Thank you, Smogon!
It has been an honor being one of the faces of this community. I have made many friends, learned many lessons, and enjoyed many experiences. I will be stepping down from all of my non-SV OU responsibilities immediately***. I will be stepping down from OU Tier Leader, OU Council, OU Moderator, and OU Viability Rankings Council at the end of generation nine. I will be on a hiatus from all things SV OU for the next month while I get married and go on my honeymoon. Please do not message me over this month.
***Tournament Director whenever BW Cup ends this coming weekend.
This may sound weird, but...I have grown up on Smogon, spending a lot of my hobby time from ages 12 to 27 on here. I have evolved from an ignorant, closeted teenager to a headstrong, reckless young adult to a somewhat well-adjusted, stable adult during my time on here. And I thank the community for a lot of that growth. I developed a lot socially thanks to Smogon, my world view grew thanks to exposure this community granted me, I formed core memories I will never forget during my time on here, and I have grown a work ethic that served both this community and my IRL career well. A lot of the skills on here can translate to the real world and I would never be where I am now without this journey. I am comfortable with my life, I am confident in my choices, and I am finally unconditionally happy after many years. That does not mean I am going to totally disappear from a hobby that I still enjoy, but with life being busier and me having more outlets, it is just less of an active priority. I will still play here-and-there, I will still check discord plenty, and I look forward to the future, but limiting access is a healthy thing and it took me too long to learn that.
To the OU community: I loved my tenure and it would not have been possible without our passionate playerbase. Thank you! I left brief metagame thoughts here and I will keep my eyes on the OLT metagame from afar so we can address things on an as-needed basis.
I have more to offer and I hope to display that for the rest of SV. However, I would rather step away too soon and give the community a chance at fresh leadership than stick around too long, making the community suffer the consequences. Being power hugry within a Pokemom community is silly after all; we all do this out of our own passion, not for the sake of titles. I hope to be around as a user during generation 10 in a limited capacity, but it would be best for someone else to get a chance to lead the metagame and I will do my best to prepare them later on this generation when we have a better idea on direction.
Lastly, you guys can agree or disagree with the decisions leadership (or the community) has made over the years, but you cannot deny the impact I have had and the evolution of the modern tiering process. Everyone used to complain about a lack of transparency and accountability from OU Council, even calling it a shadow council infamously. Nowadays everything relevant and non-confidential is communicated whenever possible on the forums, Twitter, and Discord. We also have a more concrete processes and modern precedents to base decisions off of rather than a small group of people dictating things off of "vibes" only for the community to cry for every other decision to be overturned. Don't get me wrong...sometimes a small group of smart players has to make a call, but at least now it will be explained publicly and contextualized. I hope to still use my platform to communicate what is going on with OU on places like Twitter and Discord because I want our metagame to be more understood and accessible. It was silly things operated how they did for so many years prior, and we should never go back to that. Our playerbase deserves the best!
Thank you!
It has been an honor being one of the faces of this community. I have made many friends, learned many lessons, and enjoyed many experiences. I will be stepping down from all of my non-SV OU responsibilities immediately***. I will be stepping down from OU Tier Leader, OU Council, OU Moderator, and OU Viability Rankings Council at the end of generation nine. I will be on a hiatus from all things SV OU for the next month while I get married and go on my honeymoon. Please do not message me over this month.
***Tournament Director whenever BW Cup ends this coming weekend.
Please remove me from:
- BW OU Tiering Council
- BW OU Moderator
- SS OU Tiering Council
- Champions OU Tiering Council
- Champions OU Viability Ranking Council
- Tournament Director*** (effective whenever BW Cup ends)
- All Smogon Media roles
- All QC/Approval teams
- Anything else I am forgetting that is not SV OU related
To the OU community: I loved my tenure and it would not have been possible without our passionate playerbase. Thank you! I left brief metagame thoughts here and I will keep my eyes on the OLT metagame from afar so we can address things on an as-needed basis.
I have more to offer and I hope to display that for the rest of SV. However, I would rather step away too soon and give the community a chance at fresh leadership than stick around too long, making the community suffer the consequences. Being power hugry within a Pokemom community is silly after all; we all do this out of our own passion, not for the sake of titles. I hope to be around as a user during generation 10 in a limited capacity, but it would be best for someone else to get a chance to lead the metagame and I will do my best to prepare them later on this generation when we have a better idea on direction.
Lastly, you guys can agree or disagree with the decisions leadership (or the community) has made over the years, but you cannot deny the impact I have had and the evolution of the modern tiering process. Everyone used to complain about a lack of transparency and accountability from OU Council, even calling it a shadow council infamously. Nowadays everything relevant and non-confidential is communicated whenever possible on the forums, Twitter, and Discord. We also have a more concrete processes and modern precedents to base decisions off of rather than a small group of people dictating things off of "vibes" only for the community to cry for every other decision to be overturned. Don't get me wrong...sometimes a small group of smart players has to make a call, but at least now it will be explained publicly and contextualized. I hope to still use my platform to communicate what is going on with OU on places like Twitter and Discord because I want our metagame to be more understood and accessible. It was silly things operated how they did for so many years prior, and we should never go back to that. Our playerbase deserves the best!
Thank you!