Back with the SS post-CL I survey results!
1. Playerbase
Thank you to the 12 responses to the survey. We are concerned with the fact that the number of respondents saw a significant dropoff compared to previous team tournaments, although we recognise that this may be attributed to this being the first league type of 1v1 team tournament that only contains a single SS slot in years. Nevertheless, we will try to reach out to a greater audience during the next surveys and may open discussion on council activity/engagement with the surveys. Although the heavier focus from competitive players is to be expected, we appreciate the mix builders, pilots, and casual players and we thank them for their engagement.
2. Enjoyability
We have maintained the previous scale for the enjoyability and balance of the tier, namely the 1-7 system. I will briefly explain how we will be considering each number. 4 will be the neutral opinion of neither enjoy nor dislike the tier. Then 5,6,7 will correspond to slightly enjoy, enjoy, and greatly enjoy the tier with 1,2,3 being similar but with dislike instead of enjoyment.
The average enjoyability of the entire survey came out to 5.83/7 with a median of 6, representing a clear increase to previous results and a playerbase that enjoys the tier. Furthermore, none of the respondents feel negatively about the tier.
The average enjoyability for competitive players was 5.73/7 with a median of 6, which means that the majority of competitive players also enjoy SS in its current form. Compared to last year, enjoyability metrics are overall at higher levels that we consider an excellent baseline.
3. Competitiveness
The average for the entire survey for competitiveness of the tier was an astounding 6.08/7, representing a clear increase to previous surveys. Similarly to the enjoyability metrics, the median of 6 means that the typical player involved with SS 1v1 finds the tier to be competitive and balanced. We are pleased to read that no respondent from either subset thought the tier to be anything less than neutrally competitive and balanced, with 92% of total responses indicating strong competition.
As far as the competitive player subset goes, results are similarly promising with mean and median values of 6/7. We interpret these results as a good agreement between different subsets of players that the tier is highly competitive. We will continue to monitor any important discrepancies as we expect a larger inflow of responses following 1v1 PL, but we are overall pleased with the tier’s current position.
4. Sleep Moves
With regards to Sleep Moves, there is a supermajority of respondents (66.7%) who would like to see no tiering action being taken. At this point, we should remember that this question was included following previous open-ended responses that mentioned action against Sleep Moves and an extent of controversy in targeted questions related to Sleep Moves. Overall, we respect the supermajority of responses that support the No Action OR Unban perspective, marking this as a non-controversial aspect of SS 1v1 for the time being. Hence, we will not monitor the playerbase’s stance on the matter unless future responses indicate otherwise.
5. Miscellaneous
5a. Bans
The open-ended question concerning potential bans or unbans collected 6 responses in total. With regards to a potential Darmanitan-Galar discussion that collected slight, albeit not clear, support, the number of respondents bringing it up post-CL is equal to 2. Given the nature of the results, we believe it is appropriate to include a targeted question in the next survey. Overall, the results point towards taking no further ban actions.
5b. Unbans
There were some individual mentions (Sableye, Genesect, Giratina-O) regarding potential tests. However, with a maximum of 1 vote on a single Pokemon, there exists no consistent support for any such action, hence we will not be holding any suspect tests. On the other end of the spectrum, about 1/3rd of respondents made it clear that they would like to see no changes being done to the tier. Hosting more for fun tours such as a rotational SS metagame unofficial tournament is a possibility we can explore, although these will not count as suspect tournaments. One respondent also asked for consistency across Sleep Move tiering and another respondent would like to see RNG items (e.g. Bright Powder) and Accupressure unbanned. We will keep these suggestions in mind and make the necessary comparisons with future surveys’ results in order to monitor increasing/decreasing support. We also ask for players who engage with the metagame and have clear opinions on potential bans and unbans (e.g. Accupressure) to complete these surveys and make the necessary indications.
6. Resources
Results regarding SS resources are promising. Among the suggestions for further improvement, we can aim to update some Set Compendium EV explanations especially for old sets that may no longer have a well-defined niche. 2 respondents mentioned that analyses can be improved, so we aim to welcome new writers/QC members who are willing to contribute.
7. Closing Thoughts
We are very happy with the direction the tier is going and the survey seems to show that the community mirrors that sentiment. We will be doing a survey after every major tour (PL, CL, and WC). We will continue to be working on improving resources and ensuring resources are up to date. Any questions or additional comments are appreciated please feel free to reach out to the SS council. Once again thank you for all the responses!
Its like managable but holy shit its annoying we gotta get this banned OR we gotta ban hidden power
Not much to say its a great mon with wacan sitrus lefties specs all of its sets do somethinng i also like calm mirror coat its cool
Mightve gotten overthrown as the second best pokemon in the tier but its still great with its diversity
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I put zapdos above raikou in my tierlist but after thinking about it i think raikou is better since my opinion on the electrics is, they dont really have any amazing sets right, but all of its sets are good to okay, but with both of them specs is their best set and raikou is better at using specs because its faster AND it can run hidden power more successfully because zapdos is locked into hp flying + raikou has good coverage.
Really great pokemon i think it just checks alot of shit by pure typing alone, great custap abuser asw.
Not much to say, good at using random resist berries, good at using choice items. I (or jab i dont remember) even made a custap set that does a few things.
It being able to be a huge threat both physically and specially makes it hard to click against although ddance can dissapoint at times since waterfall is only 80bp
same thing with this i think it just type checks things + specs is strong custap is good asw.
Random resist berries are good and specs leaf storm blows things up.
