Upstart: Smogon isn't an entity devoted to accurately emulating the game of Pokemon (to my knowledge). Rather, they're an entity that seeks to improve the state of competitive battling, and to constantly push the boundaries of what defines the strongest team, while removing aspects that hinder a competitive play style. Here, we remove the in-game aspects of breeding for IVs and move sets by immediately giving the player the option to select whatever (possible) values they desire. We automatically enable them to use Pokemon that they might not have access to, or might not even own the game of. At the same time, we delegate Pokemon into tiers and create ban lists, as that allows us to maintain a more diverse array of available, viable strategies for players to choose from and otherwise formulate on their own. We wholeheartedly support this endeavor.
However, if you don't mind me getting philosophical, then I must ask this: "Why do we play competitive Pokemon?" Is it to practice new strategies to beat your friends in real life? Is it because you find the underlying mechanics of the game to be interesting? Perhaps you aspire to compete in a real-world event and want to make sure you're up to par. Or maybe it's just the way you best enjoy playing Pokemon. You might even have your own, unique reasons for wanting to join us. These considerations have long been a part of the machinations of competitive battling, and they will continue to be so, as long as our users continue to submit their opinions.
Since the dawn of competitive battling, the Level 100 cap has been the standard. The earliest generations offered no scaling of their own, so the system-programmed cap of Level 100 made sense. In later games, all Pokemon on a team were scaled to Level 100, so that a perfectly trained Lv 34 Pikachu stood on even ground with a perfectly trained Lv 100 Pikachu. Until now, there has been no reason to change this convention. Now, the in-game level cap for a trainer battle is at a scaled 50. Meaning, a perfectly trained Lv 34 Pikachu will still stand on even ground with a perfectly trained Lv 100 Pikachu, but that ground will be a slightly different one than they might have stood upon in prior generations.
This is nothing to be fearful of. Change is to be expected with each new generation. With a loss comes a gain, and with a gain comes a loss. With a Pokemon suddenly finding itself disadvantaged by a change is a new Pokemon finding advantage in that change. The nerf to weather may very well herald the return of Drizzle + Swift Swim in competitive play. The loss of Steel's resistances to Dark / Ghost give some Pokemon a wider array of attacks to viably use, and may possibly prompt users to consider unused options instead. The weakening of some staple Special Attacks give players a more balanced choice between using a specific Pokemon as a Special Attacker / Physical Attacker / Mixed Attacker.
A potential small % increase in damage from a Level 50 cap may very well lead to certain Pokemon dying in 1/2 hits that could've taken 2/3. But that also allows Pokemon that could've killed a Pokemon in 2/3 hits to instead kill them in 1/2. This also applies to a recalculation of speed tiers. Instead of our traditional speed bases (which will likely have to be recalculated regardless), we will instead have newer ones. This isn't something that 'hinders' competitive play. Unless you are one to consider the very release of X/Y to be a hindrance. We are going to put a lot of effort into accurately emulating Pokemon battles in X/Y, so why not use that effort and do it right the first time?
