quziel
I am the Scientist now
I spoke about this with Marty.
Hello, hope everyone is having a good day. DLC is scheduled to release next month, and with it, we'll be seeing probably 100 new mons added to the SwSh meta, the vast majority of which will probably not be OU, nor even UU viable. However, in our current system, a Pokemon such as Dedenne will not be able to reach its natural home somewhere in PU until October at the earliest (choosing Dedenne as an example, it could well find a niche in OU or UU this gen, though I doubt that), at which point we'll likely be on the eve of the next DLC releasing. As such, a system that can get these Pokemon closer to their "natural" home faster will help to explore their place in the metagame, give more time for balancing, and more time for exploration. We haven't really had this many Pokemon added in the middle of a gen before (barring FRLG), and as such I think a modification to the tiering process may be helpful. Hence my proposal is as such:
At the middle of every month (for some time period post DLC) usage stats would be gathered, and any Pokemon below the current quick-drop threshold would be placed into the tier below them.
I believe this proposal could help to get "obviously" lower tier Pokemon into their natural tiers faster than they currently can without unduly affecting the tiering process outside of that. There is a chance that the new Pokemon could shift existing Pokemon in the tier below the quick-drop threshold in the short term, as well new Mons always get higher usage, however I believe this is an acceptable risk. An additional potential disadvantage of this proposal is that two metagame impacting threats could drop in quick succession, something that already happens in the current system, which could place more stress upon the council, however I doubt the majority of quick-dropped Mons (that is, with very low usage in the tier above) will invert a metagame.
The advantages of time gained for metagame development could definitely help lower tiers, and well, more Mons, with more options, could definitely help some of the issues that lower tiers are currently facing. Additionally, not having the new Mons immediately prior to the next DLC will help with excitement to play those lower tiers, and with growth overall.
Notes:
- Based on this thread (https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/quick-rises-drops-for-doubles.3561423/), I think the current quick-drop threshold would be 2.284%, although I could be incorrect. Comparing to December's OU stats, this would theoretically have allowed Copperajah to drop early, but not Snorlax. I can not find the specific rationale for a choice of 2.284%, so there could well be a better number.
- I have manually compared at least the NU mid-month stats here (https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sword-shield-nu-speculation-thread.3656297/#post-8342297) to the list of mons we got in February, and none of the mons below 2.284% did not drop (that is, everything below 2.284% at mid-month was below 4.52% at the end of the month).
- This is intended to be a temporary measure only that would be invoked when DLCs are released, rather than a full modification of the usage stats process.
- From speaking with Marty this may or may not be feasible for DLC 1, however having a process in place for DLC 2, or even a DLC 3 could be helpful.
- I do not expect the usefulness of this proposal to really end until DLCs are past us, so if it is not ready for June, and is for August I think it could still provide some marginal benefit which would continue after DLC 2.
- Ideally this proposal would only really affect the truly out of place mons, again think of Dedenne in OU, and would not affect the majority of other mons that are not so out of place. I believe a low threshold is the best way to achieve this, hence the usage of the quick-drop threshold.