I know this sounds very annoying but it just doesn’t seem like things are being done very systematically and I want it to be done properly for all of these tiers, as I enjoy all of them. I don’t want it to be a situation where a group of 3 people read a few discord messages and make swathing decisions without a consistent replicable method in place that takes into account reliable data and precedent on how these things should be accomplished.
I understand these are somewhat arbitrary but what’s done is done. Future tiering action will be more organized, especially with the PU council. I hope this answers your questions.
I just wanted to bring attention to this again because I feel it still is not being done, in particular with the latest BP decision in PU. At first I thought it was quite a malicious workaround to purposefully get BP banned but now I realize it's really just a misguided process that leads to very questionable decisions from time to time.
I think that big changes to these tiers should at the very least get some forum visibility before decisions are made on them. Discord messages are not really a reliable method of making decisions - if anything those should any be complimentary to any actual forum discussion. I don't quite understand how this was missed in the GSC PCU BP process - we just came away from having a tremendously positive discussion on forums regarding all of the potential drops and rises, and even had discussion on the PUBLs. Nobody brought up Baton Pass for discussion - the only relevant comment was a post I made about looking into QBing Farfetch'd at first. So, it's not any surprise to me that a decision to ban a very popular mechanic (that has never been banned in GSC) was met with surprise and disappointment by several players who, prior to this, were quite excited to play the tier. The process was a failure because, contrary to the posts above, there was no organized process done to properly address this.
If you recall, there was good discussion before the Trap Pass ban, and we were able to have a proper vote on it even. There was no reliance on discord messages etc. It's really not a hard thing to do - all you need is a simple posts of "the GSC PU council is considering quickbanning BP before PUCL starts, if anyone has any thoughts". The fact of the matter is that not everyone is going to scroll through literal hundreds of Discord messages to try to get involved in a conversation (in addition to the fact that many people believe chatting in too many Discord servers is unhealthy). This entire website was built on forums, and they have always been used for decisions like these. If there seems to be an issue in the metagame, it is brought up somewhere here.
This is not the first time a surprise decision has been made in this GSC Lower Tiers situation but I do sincerely hope it is the last. Please give us the visibility to see what might go on in our metagames so that we can properly discuss and comment on it. I'd have no problem with a BP ban that was brought up on forums and I was in a very small minority of players (who actually play the tier) in wanting to keep. Fine, no problem, at least I got to say my piece. But the way it's currently being done time and time again is agitating, disheartening, and not conducive to positive discussion and proper decision making. Remember the councils are supposed to work for the people here. It's not up to the council to decide what they believe is bad for the tier or not - it's the job of the council properly survey what the players who play the tier at a high level believe should be done and accommodate as such. Sometimes we forget and we try to inject our own personal opinions in our decisionmaking without drawing in the rest of the crowd that plays. It's not the end of the world but please for the love of all things increase the visibility here so we can have our say.
