Hello Everyone,
After years of hard work, Sabelette is stepping down as RBY Lower Tiers leader. Thank you so much for your hard work, RBY lower tiers would not be where they are today without you.
As she highlighted in her farewell post, the role of RBY lower tiers leader is being taken up by a three-person council, consisting of myself, Wanted in 49 States, and Maris Bonibell. In order to make the future of RBY lower tiers run smoothly, there are several topics we want to discuss.
Long-Term Stability: The OU/UU cutoff.
We also want input from the OU leadership on this topic. As of now, RBY OU updates its VR yearly at the end of RBYWC, which has implications on UU, and this cascades down to the tiers below. For example, Slowbro and Lapras dropping to UU pushed Vaporeon to NU, which will likely push Blastoise to PU. Because of this, if we are aiming for some kind of long-term stability with the lower tiers, the OU/UU cutoff must be addressed. Some Pokemon, such as Jolteon and Slowbro, can possibly rise and drop to and from OU in consecutive VR revisions, which is something we want to prevent. Because of this, we propose the following change to how OU tiers Pokemon: A Pokemon must be tiered OU for two consecutive VRs to rise, and must be tiered UU for two consecutive VRs to drop. This still allows for rises and drops to and from OU, but makes it less likely for short-term spikes in viability to affect lower tiers. If OU leadership agrees, this will come into effect immediately, meaning if Jolteon drops or Slowbro rises in the upcoming 2026 RBY OU Viability Rankings, it needs to happen AGAIN in 2027 for the tiering shift to actually happen.
Long-Term Stability: Other tier cutoffs
Recently, the official lower-tier VRs were adjusted to happen bi-yearly. This year, only the UU and PU VRs affected tiering, meaning only NU and ZU saw tier shifts happen. Overall, this seems like a success, the new PU tier is very developed at this point, and it will still exist as is for one year, so we will likely keep this change for now. However, later down the line, we are wondering if we can go back to yearly cutoffs. This is looking years into the future, so it's not an urgent issue, but once the tiers are settled where only one or two Pokemon are rising/dropping each cycle rather than six, we will likely go back to yearly shifts.
Tiering Action: When are Pokemon bans acceptable?
Almost all banworthy Pokemon fall under two categories. The first is that they are just far too strong for the tier's power level. Examples of this include Articuno in UU when Hypno and Lapras were not legal, and Arcanine when it dropped to ZU. The second type is a bit more nuanced: It is when the optimal way to deal with this Pokemon is to play the mirror, AND the winner of the mirror often has a considerable advantage over the loser. For example, Rapidash in PU often forced the mirror, and the winning Rapidash had a fairly good chance to not get paralyzed in the mirror, allowing it to keep getting away with fire spin antics. Contrast this to Mr. Mime in old NU and Golduck in PU. These Pokemon often force mirrors as well, but the winner of the mirror was typically paralyzed in Mr. Mime's case, or at low HP and easily revenge killed in Golduck's case. This is why Mr. Mime and Golduck are not broken in their respective tiers despite forcing mirror matchups, while Rapidash was. Generally, for a Pokemon to be a candidate for tiering action, it should fall under one of these two categories.
Tiering Action: When are non-Pokemon bans acceptable?
Sometimes, moves or mechanics are targeted rather than individual Pokemon. The default option should be banning Pokemon before moves and mechanics, but there are some exceptions. For example, the RBY UU Partial trapping ban was implemented due to multiple Pokemon being problematic with the move, such as Tentacruel, Dragonite, and Ninetales. However, in the case of something like Accuracy-lowering moves in RBY UU, the primary suspect is Dugtrio, meaning if it ever becomes banworthy then Dugtrio should be targeted rather than Accuracy-lowering moves. The general mindset should be that Pokemon are the primary suspects of tiering action, with move and mechanic bans only in extreme circumstances.
Tiering Action: What is the process of implementing a ban?
First addressing quickbans vs. suspect tests. Quickbans should only be done in extreme circumstances when it is extremely obvious something is broken. For example, if Starmie ever drops to UU it will be instantly quickbanned. Nearly all tiering action should take the form of suspect tests. It is important that suspect tests are not rushed. In a new metagame, either through a ban or a tier shift, we would like at least two team tournaments to take place before pursuing any kind of tiering action. Individuals often don't provide enough metagame development to be considered. "Two team torunaments" should be thought of as a general guideline rather than a rigid requirement, In some cases, we can pursue action after one teamtour. An ideal suspect process should start with a tiering survey from the council to make sure the playerbase is interested in a suspect in the first place, then confirmation with the lower tier leadership that the suspect may be run. From there, a 60% threshold is needed to ban the Pokemon (or move/mechanic).
Councils
Members of lower tier councils are expected to remain active. This includes actually playing the tier that they are on a council of. Ideally council members should play at least one team tournament a year, but if this is too much of a time commitment that's okay provided you show continued engagement with the tier in other ways. Last year there was a council peer-review that was required, which we believe was an effective way to gauge the activity of council members, so we plan on continuing this.
Future of RBY LTC
LTC was first created to get more RBY lower tier tournaments every year. It was created at a time where RBY lacked representation in cross-generation circuits/teamtours. Nowadays, RBY's lower tiers are included in CLs and Classics. Additionally, Grand Slam already exists as a "get points to qualify then playoffs" tour and has the same five tiers as LTC. All of this combined makes us believe that LTC is now redundant and plan on disbanding it this year.
Future of C&C
Due to the current instability of RBY's lower tiers, C&C has largely been on hold for the past couple of years. However, we believe that RBY UU has reached a point of stability where we aim to open analyses after ALTPL, then opening NU/PU/ZU one-by-one down the line. However, we want to determine the future of OU/UU tier cutoffs with the RBY OU council before this to ensure UU doesn't get shaken up again by something like a Jolteon drop, for example.
Overall, we would appreciate your feedback on all of these topics, this is the plan we have in mind but if you have any comments/concerns please feel free to voice them below.
After years of hard work, Sabelette is stepping down as RBY Lower Tiers leader. Thank you so much for your hard work, RBY lower tiers would not be where they are today without you.
As she highlighted in her farewell post, the role of RBY lower tiers leader is being taken up by a three-person council, consisting of myself, Wanted in 49 States, and Maris Bonibell. In order to make the future of RBY lower tiers run smoothly, there are several topics we want to discuss.
Long-Term Stability: The OU/UU cutoff.
We also want input from the OU leadership on this topic. As of now, RBY OU updates its VR yearly at the end of RBYWC, which has implications on UU, and this cascades down to the tiers below. For example, Slowbro and Lapras dropping to UU pushed Vaporeon to NU, which will likely push Blastoise to PU. Because of this, if we are aiming for some kind of long-term stability with the lower tiers, the OU/UU cutoff must be addressed. Some Pokemon, such as Jolteon and Slowbro, can possibly rise and drop to and from OU in consecutive VR revisions, which is something we want to prevent. Because of this, we propose the following change to how OU tiers Pokemon: A Pokemon must be tiered OU for two consecutive VRs to rise, and must be tiered UU for two consecutive VRs to drop. This still allows for rises and drops to and from OU, but makes it less likely for short-term spikes in viability to affect lower tiers. If OU leadership agrees, this will come into effect immediately, meaning if Jolteon drops or Slowbro rises in the upcoming 2026 RBY OU Viability Rankings, it needs to happen AGAIN in 2027 for the tiering shift to actually happen.
Long-Term Stability: Other tier cutoffs
Recently, the official lower-tier VRs were adjusted to happen bi-yearly. This year, only the UU and PU VRs affected tiering, meaning only NU and ZU saw tier shifts happen. Overall, this seems like a success, the new PU tier is very developed at this point, and it will still exist as is for one year, so we will likely keep this change for now. However, later down the line, we are wondering if we can go back to yearly cutoffs. This is looking years into the future, so it's not an urgent issue, but once the tiers are settled where only one or two Pokemon are rising/dropping each cycle rather than six, we will likely go back to yearly shifts.
Tiering Action: When are Pokemon bans acceptable?
Almost all banworthy Pokemon fall under two categories. The first is that they are just far too strong for the tier's power level. Examples of this include Articuno in UU when Hypno and Lapras were not legal, and Arcanine when it dropped to ZU. The second type is a bit more nuanced: It is when the optimal way to deal with this Pokemon is to play the mirror, AND the winner of the mirror often has a considerable advantage over the loser. For example, Rapidash in PU often forced the mirror, and the winning Rapidash had a fairly good chance to not get paralyzed in the mirror, allowing it to keep getting away with fire spin antics. Contrast this to Mr. Mime in old NU and Golduck in PU. These Pokemon often force mirrors as well, but the winner of the mirror was typically paralyzed in Mr. Mime's case, or at low HP and easily revenge killed in Golduck's case. This is why Mr. Mime and Golduck are not broken in their respective tiers despite forcing mirror matchups, while Rapidash was. Generally, for a Pokemon to be a candidate for tiering action, it should fall under one of these two categories.
Tiering Action: When are non-Pokemon bans acceptable?
Sometimes, moves or mechanics are targeted rather than individual Pokemon. The default option should be banning Pokemon before moves and mechanics, but there are some exceptions. For example, the RBY UU Partial trapping ban was implemented due to multiple Pokemon being problematic with the move, such as Tentacruel, Dragonite, and Ninetales. However, in the case of something like Accuracy-lowering moves in RBY UU, the primary suspect is Dugtrio, meaning if it ever becomes banworthy then Dugtrio should be targeted rather than Accuracy-lowering moves. The general mindset should be that Pokemon are the primary suspects of tiering action, with move and mechanic bans only in extreme circumstances.
Tiering Action: What is the process of implementing a ban?
First addressing quickbans vs. suspect tests. Quickbans should only be done in extreme circumstances when it is extremely obvious something is broken. For example, if Starmie ever drops to UU it will be instantly quickbanned. Nearly all tiering action should take the form of suspect tests. It is important that suspect tests are not rushed. In a new metagame, either through a ban or a tier shift, we would like at least two team tournaments to take place before pursuing any kind of tiering action. Individuals often don't provide enough metagame development to be considered. "Two team torunaments" should be thought of as a general guideline rather than a rigid requirement, In some cases, we can pursue action after one teamtour. An ideal suspect process should start with a tiering survey from the council to make sure the playerbase is interested in a suspect in the first place, then confirmation with the lower tier leadership that the suspect may be run. From there, a 60% threshold is needed to ban the Pokemon (or move/mechanic).
Councils
Members of lower tier councils are expected to remain active. This includes actually playing the tier that they are on a council of. Ideally council members should play at least one team tournament a year, but if this is too much of a time commitment that's okay provided you show continued engagement with the tier in other ways. Last year there was a council peer-review that was required, which we believe was an effective way to gauge the activity of council members, so we plan on continuing this.
Future of RBY LTC
LTC was first created to get more RBY lower tier tournaments every year. It was created at a time where RBY lacked representation in cross-generation circuits/teamtours. Nowadays, RBY's lower tiers are included in CLs and Classics. Additionally, Grand Slam already exists as a "get points to qualify then playoffs" tour and has the same five tiers as LTC. All of this combined makes us believe that LTC is now redundant and plan on disbanding it this year.
Future of C&C
Due to the current instability of RBY's lower tiers, C&C has largely been on hold for the past couple of years. However, we believe that RBY UU has reached a point of stability where we aim to open analyses after ALTPL, then opening NU/PU/ZU one-by-one down the line. However, we want to determine the future of OU/UU tier cutoffs with the RBY OU council before this to ensure UU doesn't get shaken up again by something like a Jolteon drop, for example.
Overall, we would appreciate your feedback on all of these topics, this is the plan we have in mind but if you have any comments/concerns please feel free to voice them below.
