Art by lydian / OP Adapted from the Discord Raters Thread
DISCLAIMER: This thread is not meant to gatekeep rating teams, everyone is still permitted to rate teams.
The RMT Forums is updating how we track progress towards the team rater badge! We will be using this thread as an application to be tracked for the Team Rater badge. We are going to use approved signups to see whose rates we track for the badge. The official guide to apply is down below. I want to say again, that everyone is still welcome to rate, however to reduce the amount of badge tracking we do only approved raters will be tracked for the team rater badge. Also if you are an approved rater, do not be hesistant to contact an RMT moderator on your progress towards the badge.
Requirements:
- Active on Smogon for at least 3 months.
- Solid knowledge of metagame fundamentals and the tier that you are desiring to rate - this can be proven via existing rates, replays, interviews, etc.
- Willingness to adhere to a certain threshold of decorum in the forums the behaviors we'd like to see.
- Once accepted, a minimum level of activity will be assessed by RMT Moderators monthly.
To apply, please post in this thread with:
- Your forum name.
- The meta you'd like to rate.
- A brief summary of your experience in that meta.
- Forum rates demonstrating your knowledge
- Ways you've demonstrated knowledge of the metagame. This can be done most importantly via forum team rating examples (or discord examples for tiers with less rmts), as well as tour matches, articles written, tier leaders/council members who would vouch for you, etc. (It is especially helpful if examples of these things are given)
After posting, a forum staff member will contact you if you have been approved. Please direct any questions to maroon or ironwater.
FAQs:
Will this get me the Team Rater badge?
Maybe! Consistent activity on the forums is a great way to being nominated for that badge. However, we look at the context of your rates and behavior on the forums as well.
How many rates do I have do perform to receive the badge?
You will need ~20 forum rates to qualify for the badge, you can also rate on the discord to add additional rates to your belt. This also includes consistent activity, you have to rate for multiple months in a row as an additional qualifier. If you have ~20 forum rates and believe your quality is up to par, you may contact an RMT moderator to review whether you are ready to be badged.
General Guidelines:
Format:
Absence/Changes:
- Be kind and respectful. The forums are home to many players who have just started to venture into competitive play. Things you may consider to be obvious may not be quite so obvious to that player.
- Do not rate for metagames you are unfamiliar with, and always clarify metagame before rating if one is not clearly stated in the request.
- Don't fix what cannot be fixed. If a team is so broken that it would require replacing the majority of the pokemon and sets, or the sets indicate a complete lack of competitive knowledge, please refer that player to the samples for their meta. A general rule of thumb is to change a maximum of only three Pokemon on the team, you can fix more sets however if they need slight tweaking.
- Refer to the RMT forum rules for extra guidelines.
Format:
- If submitting a corrected team, please use PokePaste.
- Try to minimize jargon wherever possible - use a pokemon's full name when providing it, and the full names of the moves, to reduce confusion among newer players.
- Try to keep your forum rates clean, organized, and not cluttered. Make it easy to digest for the user to read.
Absence/Changes:
- If you need to be away for awhile and won't be active, that's fine! Please let Forum Staff know ahead of time, though. Unannounced, prolonged periods of time without rates can result in you being removed from the tracking sheet.
- If you no longer feel confident in rating a meta (maybe you haven't played in a while, or you've focused on a different meta), please let us know.