Resource Unofficial Metagames Rules, General Info, & Announcements

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dhelmise

dhelmise

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OM & UM Leader
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Welcome to Unofficial Metagames! This is where you will find lots of interesting and unique formats to play that are different from the official tiers. 1v1, 2v2 Doubles, Anything Goes, NFE, Ubers UU, and ZeroUsed are our flagship UMs. Some of Smogon's most popular metagames, such as Monotype and Doubles OU, began as an unofficial; so who knows, maybe we'll see more official formats down the road!

What is a UM?
An UM is any standard metagame unofficially supported by Smogon. For example, only allowing Pokemon that aren't fully evolved (NFE), or allowing every legitimately obtainable Pokemon (Anything Goes). Each UM has its own banlist (or lack thereof in Anything Goes's case) managed by its respective tiering council.

Forum Rules
  • All of Smogon's general global rules apply to every UM subforum, so be respectful to others when posting!
  • Do not post new threads without getting approval from a forum moderator first. Unapproved threads can and will be deleted/moved by the moderation team as deemed necessary. For example, you should not be making a new thread just to ask a question; things like that can be posted in the Simple Questions, Simple Answers thread instead.
  • All metagame posts should be based on actual in-game information. Please do not post speculation or your suggestions for fantasy Pokémon and refrain from theorymonning moves that you think a Pokémon should get.
  • Do not make meaningless or one-line posts.
  • Don't mini-mod! There's a report functionality on the forums, so if you see a post that you think breaks the forum rules, report it and a mod will handle it.
  • Don't bump old metagames/threads unless you think you can generate enough discussion to get it going again. If you would like to revive a UM that is archived, post in UM Submissions to let us know.
  • Do NOT "metagame bash". More specifically, don't insult or overly criticize a UM concept that you dislike. You're more than welcome to offer constructive feedback, but typically, if a metagame is approved, it has already received criticism during the UM submission process. This applies to all UM spaces: this forum, our discord, and our PS! room. If there's a metagame you don't like, don't play it!
  • Don't post in a thread unless you have something constructive to add to the conversation or need to ask a specific question.
  • Metagame threads are for discussing exactly that: the metagame. Do not ask for the concept of a UM to be changed.
  • Please don't post and ask if a metagame is approved. Most of the time they are already pre-approved by the forum staff, even if the OP doesn't state that, and the mods already know if a UM wasn't pre-approved.
  • Don't post in spam/unapproved threads in general. Let a mod handle those.
Current Staff Team
a fairy - Leader
dhelmise - Leader
sleid - Leader

UM Subforum Directory
Each metagame's section is modded by the UM Leader(s) and its respective forum staff.

UM EVENTS DISCORD PLEASE JOIN BY CLICKING THIS LINK :D

2v2 Doubles - led by Kry and yuki | Discord
NFE - led by sleid | Discord
AG - led by entrocefalo | Discord
ZU - led by Tuthur and sleid | Discord
Ubers UU - led by Frito | Discord
1v1 - led by Felucia | Discord

Aaaand that's about it! Each individual UM section will have their own rules and resources, so be sure to check those out before posting!
 
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How To Submit a Metagame

General Rules
– All new metagames need to go through the submission process before you can post them. See the steps below on how to do that. Tournaments and projects are approved on a case-by-case basis and should be posted in submissions too.
– Users can submit one new metagame per month regardless of the submission being approved or rejected.
– Users may not host more than 2 metagames at one time. This rule exists to ensure metagame hosts are active and engaged with their community.
– Every metagame needs a secondary leader (or a council). This is a rule that exists to ensure there is someone able to take over should the host become inactive.
– If you wish to drop a metagame you currently host and there is an active community, you must discuss who should take your place with the moderation team.

Submission Process

Step 1) Look in the Index (coming soon). Does it already exist? Does something similar exist? Has something similar already been denied? If you see it, don't submit it.

Step 2) Use the Metagame Workshop (coming soon). The workshop allows you to receive feedback so you can tweak your concept before officially submitting it. It is also a good idea to search if similar ideas already exist or have been brought up before. If the feedback is mostly positive, continue to the next step.

Step 3) Post a thread in the submissions subforum* with the following components:
  1. A premise: "This UM only allows NFE Pokemon." Generally, if you can summarize your submission in one sentence, you have a strong premise.
  2. List any other specific rules and clauses that apply. Are you using standard clauses? Are you creating a new clause? If so, why?
  3. Give us an idea of how this metagame will play out. Will certain team archetypes be better?
  4. Choose a foundation for the metagame. Are you starting with a power level similar to OU or closer to Ubers? Doubles? LC? Also, do you foresee any necessary quickbans? We tend to frown on quickbans during the submission process, but some things are too obvious not to ban.
*This subforum is private. You will only be able to see your own threads.

Step 4) Now comes the wait. The moderation team will review your submission, ask questions for clarification, and provide suggestions to improve it. Please be patient during this stage. We try to get to all submissions within 1 week, but if we forget, you may bump after that. It's not okay to bump before 1 week, nor is it okay to PM/VM us to remind us of your submission. We will get to it when we get to it.

Step 5) The UM forum moderators will critique your concept, as well as the format of your post, and give approval or rejection. Once your submission has received two approvals and no more than one rejection, it will be tagged as "Approved". You will then be given permission post your UM, or a specific date to post your UM if there is a high frequency of approved UMs. Make sure you follow the metagame template below and affix "approved by moderator(s) name" at the top so the community knows you followed the forum rules.
 
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We have restructured the UM forum!

As UMs has grown as a section, the need for a real sense of community has further grown and been expressed by the mods of all of our subforums. There was previously no place for UMs to be hosted, and UMs was seen as the hub where formats that could be official but just aren't for [x] reason went to sit. With this, we've shut down our old discord and reworked our former forum staff-only discord into a central hub for all community projects.

>>> JOIN OUR NEW DISCORD! <<<

As a part of our forum restructuring, we've opened up submissions for new UMs.

Please read the guidelines for submitting a new metagame concept before submitting!

We hope the rebuilt forum allows for more creativity to thrive and allows more cross-UM projects to be maintained. Thank you everyone who has been a part of one of our communities up to this point, and we hope you stick around for our expansion!​
 
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