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Unranked OU
- Thread starter TheRealYo
- Start date
I get the feeling you didn't check out the "Suggestions" thread before posting. And you can just challenge people to battles, instead; besides, if this ladder exists so that people can test sets, all you'll find on this ladder is experimental, untested sets, which isn't a good thing to test your set against.
Um yeah it is.. thats the pont of it so you don't have to constantly ask to battle people and that you can just find a quick match,thats the whole point of it being unranked..for testing
I get the feeling you didn't check out the "Suggestions" thread before posting. And you can just challenge people to battles, instead; besides, if this ladder exists so that people can test sets, all you'll find on this ladder is experimental, untested sets, which isn't a good thing to test your set against.
tl;dr you need to test against actual OU sets and not test sets, so you know if your team is actually good. Just challenge people to an OU game. They'll probably bring a serious OU team, and not a team made for testing, 80% of the time. This allows you to see if your team is actually viable in the OU metagame, instead of facing a BP team designed to have Magikarp sweep.
It is my understanding that an unranked OU ladder is slated to be added for reasons unrelated to the OP.
isnt this why we have alts?
This is a phony excuse that makes the assumption that people who play unranked matches are not putting in any effort to win, which as countless other games (see Dota 2, Counter Strike, Starcraft, etc) have proven is not the case. No, you're not going to have the same hypercompetitive environment as top level OU matches, but you will be able to have fun in matches which take out the stress and frustration that comes with hax and the incredibly unforgiving ladder system. If anything, you're going to get more experience against a variety of teams because players will be more willing to use Pokemon that aren't copy-pasted Smogon standards.
Unranked OU is an incredibly obvious addition that should have been implemented ages ago and could very well become more popular than ranked OU. If Arcticblast is right here then this is very good news.
Lol they turned you down
I get the feeling you didn't check out the "Suggestions" thread before posting. And you can just challenge people to battles, instead; besides, if this ladder exists so that people can test sets, all you'll find on this ladder is experimental, untested sets, which isn't a good thing to test your set against.
If you are still looking for this, a good alternative is to make an alternative account! This is done by typing /nick NewName into the chat and on this account your battle record will start fresh, so you can test without having to worry about losing your spot on the ladder. After you are done testing you can type /nick OldName into the chat and enter your password to get your old account back.
Unfortunately, an unranked OU ladder has absolutely no chance of ever becoming more popular than a ranked competitor, and nor should it as there's no logical reason for it to be. The best and most dedicated players will inevitably congregate around a system which rewards skill, and that's where most people want to be involved with (hence the ubiquitous use of alts for testing). Using an alt there's no stress involved with losing or bad luck, and as anyone who's ever played on PS knows, there's plenty of ...variety in the lower realms of the OU ladder. "copy-pasted Smogon standards" is an unfair accusation on the ladder - players everywhere in the laddering community innovate and experiment, particularly the ones at the top. There's no need for an unranked ladder to suddenly get people to create new stuff.
Unrated Randbats works so well because there's no teambuilding or preparation required to play it - if you were on a train or showing how PS works to a friend, it's a lovely feature (but nowhere near as popular as ranked randbats). An unranked OU ladder suffers from not being easy to "pick up and play", leaving it with very little reason to exist due to its userbase being decimated by the existence of a (whatever way you look at) more competitive and rewarding alternative and the option to suffer no losses playing it by simply using an alt. Incidentally, I'm not at all against an unranked OU ladder being put up (as it can only benefit the community!), but I'm not sure it's quite necessary for the reasons you've stated.
Unless you're part psychic(which you aren't) you have no right to assume things clearly the majority of showdown fans want this
Unless you're part psychic (which you aren't, despite your avatar having part-psychic typing but that doesn't prove anything about you IRL) you have no right to assume things either. You have no proof about the majority of Showdown fans wanting this, as well as no right to say that a moderator of said simulator has no right to assume these kinds of things. If anyone knows what they're talking about, it's a staff member.
Then take a vote and prove my point
I know this has been said before, but you can simply use an alternative account. Alts have their own rankings and are seperate from the main laddering alts, which is where you actually want a good ELO or GLICKO. An alt will enable you to try out gimmicks and original sets while still keeping the good score you have on you main account, which will serve to indicate how good you ae as a battler.
A problem with an alt is you have no way of testing to see how your team stacks up against other serious OU teams until you get to a higher section of the ladder. This is because the lower parts of the ladder are way different than the upper parts of the ladder, meaning the teams you are testing against are all of a sudden way different than the ones you were facing 5 matches ago. Furthermore, I dislike making so many alts because half of them go to waste because I realize that I lost a couple of matches initially and if I want to test out a change to my team, I have to make another alt to test it out or risk the possibility of ruining my entire team after a while because I don't know how something works. I don't want to play a bunch of shitty teams during testing and not have very much time until it gets serious. It is pretty tedious and annoying, and there are a ton of registered accounts on PS! right now I assume and the number is rapidly increasing. Finally, if I am using a fun team (such as a RU team in OU or something else silly) then I can't modify said team to try to make it optimal without having to make another alt to get rid of a possible bad start. I have way too many alts and I really would prefer having one dedicated testing alt over having a ton of testing alts that I will most likely never use again.
And you have no more proof than he does that a majority of the people are necessarily against it. I don't see any harm in implementing this other than "possibly unnecessary" which its not as people are giving reasons for it. I think we may as well have one before assuming no one will play it (I would play it a lot personally).
You have a good point there, and I didn't think that way about alts. I still feel it's unnecessary, because of alts and the unrated random battle ladder being much less popular than the ranked one, but that's just my opinion.
It may be partially due to the fact that random battles are the first option out of all the ladders
Yeah, since I posted that fist comment, I though about it, and it does seem like there is some merit to an unranked ladder. However, I still think that a big problem with an unranked ladder is that, if it's used to test out teams, which it should be, and if you, too, try to test your team on it, you'll mostly be going against other sub-par or gimmicky teams that aren't polished. An unranked ladder will have very different content than a ranked ladder, and thus, won't really reflect the ranked ladder and what it takes to succeed in it. A team can work very well on the unranked ladder and be poor on the ranked ladder, and vice-versa. This turns a lot of tests unrealistic. However, testing teams on a ranked ladder with an alt will let you know exactly what you'll be facing and let you adapt to it.
But I feel like the main reason for implementing an unranked ladder isn't for testing teams, but rather, just having fun trying out silly sets. There's no punishment for losing, which removes a lot of the pressure and incentive to win, which in turn lends itself better for trying unviable things that are just for fun. PS is a competitive simulator, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't embrace creativity and oddball tactics, and I think people should be allowed to try out whatever they like without repercussions, as long as it's legal. And who knows, maybe a simple gimmick might blow up and become the next big thing.
Tl;dr : I think an alt on a ranked ladder should be for testing out teams, and unranked ladder should be for messing around and doing whatever.
But I feel like the main reason for implementing an unranked ladder isn't for testing teams, but rather, just having fun trying out silly sets. There's no punishment for losing, which removes a lot of the pressure and incentive to win, which in turn lends itself better for trying unviable things that are just for fun. PS is a competitive simulator, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't embrace creativity and oddball tactics, and I think people should be allowed to try out whatever they like without repercussions, as long as it's legal. And who knows, maybe a simple gimmick might blow up and become the next big thing.
Tl;dr : I think an alt on a ranked ladder should be for testing out teams, and unranked ladder should be for messing around and doing whatever.