OU Projects and Hub Page Center

Birkal

We have the technology.
is a Top Artistis a Top CAP Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus


Hello and welcome to the newest innovation of the Overused forum! I've always felt that there needs to be more community bonding and craftsmanship in this forum in terms of sharing knowledge, so I'd like to open up the floor to the public to share your thoughts, ideas, and creations. This thread is designed to be a tool for the community to utilize to improve Overused content both on the forums and on-site. There's a lot of incredible things going on in the future of Overused, so I'd like to illustrate them in this thread. As you can see, this is the OU Projects and Hub Page Center! There are a few things that fit under the spectrum of what the purpose of this thread is all about. Let me list 'em out.

To make any announcements referring to an Overused project. There are a bunch of OU projects going on at the moment, and more are going to be joining us in the future! This thread serves as an announcement thread for anything that might be going on. A new round of your project starting? Post about it here. Writing something new for the site? This is your place. The Overused moderators and I will be keeping all of the announcements in the second post of this thread, so now there's a mini news feed for Overused! Far out. Check it out regularly for all the latest news in Overused.

To discuss the Overused Hub Page. As many of you have noticed, other forums are starting up something called hub pages. What exactly is a hub page? In a nutshell, it's a place on-site to post forum content and information. Well I am pleased to officially reveal the Overused Hub Page! We all agree that it is a sparkling, majestic work of brilliance by me in its current form, but I'd like to add more to it. Don't be deceived by other hub pages; ours is going to be run quite a bit differently than other hub pages.

  • All OU hub page content will be written in BBCode. For those of you who don't know what that means, lemme explain it real quick. Most of Smogon's content is uploaded with HTML, which is a language that allows us to post stuff all fancy-like. However, the forum uses BBCode, and that can also be uploaded to the site. With BBCode, we can uploaded stuff directly from the forum to the site in a few moments with minimal effort. It took me about a minute to put up this entire page. Cool stuff.
  • The OU hub page is OUR hub page. What this means is that it is a community collaboration! I am honestly willing to put anything up on site that you guys want up there. We can throw up warstories, project leaderboards, Potato Awards, community-written articles, and more. Basically, it's an open place for us to put up whatever we want! If I had my way, we'd stuff our hub page to the seams with content. The only limit is your imagination.
  • The Overused moderators will be checking the content that goes on the Overused hub page. We are the guys who will be rejecting or accepting your suggestions for what goes on-site. If you get a "no" in this thread from a moderator, then that means it won't go on site. If it needs modifications, a moderator will also assist you in getting it up to par. In general, we'll be pretty lenient about what goes up, but we want to make sure that what we're displaying is quality work! Although this is a community project, the moderators are here to make sure things don't go completely haywire. Contact these guys for more information: Taylor, Tobes, Birkal, ginganinja, NixHex, Pocket.

To discuss any potential future project ideas for the Overused forum. This thread also serves as a place to throw out ideas of projects if you have them! You're allowed to critique and provide support for a project idea, but please don't slam it down hard. If you don't think it's a good idea, you can express that, but be kind about it. Basically, any project-related thoughts belong in this thread. Whether you want to lead a new project or chat about an ongoing project, this is where you do it!​
That is about all I have to say for now. The Overused moderators and I hope that this thread can really bring some even more positive changes to the forum. Hopefully we can all work together to inspire creativity and positive knowledge sharing in this thread for the betterment of our tier and community. If you have any questions about this thread, you can ask me. Thanks for reading and I can't wait to see what we accomplish.

So with that being said, let's get started on sharing our ideas for what could be hosted on the hub page. Also, feel free to bring up any future project ideas that you may have! The floor is yours, Overused. Let's get some work done. Together.
 

Birkal

We have the technology.
is a Top Artistis a Top CAP Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus

New Overused Community Contributors

October 5, 2012

As some of you may know, Smogon awards badges for certain efforts here on the forums (you can read more about it here). Recently, the Overused moderating staff has broadened the scope of the Community Contributor badge to support users who consistently post great thoughts in our forum. As a result, users alkinesthetase, ganj4lF, and Jimbon have all been given the badge for their herculean efforts. Alkinesthetase is a great overall presence who is active, knowledgeable, and willing to help out (not to mention one of the most friendly people you'll ever meet), while Jimbon brings in his experience as a team rater to give people meaningful and in-depth conjectures on the OU metagame. ganj4lF was one of the best posters in Counter This Pokemon and is continuing his streak of excellent in other projects. Check out their posts to see exactly what we're looking for in Overused, and make sure to send them your congratulations!

For those of you who have been working hard in Overused, don't feel that your work is going unnoticed. This is just our first batch of Community Contributors; there are already some more potential candidates in the pipelines. Discussing who could earn the badge is a hot topic for us moderators, and we've noticed that a lot of posters are really picking up their game. So for all of you diligent workers, keep up the fantastic job of contributing to our Overused community. ~Birkal
Third OU Community Create-A-Team Begins
October 3, 2012

OU CCAT is up, and is hosted by me! Come join our discussion, and help the community create a five star team! A new bonus point system has been implemented, and hopefully we'll see more action. Click on the link to check it out! ~Electrolyte
New Overused Banner; Dark Horse Project Begins
October 3, 2012

Two announcements today for you to enjoy in the world of Overused. The first of these is that the Overused Hub banner is complete! The banner is now proudly on display on our Main Hub Page for everyone to enjoy. It was drawn by Bummer, who is also known for his popular Pokemon-based webcomic: Rare Candy Treatment. Make sure to give him a word of thanks and check out his stuff!

Secondly, the Dark Horse Project has returned! You can check out what it's all about in this thread. Over the next month, users will be competing on the ladder to use Pokemon that fall to the lower end of usage statistics. The project increases diversity on the Overused ladder, so I hope that it helps make OU a more enjoyable and creative tier for everyone! Anyone is allowed to register, so head on down and try your best to compete for the Hall of Fame! ~Birkal
The Potato Award
September 21, 2012

Back in the days of Dragonspiral Tower, an award called Poster of the Month was introduced to encourage better posting in what was a pretty messy forum. Over time, PotM was forgotten about and died completely when DST shut down. This is where Potato comes in! Potato is similar to PotM but instead of awarding posters monthly, we aimed to make the time period shorter. About every week or so we award a new Potato. If you win it, your name will be featured in the Potato Hall of Fame! Win it multiple times and good things will be bestowed upon you. Three users have won the award so far:

Temp V1 October 17, 2012


ganj4lF September 17, 2012


alkinesthetase September 10, 2012


Dark Fallen Angel August 30, 2012



~NixHex
Counter this Pokemon Complete
September 21, 2012

As you can from this thread, the Counter this Pokemon thread is now finished. Users have been voting since August 6th on which Pokemon to place on two coherent and competing teams. Lead by NixHex, Overused community members have been submitting Pokemon with great sets. The public has been voting on them and the two teams have been completed!

Furthermore, you can watch two of Overused's battlers face off with the teams in an official match! ginganinja vs. Temp V1 is going down this Sunday at 1PM (GMT +11). If my calculations are correct, that's around 8PM for GMT -5 (Central timezone). Stay tuned to see how things shake out! ~Birkal
Welcome to the Overused Hub
September 21, 2012

On behalf of the Overused staff, I'd like to welcome you to the Overused hub. We're going to be posting regular announcements here on all things related to OU. If you have any feedback to give or an announcement to suggest, post in this thread. It's the central thread for posting about Overused projects and this hub page, both on the forums and on-site. It's open for anyone to post in, so come on down and help us make Overused a better place! ~Birkal
Artwork by Hukuzo and Birkal.
 

Jukain

!_!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
The potatoes should get a spot somewhere. They are users that contribute quite a bit to the OU forum and this is a perfect way to put them on-site. Dark Fallen Angel, alkinesthetase, and ganj4lF for reference.
 

Nix_Hex

Uangaana kasuttortunga!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
This is even more of an incentive to start projects. What got me my first badge was writing a bunch of articles that went on-site. Now that there's a way to do that with in-forum content, getting interesting content on-site will be easier than ever. I really hope you all will get into this, it's worth the time if you have it. I expect me and the other mods to receive a lot of PMs. For reference, here are some of the people you should be contacting: Taylor, Tobes, Birkal, ginganinja, NixHex, Pocket
 
I like this idea, perhaps we can get more actual threads for discussion outside of suspect and general metagame discussion, and to keep them going.

One idea I had quite recently actually was for someone to start of "tier items" project again. The ability tiering project worked pretty well, until the last phases, which activity slumped (but updates on here can change that!), if we actually get someone competent in the OP, I actually think it could work. You could easily do this with any other pokemon related thing moves for example.

This can also work to give a restart start to old projects like the counters project like, stall, and offense, and other such projects which died. And at the same time, we could give a whole new start to threads like creative movesets, and have some real organization to them (maybe like a hosted set of the month? lol).

Anyway looks like good stuff, OU needs a refresher.
 

alkinesthetase

<@dtc> every day with alk is a bad day
is a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
if anybody needs slaves to do dirty work in writing stuff, i am so up for that

anyway i don't think it's cheating to check out the other hubs and see what cool stuff they're playing with, but it looks like all the tiers are just getting started lol. the ubers section has a warstory list which i REALLY LOVE (when i discovered the tiers section yesterday i just sat down and started reading all of them, because there are so few recent warstories...) but sadly warstory production is rather low on smogon in general so it'll be tough to get something going like that over here.

other than that, any suggestion that comes to mind is something that i can almost immediately come up with arguments against, so for now i shall keep thinking

oh and i know i mentioned this in the suggestion box, but i presume there'll be a front page link going up for this entire tier sections project soon?
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
this is excellent, I have a couple good ideas for OU projects so expect to see those soon
 

Temp V1

Movin' at the speed of life and I can't slow down
I think this is a great initiative. Once multiple projects get underway this could be a place to compare and contrast thoughts for one project against ones in a similar project, leading the the overall products being that much better.

Really looking forward to how this shapes up :)
 
OK, so leaderboards and the like for ladder challenges (e.g. The Dark Horse Project, The Outsiders Challenge, and similar projects) will now have a home on-site in this hub as well! Not only does this give people browsing the site to get an idea of what goes on in Overused, but it also should serve as more motivation to participate in these challenges. Everyone wants to see their names up on-site, no? Well, now they can! This also serves as a way to get the word out to other people -- your project can be featured in the Overused Hub, and that would attract attention, of course!
 

Birkal

We have the technology.
is a Top Artistis a Top CAP Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
So... I've had a busy night, haha. Check out the new front page of the Overused Hub Page! Basically, if you post an announcement on the forums, it can be posted on site. I'll also be posting the announcements here in the second page of this thread. Any moderator can do this; it's a simple copy and paste in both locations, since it's all BBCode! Do you guys like it? Hit me with feedback.

Remember, anyone is allowed to make an Overused announcement. Just post it in this thread, we'll get it QC'd, and then posted on site. Here's the format in which you should make your announcement:

[noparse]
Put title here.
Month (by name) Date, Year

Put the announcement here! Write up whatever you like. Make sure to include links to relevant threads. In general, try to describe what happened, what is currently happening, and what will happen in the future. Give us the whole scoop! ~Put your name here.
[/noparse]
Is that confusing? Or does it make sense? I hope it does, haha. Lemme know if it doesn't.

And now time for me to answer some questions; I don't have enough time to get to them all. Hopefully some of the other mods can come through later and answer them.


The potatoes should get a spot somewhere. They are users that contribute quite a bit to the OU forum and this is a perfect way to put them on-site. Dark Fallen Angel, alkinesthetase, and ganj4lF for reference.
Yep! We can get those on site for sure. I'll let NixHex respond to this; it's his birthchild. Definitely deserves a place on-site.

Not sure if this is on-site, but why not have OU section for the OU RMT archives.
Yep! We can do this too; I think it's a fantastic idea. Someone talk with a RMT leader and link them to this thread. If no one does, I'll do it in a few days. We could easily get this done.

if anybody needs slaves to do dirty work in writing stuff, i am so up for that

anyway i don't think it's cheating to check out the other hubs and see what cool stuff they're playing with, but it looks like all the tiers are just getting started lol. the ubers section has a warstory list which i REALLY LOVE (when i discovered the tiers section yesterday i just sat down and started reading all of them, because there are so few recent warstories...) but sadly warstory production is rather low on smogon in general so it'll be tough to get something going like that over here.

oh and i know i mentioned this in the suggestion box, but i presume there'll be a front page link going up for this entire tier sections project soon?
YES SLAVE WORK IS WONDERFUL.

Haha, as you can tell from the announcement post in this thread, all announcements are made in BBCode. Literally anyone in Overused is allowed to make an announcement about any OU-relevant subject. Basically, you post it in this thread, and we'll get it on-site. Go news reporter for us and get some good stories! Anyone who wants to do this can.

Warstories are great. That one is gonna take a bit of technical footwork, however. I'm going to let TheStarRapper post in this thread; I know he is interested in working on that front. Let's see what he says.

We'll see about when a link can be put on the main page. Remember, we need content first!

OK, so leaderboards and the like for ladder challenges (e.g. The Dark Horse Project, The Outsiders Challenge, and similar projects) will now have a home on-site in this hub as well! Not only does this give people browsing the site to get an idea of what goes on in Overused, but it also should serve as more motivation to participate in these challenges. Everyone wants to see their names up on-site, no? Well, now they can! This also serves as a way to get the word out to other people -- your project can be featured in the Overused Hub, and that would attract attention, of course!
Yep! Leaderboards are awesome. You have badges, Harsha, so you can directly put stuff on the SCMS. I'll leave it up to you to get started on Outsiders work.

Loving the thoughts, people; keep it up!
 

Nix_Hex

Uangaana kasuttortunga!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
The potatoes should get a spot somewhere. They are users that contribute quite a bit to the OU forum and this is a perfect way to put them on-site. Dark Fallen Angel, alkinesthetase, and ganj4lF for reference.
I made an announcement with the current winners, and from now on I will be updating a Hall of Fame to keep track of them. Thanks for the idea, boss!
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
Hey, I'm working on a little something called the Who Needs Unova challenge, which is essentially similar to the Outsiders Challenge that Harsha posted in that it requires contestants to ladder on Showdown with certain limitations, but those limitations are different than Outsiders, of course. I've already spoken to ginganinja about it, and he likes the idea, so assuming it goes through with the other OU mods you can expect this to be up very soon. I've already written up the thread, just waiting on approval.
 
Like any one else who isn't completely out of their mind i really like the idea of this and hopefully i could make some contributions to the hub in the near-future. One thing i noticed which needs changing is in "The Potato Award" it says that Dark Fallen Angel was the potato for October 30th this year. Now October 30th obviously hasn't come around so i assume that this is a spelling error that should probally get fixed.

As i said earlier i am looking forward to contributing and seeing other peoples contributions :)
 

Nix_Hex

Uangaana kasuttortunga!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Hey, I'm working on a little something called the Who Needs Unova challenge, which is essentially similar to the Outsiders Challenge that Harsha posted in that it requires contestants to ladder on Showdown with certain limitations, but those limitations are different than Outsiders, of course. I've already spoken to ginganinja about it, and he likes the idea, so assuming it goes through with the other OU mods you can expect this to be up very soon. I've already written up the thread, just waiting on approval.
If ginganinja approves it, then start it up. I'm looking forward to it!
 

Jukain

!_!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
i sent this to birkal ~a week ago and he told me to post it here so yeah feedback plz i will get around to writing this up once i get a bit of feedback

History of Bans in BW OU

October 30, 2010

The evasion, sleep, species, and OHKO clauses were decided to be upheld in BW. Evasion Clause bans the use of Double Team and Minimize, Sleep Clause bans two opposing Pokemon being intentionally put to sleep, Species Clause bans two Pokemon with the same Pokédex number from being on the same team, and OHKO Clause bans the moves Sheer Cold, Fissure, Guillotine, and Horn Drill.

At this point, the fifth generation of Pokemon had just begun and huge debates were taking place in Policy Review concerning the Evasion, Species, Sleep, and OHKO Clauses. Evasion Clause, while the vote was nowhere near unanimous, had the majority of people agreeing that it was an uncompetitive strategy and useless element of luck that contributed nothing to the metagame and ought not to be encouraged in a competitive environment. Sleep Clause had a much more widespread level of agreement, with the general consensus being that in a metagame where Pokemon such as Breloom and Smeargle have access to a 100% accurate sleep move in Spore and could potentially use a Choice Scarf in order to shut down entire teams, which is not competitive play and takes absolutely zero skill to do. The then-new BW sleep mechanics only further bolstered the strength of this argument. Species Clause was determined to be necessary due to the fact that most checks and counters can only handle on of a given Pokemon and that it would be impossible for a team to cover an anywhere near decent amount of threats without being weak to two of any Pokemon. This also applies to walls: a more specially orientated team cannot break multiple Blissey, or the other way around with more physically orientated teams and physical walls such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Gliscor. OHKO Clause was voted to stay mainly because a 30% chance of an OHKO was determined to be uncompetitive. Overall, these bans were pretty decisive and mainly based on philosophy, tradition, luck, and lack of competitiveness.

Notable Threads: Clauses in Generation V by Firestorm, 5th Gen Sleep Clause Implementation by eric the espeon, [Vote] Species Clause by Firestorm, [Vote] Sleep Clause by Firestorm, [Vote] OHKO Clause by Firestorm, [Vote] Evasion Clause by Firestorm, and Putting My Foot Down by Philip7086

November 7, 2010

A list consisting of Arceus, Dialga, Giratina, Giratina-O, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Kyogre, Lugia, Mewtwo, Palkia, Rayquaza, Reshiram, and Zekrom made by Rising_Dusk was accepted as the initial banlist consisting of all the Pokemon deemed to be broken beyond reasonable doubt.

Now, the clauses for the new generation had been decided on and Smogon was in need of an official banlist, or lack of one for that matter. Many lists were talked about, but eventually this list was decided upon as the bare minimum of the most broken Pokemon in every way. Arceus is the most optimized and versatile Pokemon in existence, boasting amazing bulk, high power, blazing Speed, and an expansive offensive and supportive movepool. Dialga's titanic offenses, bulk, versatility, and amazing typing were the major reasons for its inclusion. Giratina can wall almost every Pokemon in existence and makes the use of Rapid Spin extremely difficult. Giratina-O has amazing bulk and power as well, also being near impossible to Rapid Spin against. Groudon is extremely bulky and powerful, also setting up the extremely dangerous sun. Kyogre is in the same boat as Groudon except that it OHKOes and 2HKOes almost every Pokemon in the game with Choice Specs Water Spout and that it sets up the arguably more dangerous rain weather. Ho-Oh is extraordinarily powerful between its amazing dual STABs, Brave Bird and Sacred Fire, the latter of which possesses a 50% burn rate. It also has humongous special bulk, which makes it difficult to KO. Lugia's defensive stats are too high and with an amazing Speed stat to match it is near-impossible to break. Mewtwo is absolutely devastating, being completely unwallable and extremely powerful. Palkia is extremely powerful offensively and has great defenses as well, not to mention its semi-unique typing that is only shared by Kingdra and its evolution line. Rayquaza is the best setup sweeper and mixed attacker in the game, hitting like a truck on both sides offensively. Reshiram and Zekrom, the new cover legendaries, had the same traits as the others that screamed broken. Overall, these Pokemon were the obvious bans that were pretty much required to proceed with the banning of other Pokemon that might be less obvious.

Notable Threads: [Vote] Initial Gen V Banlist by Rising_Dusk, Generation 5 tiers, an initial list by Maniaclyrasist, and Proposed Starting Banlist for Gen 5 by Aeolus

December 30, 2010

After Round 1, Darkrai, Deoxys-A, Deoxys-N, Shaymin-S, and Moody were banned from OU after having been determined to be broken. Drizzle was to be voted on the next round, and Latios, Excadrill, and Shadow Tag were deemed not broken.

The BW metagame had officially begun with the upheld clauses and preliminary banlist, and this round just added to the banlist. Shaymin-S was on the top of the list, boasting blazing Speed and a high Special Attack stat, with the few things that could counter it being flinched to death by Air Slash and weakened by the 80% chance of a Special Defense drop from Seed Flare. It received the second of two unanimous ban votes in Smogon history, the other being DPP UU Yanmega. Darkrai was similar to Shaymin-S in Speed and power, but instead of harassing teams with flinch and Special Defense drops had an 80% accurate sleep move and an ability that caused Pokemon to lose health at the end of the turn if they were put to sleep. Deoxys-A was simply a monster, with base 150 Speed and dual 180 offensive stats being the literal definition of fast and powerful, completely dominating any game it took part in. Deoxys-N followed suit with Deoxys-A mainly based on theory as Deoxys-A completely outclassed it, but regardless it would have been extremely broken if it was allowed to stay. Moody was banned on charge of uncompetitiveness and being a unnecessary luck factor, making Bibarel and Octillery viable, no joke. Drizzle was very powerful, with Swift Swim users being extremely threatening, but other threats being more prominent issues left it put merely on notice. There were a few people thinking Latios, Excadrill, and Shadow Tag ought to be banned, but none of them really gained much footing, at least for the moment.

Notable Threads: np: OU Suspect Testing Round 1 - ...wait, I'm not Jumpman16! by Philip7086, OU Suspect Testing Round 1 Voter Identification and Suspect Nominations by Philip7086, OU Round 1 Pokemon Suspect Voting by Philip7086, and OU Round 1 Ability Suspect Voting by Philip7086

January 27 and 30, 2011

After Round 2, the use of Drizzle + Swift Swim on the same team was disallowed and Manaphy was deemed Uber. Deoxys-N was voted to not come back to OU and Excadrill, Latios, and Reuniclus were determined to be not broken.

Even with all of those Pokemon banished to the Uber tier, OU was still not stable. Drizzle was completely ridiculous at this point, with Swift Swim users and Manaphy benefiting demolishing with rain in play. A fellow named Aldaron had this bright idea that would entail banning Swift Swim on the same team as Drizzle, taking out the broken part of the combination but letting Drizzle stay, perceived not to be the broken piece. This came to be known as the famous "Aldaron's Proposal" and ended Smogon's long history of being against complex bans. Manaphy was banned because of Hydration allowing it a free recovery of all of its health and status with Rest to allow for setting up infinite Calm Minds or to set up the amazing Tail Glow that boosts Special Attack by three whole stages. With its boosting abilities, Manaphy didn't even need rain to be a murderer. Deoxys-N was thought about being retested but eventually it was decided that it shouldn't be, while Excadrill and Latios were deemed not broken again in addition to Reuniclus this time around.

Notable Threads: np: OU Suspect Testing Round 2 - Who am I to break tradition? by Philip7086, OU Suspect Testing Round 2 Voter Identification and Suspect Nominations by Philip7086, http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85343

March 25 and 27, 2011

After Round 3, Bright Powder and Lax Incense were banned under Evasion Clause and Blaziken was removed from OU. Deoxys-S and Latios were determined to be up for reconsideration next round, and Drizzle, Drought, Excadrill, Reuniclus, and Thundurus were deemed not broken.

With issues with rain out of the way, the focus was all on Garchomp and Blaziken. Bright Powder and Lax Incense were banned through Evasion Clause for the reason of being uncompetitive but in reality were banned because it was thought that they made Garchomp broken when combined with Sand Veil, even though Leftovers was better and the items were not useless otherwise. This ban was perhaps the single most useless in Smogon history. Blaziken, on the other hand, was completely overpowered. It need a mere one free turn to set up a Swords Dance with Speed Boost upping its Speed at the end of every turn and high-powered STABs in Flare Blitz and Hi Jump Kick. Sun-boosted Flare Blitz was so powerful that it could 2HKO Blaziken's premier 'counters', Jellicent and Slowbro. Latios had finally left his corner of shame and rose to dominance with his menacing Choice Specs Draco Meteor and great Speed, garnering enough support for a simple majority. Deoxys-S was the best entry hazard setter in the game and was quite dominant, but its time had not come as of yet. Apparently a lot of people had this idea that Drizzle was broken and suspected Drought alongside it for consistency and to prevent adverse effects on the metagame should Drizzle be banned and partially because of the menace that was Blaziken, but Drizzle was already crippled enough through losing Swift Swimmers and Manaphy, with Drought similarly lacking any backing for a ban. Excadrill and Reuniclus once again found their way onto the slate, this time being voted not broken with newcomer Thundurus, a rising star in the realm of setup sweepers. Overall, one could say the metagame was starting to settle down, but as with previous rounds, the Fifth Generation of Pokemon was not yet finished with Smogon's banning system.

Notable Threads: np: OU Suspect Testing Round 3 - So Long and Thanks for all the Fish by reachzero, OU Suspect Testing Round 3 Voter Identification and Suspect Nominations by Philip7086, OU Round 3 Pokemon Suspect Voting by Philip7086, and OU Round 3 Non-Pokemon Suspect Voting by Philip7086

June 12 and 14, 2011

After Round 4, Garchomp was deemed broken and henceforth removed from the OU tier. Thundurus was to be up for reconsideration next round, and Latios, Deoxys-S, Excadrill, Sand Stream, Drizzle, and Drought were determined to not be broken.

The people who had decided to ban the evasion items had finally come out of their mindset of the evasion items breaking Garchomp and banned the land shark. When considering its excellent stats, one might say that was what broke Garchomp, but in reality it was Sand Veil and Garchomp's signature SubSD evasion abuse set, with Sand Veil causing ridiculous feats such as allowing Garchomp to beat, if one prepared that much, a counter, a check, and possible backup check. The sheer luck and uncompetitiveness of Sand Veil caused Garchomp to be banned with Rough Skin not out quite yet. A Sand Stream ban was on the table for this reason but Garchomp itself was banned instead. Thundurus had found its complete dominance with a near-uncounterable Nasty Plot set that caused Gastrodon to rise two tiers from RU to OU, just barely missing out on the supermajority it was expected to receive. Drizzle was on the slate for this reason. However, the real surprise this round was Latios, who had suddenly gotten much less threatening with the metagame shifting to this round and stayed OU when the general assumption was that Latios was going to be banned. All autoweather was on the chopping block this round except for the nonexistent hail because a bunch of people hated weather but the general voting population realized that weather was a part of BW and did not have to go. Excadrill fell to the wayside with Garchomp taking the spotlight this round, and Deoxys-S had two excellent counters in Excadrill and Thundurus, but both had the banhammer dangling directly above them, selecting the right time to strike.

Notable Threads: np: OU Suspect Testing Round 4 - Blaze of Glory by Philip7086, OU Suspect Testing Round 4 Voter Identification and Suspect Nominations by reachzero, OU Round 4 Pokemon Suspect Voting by reachzero, and OU Round 4 Non-Pokemon Suspect Voting by reachzero

October 3 and 9, 2011

After Round 5, Excadrill and Thundurus were deemed broken. Baton Pass was to be up for reconsideration the next round, and Deoxys-S, Dragonite, Volcarona, Sand Stream, Drought, Drizzle, and Snow Warning were determined to be not broken.

I know you, the reader, cannot believe what happened. Thundurus was banned. All jokes aside, he tore apart teams and was nigh uncounterable with priority Taunt and Thunder Wave being other contributing factors to his ban, getting a supermajority just as a smack across the face on the way out. Now think of this: how can a Pokemon be voted OU for four whole rounds and then be considered broken just like that? That Pokemon was Excadrill, who tore apart everything with its Adamant Life Orb set being used over its inferior Jolly Air Balloon set, both of which had doubled Speed in sand thanks to Sand Rush. It was such a boss that it could Rapid Spin too. Yes, one of the most devastating sweepers in the game was also the best Rapid Spinner in the game. What a coincidence. Who would have guessed it could take the creation of one set, the only change from the other being nature and item, would be enough to break a Pokemon? Baton Pass was receiving the traditional "oh my gosh easy win" argument, receiving enough support to be considered for the next round. Deoxys-S, Volcarona, Dragonite, and autoweather all had the honor of staying OU. At this point, little did anyone know that there was not going to be a next round.

Notable Threads: OU Suspect Testing Round 5 - Sandstorm (Excadrill/Thundurus Banned) by JabbaTheGriffin, OU Suspect Testing Round 5 Voter Identification and Suspect Nominations by JabbaTheGriffin, OU Round 5 Pokemon Suspect Voting by JabbaTheGriffin, and OU Round 5 Non-Pokemon Suspect Voting by JabbaTheGriffin

December 8, 2011

After the switch to a council system, the OU Council composed of Earthworm, JabbaTheGriffin, and Aldaron decided that Deoxys-S was unhealthy for OU and removed it from the tier.

Round 5 had ended, but the policymakers of Smogon were not happy. They found that the slates every round were becoming increasingly more stupid and Excadrill being banned after being not banned for four rounds was a wake-up call. The suspect system was failing, at least in the eyes of the powers that be, so a council composed of three of the greatest policy makers on Smogon, Earthworm, JabbaTheGriffin, and Aldaron was formed. They decided that Deoxys-S was unhealthy for the OU metagame after heated discussion and unanimously voted to oust it. Deoxys-S could do its job with ease, which was getting guaranteed Stealth Rock and layer of Spikes at the very least or getting up dual screens right off the bat and setting them up constantly throughout the match thanks to its blazing Speed, usually in the lead position. Every Rapid Spinner was KOed with the right move, such as Starmie with Thunderbolt, Tentacruel with Psycho Boost, and Forretress with Hidden Power Fire. Deoxys-S also had the ability to threaten Tyranitar, a Pokemon that can hold it to just Stealth Rock, with Superpower, given that Tyranitar did not hold a Chople Berry. Due to its blazing Speed and massive neutral and super effective coverage, it was among the greatest revenge killers in the game, a testament to its effectiveness because its offenses are inferior to most every other offensive Pokemon in OU. Thundurus and Excadrill, both major threats to Deoxys-S, had been banned in Round 5, and Deoxys-S followed suit with one of the most controversial ban debates in Smogon history. At last, it seemed as though the metagame had settled down, but this was only for now, with many more changes still yet to come.

Notable Threads: Deoxys-S Tiering Discussion by JabbaTheGriffin and The Future of Smogon OU Tiering by JabbaTheGriffin

October 12, 2012

With the reintroduction of the old suspect testing system with one change&mdash;a permanent council composed of Bloo, Haunter, Aldaron, JabbaTheGriffin, and Iconic (previously Earthworm, who stepped down)&mdash;the long-awaited Round 6 ended with Sand Veil and Snow Cloak banned under Evasion Clause and Garchomp unbanned; additionally, Bright Powder and Lax Incense were removed from Evasion Clause.

After the OU metagame settled down from the release of BW2 and its many additions, people were ready to continue suspect testing for OU, as quite a bit had changed. A form of suspect voting that had recently been adopted in RU was placed in OU, with a permanent council composed of some of Smogon's most prolific names; these people were Bloo, Haunter, Aldaron, JabbaTheGriffin, and Earthworm. Earthworm later stepped down, with Iconic taking his place. The council would direct all tiering efforts and automatically had the ability to vote, with any others wishing to vote having to reach the ladder rating requirements. The first Pokemon chosen for evaluation was Garchomp. Rough Skin had recently been released, and the piece of Garchomp that had been broken, arguably, was Sand Veil. Garchomp was a complex Pokemon to handle, so a suspect ladder was opened and changed to reflect the multiple ways the council wished to test Garchomp. It was first tested on the suspect ladder for two weeks with Sand Veil banned to get an accurate picture of how Garchomp without its beloved evasion would affect the metagame, culminating with a practice tour for the Smogon Tour with those same rules. This test having been completed, Round 6 of suspect testing commenced, with Garchomp unbanned fully, Sand Veil and all, on the suspect ladder. After that test was completed, a vote was taken, including every possible option for Garchomp. These were to unban Garchomp with no restrictions, ban Garchomp, ban Sand Veil and unban Garchomp, ban Sand Veil used in conjunction with Sand Stream, ban Sand Veil and Garchomp, and ban both Sand Veil and Snow Cloak under Evasion Clause. Snow Cloak was included into the latter for sake of completeness and to make sure that there were not any flaws in the banlist. In the end, banning Sand Veil and Snow Cloak under Evasion Clause came away with a landslide victory, with the reasoning being that evasion, especially with no opportunity cost, is unhealthy for any metagame. Of course that was not the entire reasoning, as the general population of Smogon wanted Garchomp back in OU, but that's beside the point. Bright Powder and Lax Incense were unbanned on a whim because they are entirely useless items that come at the cost of forgoing other items with much more benefits attributed to their use, such as Yache Berry and Leftovers, and thus are useless to be banned.

Notable Threads: Rethinking past bans in the current metagame by Cherub Agent, The Overused Council (Now Introducing Iconic) by Birkal, Q&A with the Overused Council by Birkal, General Suspect Discussion Thread by JabbaTheGriffin, Garchomp and Sand Veil Discussion by Kevin Garrett, and np: BW OU Suspect Testing Round 6 - Enter Sandman by Iconic

November 6, 2012

After Round 7 of suspect testing, Kyurem-B was decided to be unbanned from OU.

Throughout BW, a community called Pokemon Online has coexisted alongside Smogon, often thought of as "noobs" due to their large amount of bans in every tier not OU. However, this community decided to unban Kyurem-B and pretty much universally decided that it was not broken. So, continuing down the road of unbanning, the OU Council decided that Kyurem-B was next not be tested. Similarly to PO, it was decided by many to be not broken, even with the bulk of a wall, an unreal Attack stat that gives Kyurem-B the most powerful Outrage in the game, and a high base 120 Special Attack stat to boot. The reasoning was that its physical movepool literally consists of Dragon-type attacks, Fusion Bolt, and Freeze Shock, which requires a charging turn. Its special movepool is essentially Focus Blast, Ice Beam, Thunder, and Hidden Power. Although this is better, Kyurem-B cannot utilize its Attack stat very well. A downright bad typing that gives a Stealth Rock weakness is not great either. Kyurem-B was only sixth on usage on its own suspect ladder, which just shows that it was underwhelming. Despite negative feelings about the metagame from many, the great majority decided that Kyurem-B was not broken.

Notable Threads: np: BW OU Suspect Testing Round 7 - Ice Ice Baby by Iconic, BW OU Suspect Testing Round 7 - Voter Identification by Iconic, and OU Round 7 Suspect Voting by Bloo
 

Nix_Hex

Uangaana kasuttortunga!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Agreeing with Scarfwynaut, this looks really awesome. It's a great timeline of some of the most drama-filled moments in recent Smogon history. Keep it up pokemon0078!
 

Joeyboy

Has got the gift of gab
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
So I've been in contact with Birkal a little bit before this about an idea I've had for the OU subforum.

Mini-tournaments!

Many of the other tiers have begun to host these fun get togethers that allow the community to become closer. The RU Tier in particular has hosted numerous tournaments, each with different themes.

So I'd love to begin hosting these, and since this thread is up(awesome work to all the OU mods!) I'd love to get you guys' opinions on it. My aim would be for these tournaments to be finished in a fairly quick manner, they would be fun, and light affairs.

My first idea for the tournaments is to gain even more suspect knowledge. With all the talk about Garchomp and Sand Veil how would you guys like playing with pokemon like Lugia and Ho-oh in OU? Certain tournaments would allow certain Ubers to be used or even for certain pokemon to be banned.

We could even do tournaments with certain CAP pokemon allowed! The possibilities are endless, I would also always be taking suggestions, and would tailor these tournaments to the forum's demands.

So what do you think? Would this be something you'd all be interested in?
 
Would it be reasonable for us to put up the usage stats for the month too? I think we should add as much information as possible to the Hub.


@Joeyboy: YES! I would definitely be interested in seeing some CAP OU tourneys, or random Ubers and pokemon being unbanned/banned!
 
OU Tournament winners deserve a mention and their name respected on-site, maybe not permanently, though just till a new line of OU winners come through.
 

Jukain

!_!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
blah I wrote up my history of bans blah here for those of you too lazy to scroll up the page

I am tossing around a few other ideas for the hub.
 

Birkal

We have the technology.
is a Top Artistis a Top CAP Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus


We're looking for one volunteer to help us out this time around. We need an individual who is active on a daily basis and willing to volunteer a bit of their time to updating a post of registered participants. It needs to be done regularly, but doesn't require exuberant amounts of effort. We can't offer you pay, but you'll surely be adored by hundreds of fans for your effort. This is a one month engagement, but it can be extended if you wish to continue working on the team. Private message me and ginganinja your credentials, your Smogon activity, and anything else relevant if you're interested.

See you soon.
 

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