Survey data time! I can't really show this with nice neat graphs because I had to manually split the data based on tiers played to get meaningful data out of it. I also further separated into qualified voters (those who would meet reqs for a hypothetical suspect test if it was conducted right now or have historically high placings in tournaments) and unqualified voters (those who wouldn't) to provide a clearer picture. Thanks to all respondents for taking the time to answer - we had 24 total respondents!
First off, lets start with some of the overall questions, like transitive bans. This question was aimed at understanding what to do if Confuse Ray is banned from, say, NU - should it then affect PU and ZU as well? Here's the vote breakdown:
| Yes | No | Maybe/Unsure |
All voters | 45.8% | 41.7% | 12.5% |
Qualified voters | 58.8% | 35.3% | 5.9% |
All voters ("unsure" removed) | 52.4% | 47.6% | - |
Qual voters ("unsure" removed) | 62.5% | 37.5% | - |
My interpretation of these numbers is that overall people favor transitive bans but there's a degree of uncertainty, and that qualified voters are overall strongly in favor of transitive bans. I'm personally more inclined to agree with transitive bans - we do this for Pokemon already and it makes tiering a little silly if a move is only usable in a "weaker" tier but not a stronger one.
Overall support for a Confuse Ray ban was 62.5% among 24 total voters, but this doesn't tell the whole story because some people were only speaking to individual tiers; see down below. There was significant but non-majority support for removing Supersonic as well, and extremely low support for banning Confusion (the move, not the status) or Psybeam.
When asked about benefits of confusion, respondents mainly responded that it's good for denying Hypnosis (6 responses) or N/A (13 responses) with remaining responses being statements like "it's funny" or "yes" or "it can give someone who is losing a chance to come back." There were a couple of other interesting responses:
"confuse ray provides interesting opportunities for (eg.) UU haunter to not be exploited by his would-be checks as consistently. given that those checks rely on high critrate to do their work (dugtrio) i don't think making those pokemon click attacks less often results in uncompetitive outcomes. or not particularly less competitive than the standard"
"It is a decent way to harass sleepers given the overlapping odds of the sleep move missing + confusion self hit. It is also possible to use along with paralysis to break through bulkier pokemon, although given the limits of paralysis spreading within most lower tiers this is more limited than attempting to deny sleepers."
As for individual tiers:
UU
UU had a total of 17 respondents, of which 12 were qualified. Among both groups, perception of confusion as broken was extremely low, as expected - 5.9% of all voters and 8.3% of qualified voters believe confusion is broken in UU. However, thoughts on its competitiveness were much more mixed - 52.9% of all voters and 58.3% of qualified voters regard confusion as uncompetitive in UU. Despite this, many voters did not support a ban; 35.3% of all voters and 41.7% of qualified voters said they would support banning Confuse Ray or confusion as a whole.
NU
NU also had a total of 17 respondents, but this time 11 were qualified. As with UU, confusion is not perceived as broken - 0% of voters regarded confusion as a broken element. Voters believe it to be uncompetitive, however, with 58.8% of all voters and 81.8% of qualified voters stating such. Unlike UU, there is support for a ban here; 52.9% of all voters and 72.7% of qualified voters support a ban. Notably, there is a very large disparity between unqualified voters - who nearly all voted "no" to all 3 questions - and qualified respondents, who overwhelmingly see confusion as uncompetitive and would support a ban.
PU
PU had 15 respondents, and 9 were qualified. Continuing the trend, very few voters see confusion as broken - 6.7% overall, 11.1% qualified. Similar to NU but with less disparity between groups, 66.6% regard it as uncompetitive and 77.7% of qualified voters see it as uncompetitive. 60% of all voters and 77.7% of qualified voters support banning Confuse Ray or confusion from PU.
ZU
ZU had 16 respondents, and an even split - 8 qualified, 8 not. Again, confusion is not regarded as broken, with 6.25% overall support and 0% among qualified voters. It is yet again viewed as uncompetitive, with 68.8% of all respondents and 75% of qualified respondents saying so. Ban support is a bit more mixed; 50% of all respondents and 62.5% of qualified respondents would support a ban.
TLDR
So here's my impression of the above - among the qualified players who consistently demonstrate knowledge in these tiers, there is supermajority support for removing confusion (or at least Confuse Ray) from NU, PU, and ZU. In UU, it's more controversial, with just under a supermajority regarding it as uncompetitive and far fewer willing to support a ban. Unqualified voters mostly voted against every question, with several of them marking that they play all tiers and that confusion is not broken, uncompetitive, nor should be banned in any of these tiers, creating an interesting disparity.
I'd like to open some space for discussion in light of these disparities between tiers and skill levels and see what people think. My personal opinion is that we should have a transitive suspect on Confuse Ray in NU and if it's banned, ban it from tiers below (and if not, allow PU then ZU their own suspects) - I think it would be silly to have Confuse Ray banned from 1 or 2 random tiers and not the tiers below it and all groups of voters had plurality or majority support for transitive bans, with qualified voters even reaching a supermajority. I think at this time there is not support for acting in UU and confusion should be left alone there unless sentiments change.
Tagging UU/NU/PU/ZU councils but inviting anyone to post their thoughts:
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