Wow, I hate this new metagame. It really sucks... Stall Stall Stall... Now I have to revamp and make a completely new team. Thanks guys!
This post isn't intended to be rude or questions the judgment of Chaos, Jumpman16, or any other Smogon administrator or badge holder supporting the idea of a "suspect ladder." That said, I felt I needed to say a few things about this method.
How will you go about determining whether this new metagame is less centralized? A metagame is going to change when a major player is taken out. If Gyarados or Lucario were removed from a metagame it seems only logical that teams would change, would this imply centralization? How exactly does this help in determining whether or not Garchomp is uber?
To me, this seems this is going to be a test of whether or not people prefer a metagame without Garchomp, not that Garchomp is necessarily uber. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad way to determine something being uber but I don't see how this helps to determine over-centralization. I believe the only way to truly determine something is uber is by presenting arguments in favor for or against it (or if a statistical argument for centralization can be clearly made, which in that case, then we can just look at ladder statistics) We've played with Garchomp for quite some time and I think everyone is well equipped to make their arguments based on their experiences and I don't see how removing a Pokemon can allow anyone to conclude that Garchomp is uber.
Again, this isn't meant to question any smogon staff judgement but I don't see solid reasoning behind this (and yes, I've read all the Policy Review threads), I'm sure you have those reasons but I think they need to be layed out in more detail. Such as, how does this method help in determining whether Garchomp centralized the metagame? What metric is being used to determine this? If no solid metric is being used to determine this than there is no point in the ladder existing and a bold voting thread mine as well be used.
Also, I support Garchomp being banned if anyone questions my motives in saying this.
Well, we are also able to see what sets pokemon are using, so if certain strategies were made unviable by Garchomp they can tell.
(ie, ice beam > thunderbolt on starmie, HP ice on celebi, etc etc)
Heh your question came up several times during the talks leading up to this. I think these 2 points are really the main reasons, anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
1. No change can be made on a metagame before it is tested.
2. We are trying to create a suspect-free metagame. By banning Garchomp we will be more capable of determining whether or not other suspects are present in OU.
So really what we're trying to do is see if whether or not the loss of Garchomp produces more suspects. I've spoken to a few people who believe that if banning Garchomp from OU results in several more Pokemon "becoming uber," that we should leave Garchomp unbanned. I've always believed that we shouldn't leave broken Pokemon in OU in order to keep a check on other broken Pokemon, but it's obviously not a universally held idea. So we'll have to see what happens in that regard.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound like a dick. I wasn't too happy when I posted that. I had faced a string of about ten battles where every team was stall and every team ironically looked the same. My observation from battling was that people no longer feel the need to use any sort of speed to revenge kill yache chomp, which equates to slower, bulkier, stallish teams.
Decent points, but I'll address your first two reasons.
1. That is true, but hasn't Garchomp been tested? He's been tested for months and months. You aren't testing Garchomp with this test, you are testing a metagame without Garchomp. These seem very similar, but they are, in fact, very different. A metagame will change when any major player is removed from it whether it be Garchomp, Salamence, or Gengar.