down and you have a mon who is suprisingly difficult to switch into. This also leaves a free moveslot, toxic can cripple certain walls without rest, thief can cripple any wall as well, sub can scout switches and protect can help gain lefties chip if needed. I think that it really plays to the strengths of raticate of being a strong fast attacker that differentiates itself from other normals.
While its def worse then murkrow, I do think houndour has a good place in the tier. It completely and utterly fucks tangela, unlike murkrow who can be sniped by hp ice (nobody is running hp water rn and for good reason, its ass outside of hitting houndour). Tangela cannot stay in and thus has to take a meaty chunk out of its health, letting opposing sweepers have an easier time breaking through it. You also are pretty great offensively, with a good chunk of mons not liking flame+hp grass in combination with thief. I haven't seen it much aside from using it myself, but I do think its decent.
Azumarill is such a weird mon. It should be incredibly goated due to its insane defenses, but that insane defenses come with a lack of offenses, unless you try and do belly drum stuff which like, prob don't lol. Thus you have a pokemon which can easily take even boosted attacks, but can't do a whole lot in return. Thats kinda why the only set that I think works is perish trap, which I think is decently effective at making sure teams don't get too comfy trying to abuse it. Due to its insane bulk, you can easily live the three turns needed to wait for the timer to run out, even if they do have boosting moves. Even certain super effective moves can bounce off if they aren't STAB, leading to a good chunk more things that it can trap. The primary issue is that when its forced to rest, it becomes pretty unreliable at actually trapping which is unfortunate, but it def has its place on certain teams.
Abra is a nice offensive mon that despite the dark weakness, is pretty threatening to standard comps. Not much likes taking psychic+t-wave+coverage, which chunks a large part of the meta for good damage, even 3HKO'ing something like furret. It does die to any stray physical attack, but if you can do good double switching, it can get the chance to launch off pretty powerful attacks. Last moveslot is pretty flexible. Substitute is great to take advantage of switches easily, thief can cripple special walls easily, counter is cool to surprise a physical attacker etc. If you can drop t-wave, then you can fit encore on too which is great for disrupting opponents as well, though it is also incompatible with sub so you can't fit this set on every team. Still a good set though.
In a tier which tang is a top tier mon, having a water type that does not really give a fuck about it is amazing, combined with the fact that it is also a check to hitmonchan. While it isn't the most threatening pokemon, it does have enough firepower to make sure it can't be used as setup fodder for a few mons. However, I think that haze+3A is 100% the only set that works rn, otherwise it is setup fodder for curse chan and that is not exactly great.... 'Maybe' curse with hp flying could work but I am very unsure of how it could even be supported properly due to its low damage output (even at +1 furret isn't 4hko'd...)
Finally, heres my PVR. Some of the lower ranks are subject to being moved around.
NEW SAMPLE TEAMS! 
Murkrow/Cubone by MrSoup
Thief Elekid by Indulge in dreams
