Luthier
Don’t get mad, get even.
bd smogon tournaments, i am currently taking time from studying to bring to you a matter very important to me. i believe little cup no longer has a place as a mainstay in the tournament community. this is not meant to be an attack on the lc community; primarily, i believe other things are more deserving of its place in tournaments, but the negatives surrounding lc in tournaments cannot be overlooked, so they will be touched upon.
1. the lc meta is at an all time low. many players hated the tier continuously during scl. many times, within team chats and on smogtours, you see lc mainers talking about how the metagame sucks and is worse than ever before. i do not have statistics to back up this statement, but i believe if you were to send out a poll to the pair of managers + every player to play a game of lc during scl for their thoughts on the metagame, over half would speak negatively of it. from experience, this metagame is simply bad. the jokes about "lol mienfoo speed tie" are historically overdone and not entirely accurate, but here they are. mienfoo speed ties happened so incredibly frequently during scl and many of the players believe the games came down to this. this is completely unhealthy and the opposite of what a good metagame looks like. many big lc players skipped out on scl as well. freezai (formerly serene grace), ninjadog, tko, levi, and myself all did not want to play lc in this past scl. obviously some had other reasons, but none signed up with intention to play it. i did end up playing it, but expressed i did not want to.
2. metagame isolation. compared to other metagames in both slam and scl, lc is by far the most different from any bar maybe doubles. level 5 pokemon leads to a drastically different metagame and requires specific knowledge, unlike any other lower tier where people have a fine shot at being able to learn the tier without any niche knowledge. in team tournaments, lc players typically will be left on their own, which is problematic. truthfully, lc is moreso an om than a tier, but has been accepted by the community for a long time, and thus treated in high regards. i do not believe that lc deserves the automatic acceptance into tournaments that it has been receiving for many years.
3. scl was a crapshoot. of the three individuals that started every game in lc and went positive, two were under 5k, and the third was dcae. it is also worth mentioning that dcae completely robbed my good friend teal6, thus adding an extra, undeserved win. meanwhile, two of the most expensive players, lilyac and kythr, both went 3-6. obviously, people can underperform, and new players can have their breakout tournament, but the prices are indicative of what players are expected to be reliable, and lc proved to be anything but. by far the most impressive player (10-1 boulicrok) went for a measly 3k, while the four players to go for over 5k combined for a record of 17-20. in every other tier, there are multiple top spots held by players who were relatively pricy, with the one exception being byronthewellwell at the top of ubers, followed by multiple expensive players who went positive. point is, if you compare prices and records, it's obvious there's nothing reliable to lc. it's not like this tier is new or anything as well; it's been a mainstay for a long time.
4. ubers is more deserving in grand slam. ubers was removed years ago when cheating was far more rampant within the tier than it is now, and things have calmed down now, and i believe ubers is fully deserving of taking its spot back. the tier is very competitive, does not require a high level of knowledge to pick the tier up, is more balanced than lc is, and, despite being ubers, is tiered more actively than lc, thus leading to further potential improvements. ubers is far more similar to uu-pu than lc is; lc is way too niche of a tier and simply the odd one out in slam. we've already removed ubers open, so i don't see any reason that lc open can't be considered to be removed, as ubers is simply more deserving of the spot.
5. vgc deserves a chance in scl. it was shot down pretty quick to be included in this past scl, however, i believe this thread is plenty in advance for vgc to get taken seriously again. first of all, the smogon vgc community is expanding greatly; i see no reason that scl could be taken very seriously by the vgc community. secondly, this metagame is already 10 times closer to the dynamics of the tiers in scl than lc is. in fact, there's its very own smogon mirror in the tournament. thirdly, said mirror would be perfect to combat the isolation doubles players currently face. doubles in scl and spl (historically) have been left on their own; they always need to enlist either outside support, adding a person to the chat to help and play test games with, or even drafting a sub that only specializes in doubles to support them. with vgc and dou both being in the tournament, there will be a lot of overlap between the players of the two tiers and will help circumvent a lot of the issues that surround them. getting a sub that helps with both also becomes way more valuable and less of a stretch. simply, these two tiers are similar, and there's nothing similar to lc. lc is far too niche and left on its own, and doesn't have a place in team tournaments.
to reiterate, i believe that ubers should take lc's place in grand slam and vgc should take lc's place in scl.
lastly, i would like to officially ban the discussion of monotype from this thread. if the tournament directors decide to entertain the scl tier more in the future and don't want to give it to vgc, they can make a new scl tiers thread. i don't want to see discourse about vgc vs lc vs monotype in this thread.
1. the lc meta is at an all time low. many players hated the tier continuously during scl. many times, within team chats and on smogtours, you see lc mainers talking about how the metagame sucks and is worse than ever before. i do not have statistics to back up this statement, but i believe if you were to send out a poll to the pair of managers + every player to play a game of lc during scl for their thoughts on the metagame, over half would speak negatively of it. from experience, this metagame is simply bad. the jokes about "lol mienfoo speed tie" are historically overdone and not entirely accurate, but here they are. mienfoo speed ties happened so incredibly frequently during scl and many of the players believe the games came down to this. this is completely unhealthy and the opposite of what a good metagame looks like. many big lc players skipped out on scl as well. freezai (formerly serene grace), ninjadog, tko, levi, and myself all did not want to play lc in this past scl. obviously some had other reasons, but none signed up with intention to play it. i did end up playing it, but expressed i did not want to.
2. metagame isolation. compared to other metagames in both slam and scl, lc is by far the most different from any bar maybe doubles. level 5 pokemon leads to a drastically different metagame and requires specific knowledge, unlike any other lower tier where people have a fine shot at being able to learn the tier without any niche knowledge. in team tournaments, lc players typically will be left on their own, which is problematic. truthfully, lc is moreso an om than a tier, but has been accepted by the community for a long time, and thus treated in high regards. i do not believe that lc deserves the automatic acceptance into tournaments that it has been receiving for many years.
3. scl was a crapshoot. of the three individuals that started every game in lc and went positive, two were under 5k, and the third was dcae. it is also worth mentioning that dcae completely robbed my good friend teal6, thus adding an extra, undeserved win. meanwhile, two of the most expensive players, lilyac and kythr, both went 3-6. obviously, people can underperform, and new players can have their breakout tournament, but the prices are indicative of what players are expected to be reliable, and lc proved to be anything but. by far the most impressive player (10-1 boulicrok) went for a measly 3k, while the four players to go for over 5k combined for a record of 17-20. in every other tier, there are multiple top spots held by players who were relatively pricy, with the one exception being byronthewellwell at the top of ubers, followed by multiple expensive players who went positive. point is, if you compare prices and records, it's obvious there's nothing reliable to lc. it's not like this tier is new or anything as well; it's been a mainstay for a long time.
4. ubers is more deserving in grand slam. ubers was removed years ago when cheating was far more rampant within the tier than it is now, and things have calmed down now, and i believe ubers is fully deserving of taking its spot back. the tier is very competitive, does not require a high level of knowledge to pick the tier up, is more balanced than lc is, and, despite being ubers, is tiered more actively than lc, thus leading to further potential improvements. ubers is far more similar to uu-pu than lc is; lc is way too niche of a tier and simply the odd one out in slam. we've already removed ubers open, so i don't see any reason that lc open can't be considered to be removed, as ubers is simply more deserving of the spot.
5. vgc deserves a chance in scl. it was shot down pretty quick to be included in this past scl, however, i believe this thread is plenty in advance for vgc to get taken seriously again. first of all, the smogon vgc community is expanding greatly; i see no reason that scl could be taken very seriously by the vgc community. secondly, this metagame is already 10 times closer to the dynamics of the tiers in scl than lc is. in fact, there's its very own smogon mirror in the tournament. thirdly, said mirror would be perfect to combat the isolation doubles players currently face. doubles in scl and spl (historically) have been left on their own; they always need to enlist either outside support, adding a person to the chat to help and play test games with, or even drafting a sub that only specializes in doubles to support them. with vgc and dou both being in the tournament, there will be a lot of overlap between the players of the two tiers and will help circumvent a lot of the issues that surround them. getting a sub that helps with both also becomes way more valuable and less of a stretch. simply, these two tiers are similar, and there's nothing similar to lc. lc is far too niche and left on its own, and doesn't have a place in team tournaments.
to reiterate, i believe that ubers should take lc's place in grand slam and vgc should take lc's place in scl.
lastly, i would like to officially ban the discussion of monotype from this thread. if the tournament directors decide to entertain the scl tier more in the future and don't want to give it to vgc, they can make a new scl tiers thread. i don't want to see discourse about vgc vs lc vs monotype in this thread.