So I'm going to make one final push for STABmons to stay. With Sun / Moon on the horizon, and a change occurring this year with them coming out in a few months, it's time to address this.
Firstly, let me preface this post by saying I tried to remain as unbiased as possible. I've taken into consideration ladder activity, forum activity, and C&C activity, the latter of which I can accurately judge I'd say. Anyways, the idea of a rotational ladder is something I'm not against, though I see it as harder to garner attention. I want popular things to have permanent ladders, that's it. But, that's besides the point entirely. While opening up more possibilities for new metagames is something I'm fond of, I don't think removing STABmons to allow this is the key to the success. As I'm not in charge of the server and am not informed that much of the effect STABmons has on it entirely,
The Immortal, could you tell me if keeping STABmons makes any difference on the server? I don't think removing STABmons, if it has no effect on the server, is the way to go about making the forums a better place. In fact, I think it takes a step back. For that reason, I'd like to take a stance against the removal of the STABmons ladder to make it a permanent ladder because it has maintained stable C&C presence, forum activity is high for STABmons, and it has held a place in all official tours up to this point.
With how Other Metagames Analyses are structured currently and with how everything operates, we've had more STABmons analyses than any other analyses in the subforum. By removing the ladder, it effectively means we have to stop writing STABmons analyses, since without the ladder we have less people wanting to participate. The Immortal, I noticed in some post that you said you wanted only Balanced Hackmons analyses to be in the OM C&C forum, or Anything Goes as a secondary choice. This doesn't make sense to me. If anything, I'm inclined to cut Balanced Hackmons from the OM C&C subforum
first. If there was one metagame to stay, it would be STABmons. Then Anything Goes. In purely terms of activity, Anything Goes almost has as many analyses as Balanced Hackmons does. The inherit issue with Balanced Hackmons analyses has nothing to do with the QC team, but more so the metagame itself. There's so many sets, slashes, and all that jazz, and many people, besides the experienced players, really can't help write these analyses. With other formats, we can have a bit less experienced people help out and grow and learn, which is very crucial to the subforum's growth in my opinion.
Another reason to keep STABmons would be that the forum thread, which Eevee runs, is highly active still. Well, highly might be a stretch, but it's definitely not a dead thread by any means. And with these two recent bans, everything seems to be in place for a balanced metagame. I don't foresee any potential suspects, bar Thundurus if I had my way. But that's besides the point again. With how much activity the thread alone has had, there should be no reason to cut it. Regarding tournaments. OMGS had STABmons, OMPL had STABmons (twice), and the miscellaneous tours in this subforum often are STABmons. At this point, it's a beloved and established part of the community.
By removing the ladder, it effectively eliminates the entire STABmons community, which is just flat out unfair. I believe STABmons should stay as a permanent ladder. If not, then a challenge-only format for tournaments and battles with other people. I'd prefer the former, but I'll take what I can get.
By the way, it's 3 AM and I may have missed bits and pieces, but I believe my stance holds true. That is all. Thank you.