Announcement SS OU Playerbase Surveys

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kumiko

kumiko

formerly TDK
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
Hi all, a week ago today the OU Council sent out a survey to every person who participated in Round 1 of WCoP. The council has been a bit split on how to properly approach the biggest things in the tier at the moment, as such we wanted to gauge the opinion of the general playerbase.

Please note we did not use this to completely dictate things, as we're more than aware this is not a complete and conclusive survey representing what the playerbase thinks and feels. However, this was the most qualified and readily available playerbase we could easily survey, so we decided it would be a wise idea to conduct one. In the future, we'll look for ways to be far more inclusive with these types of surveys, but please keep in mind they are not the end-all be-all.

We received 155 responses. The results can be seen here as follows:

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Beyond this, we also included two fill in the blank questions, asking the following:
  • Is there anything else not already mentioned you would like to see the Council look into in the near future?
  • Any other comments/suggestions/concerns?

We won't be sharing every single reply of this, but the most frequent and notable reply received was bringing to attention Heavy-Duty Boots. As such, we made a thread in the Policy Review forum. I won't waste time discussing it, you're more than welcome to check it out and voice any concerns you have about Boots.

Some notable statistics to take note of from the survey:
  • 20.8% of respondents do not enjoy the metagame right now.
  • 40.9% of respondents enjoy the metagame right now.
  • 30.3% of respondents do not find the metagame to be balanced right now.
  • 28.4% of respondents find the metagame to be balanced right now.
  • 75.5% of respondents want to see Magearna either get banned or suspect tested soon.
  • 78.1% of respondents want to see Cinderace either get banned or suspect tested soon.
  • 42.5% of respondents want to see Urshifu (Single Strike) get banned or suspect tested soon.
  • 21.3% of respondents want to see Toxapex get banned or suspect tested soon.
  • 31.8% of respondents want to see Volcarona get banned or suspect tested soon.
  • 23.8% of respondents mentioned Heavy-Duty Boots as being potentially broken or worth attention.


That's pretty much it. Please, again, keep in mind that we are not going to simply do what the most popular survey result is. We surveyed a very small portion of the playerbase and it was very much so not inclusive. We do not want to base a decision entirely off of it. However, we absolutely are taking the results into account and it helped guide our decision. Expect to see something from us in very close future, but for now, that's all.
 
Hello everyone, the OU Council is putting out a survey to gauge public opinion on the current metagame. This survey, which includes questions about current Pokemon in the metagame as well as potential additions to the metagame, will be sent in this post and those with a Smogon account may respond. We will keep this open through the end of Friday, November 20th, but the council will be reading responses as they come in.

Please respond to the survey here! If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM. Have a great day.
 
We have finally hit the deadline for the SS OU Tiering Survey! We have received over 3000 responses, which is absolutely amazing, and I personally read through so many of them. I appreciate everyone who went out of their way to respond and I encourage you guys to keep it up in the metagame discussion thread or anywhere else in the OU subforum if you are interested!

I'm going to discuss the responses to some questions using two different demographics. The first will be of everyone who responded and the second will be individuals who had accounts in the top 150 of the ladder OR qualified via tournaments (3+ games played in SSDIV SS OU, 10+ points in ST30 SS OU, or top 16 in the Fall SS OU Seasonal). Unfortunately, I do not have the Google Forms graphics for the latter group as we sorted them out manually by their responses to if they qualified and then had to confirm each respondent individually, but there is still data for both groups!

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy the current metagame? See: do you enjoy playing it?
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This is 3153 different responses and the average response was a 7.284/10, meaning that most players are enjoying the metagame.

Of the 60 qualified responses, the average response was a 7.433/10, meaning that most experienced players are enjoying the metagame, too. The lowest response was a 4/10 and 55 of the 60 total responses were 6/10 or higher.

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On a scale of 1-10, how good do you find the current metagame? See: do you find it competitive?
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This is 3132 different responses and the average response was 6.792/10, meaning that most players find the current metagame competitive.

Of the 60 qualified responses, the average response was a 6.3/10, meaning that most players experienced players find the current metagame competitive, too. The lowest response was a 1/10 and 51 of the 60 total responses were 5/10 or higher.
This is me speaking on behalf of myself and not the entire council or anyone else on the council, but the discrepancy between the answer to the first question and the second question, even if slight, told me that there may be room for tiering action that could help balance the tier. Seeing as we recently banned Kyurem-Black and Zygarde, this may help bridge that gap and make the metagame more competitive. However, we should still keep our eyes open to potential future subjects of tiering action!
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On a scale of 1-5, how do you feel about Zygarde? Note: The scaled indicated that 1 meant it was not broken whereas 5 meant it was broken.
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This is 3166 different responses and the average response was 4.054/5.

Of the 61 qualified responses, the average response was 4.148/5.

Given this data and our discussions on Zygarde, we elected to quickban Zygarde earlier this week. It is also worth noting that Zygarde received a significant amount of council support for a quickban during the initial council vote here, so this was a decision discussed previously as well.

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On a scale of 1-5, how do you feel about Kyurem-Black? Note: The scale indicated that 1 meant it was not broken whereas 5 meant it was broken.
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This is 3166 different responses and the average response was 3.833/5.

Of the 61 qualified responses, the average response was 4.344/5.

Given this data and our discussion of Kyurem-Black, we elected to quickban Kyurem-Black earlier this week. It is also worth noting that Kyurem-Black received some support during the initial council vote, was the subject of pages worth of discussion in the metagame discussion thread, and received unanimous support from the council to quickban when we proceeded earlier this week.

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We also had questions on some Pokemon that we did not quickban as there was not enough support in responses and/or from the council, but believed deserved discussion in the metagame. I will include the graphs to all of them below.
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For the questions on Zamazenta and Zamazenta-C, 1 indicated that the council should not consider unbanning whereas 5 indicated that the council should consider unbanning.
Please note that just because these Pokemon were not grouped with Zygarde and Kyurem-Black does not mean they are off the hook. The metagame will continue to evolve, there will be more surveys in the future, and we will continue to keep a close-eye on the metagame as it develops. If you have any questions on these graphs or the responses in general, feel free to shoot me a PM anytime. We also received lots of valuable written input when responded to the final open-ended questions and I personally have read through almost all of these (thankfully most were brief :psynervous:); thanks to everyone who provided input!

As always, the council will be present to address any issues we believe deserve tiering action when appropriate! However, I regret to inform the 27 people who wanted us to free Darkrai that it is not currently released and the 8 people who wanted us to free Deoxys forms that they are not currently released. In addition, we cannot singlehandedly force people to use one-time OU staples like Aegislash or Volcarona so they rise back to OU, but you should use them yourselves if you feel they have a place in our metagame :blobthumbsup: Have a great day everyone!
 
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Hello everyone, the OU Council is putting out another survey to gauge public opinion on the current metagame. Anyone with Smogon account may respond and we will be taking a particularly close look on those who have experience on the ladder or in tournaments. We will keep this open through the end of Friday, February 19th, but the council will be reading responses as they come in.

Please respond to the survey here! If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM or VM. Just for clarification sake: the 1-5 scale for the Pokemon in the current metagame has 1 implying that you do not believe it is banworthy, 3 implying that it is very good and potentially banworthy, and 5 implying it is definitely banworthy. Have a great day!
 
We have finally hit the deadline for the February SS OU Tiering Survey! We have received over 1700 responses, which is absolutely amazing, and I personally read through plenty of them. I appreciate everyone who went out of their way to respond and I encourage you guys to keep it up in the metagame discussion thread or anywhere else in the OU subforum if you are interested!

I'm going to discuss the responses to some questions using two different demographics -- you guys may recall this from last time. The first will be of everyone who responded and the second will be individuals who had accounts in the top 150 of the ladder OR qualified via tournaments. Unfortunately, I do not have the Google Forms graphics for the latter group as we sorted them out manually by their responses to if they qualified and then had to confirm each respondent individually, but there is still data for both groups and we can share this!

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy the current metagame? See: do you enjoy playing it?
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This is 1714 different responses and the average response was a 6.631/10, meaning that most players are enjoying the metagame. The overall enjoyment of the metagame has decreased since the last survey, but it is by less than 1/10 of a difference.

Of the 53 qualified responses, the average response was a 6.943/10, meaning that most experienced players are enjoying the metagame, too. The lowest response was a 4/10 and multiple people responded with a 9 or higher. The overall enjoyment of the metagame has decreased since the last survey, but it is by less than 1/10 of a difference.

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On a scale of 1-10, how good do you find the current metagame? See: do you find it competitive?
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This is 1703 different responses and the average response was 6.67/10, meaning that most players find the current metagame competitive. This overall response is virtually the same as the response to this question during the November survey.

Of the 53 qualified responses, the average response was a 6.528/10, meaning that most players experienced players find the current metagame competitive, too. The lowest response was a 2/10 and 48 of the 53 total responses were 5/10 or higher. This overall response was slightly higher than the response to this question during the November survey, but it is by less than 1/10 of a difference.

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On a scale of 1-5, how do you feel about Cinderace? Note: The scaled indicated that 1 meant it was not broken whereas 5 meant it was broken.
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This is 1721 different responses and the average response was 3.468/5. This is a significant amount of support for Cinderace being broken in the SS OU metagame.

Of the 53 qualified responses, the average response was 4.208/5. It is worth noting that this is considerably higher than the general response to Cinderace, being north of 4 and having more people respond with 5/5 than any other option.

The OU Council is actively discussing Cinderace in the metagame as a result of these responses and our recent observations.

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On a scale of 1-5, how do you feel about Magearna? Note: The scaled indicated that 1 meant it was not broken whereas 5 meant it was broken.
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This is 1721 different responses and the average response was 4.347/5. This is an overwhelming amount of support for Magearna being broken in the SS OU metagame.

Of the 53 qualified responses, the average response was 4.34/5. This is virtually the same as the general public's response to Magearna.

The OU Council is actively discussing Magearna in the metagame as a result of these responses and our recent observations.

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We also had discussion of various other Pokemon in the metagame. None of them received the same degree of support as Cinderace or Magearna, but they are still things on our radar and we will continue to discuss them moving forward. I will include the graphs on them as well.
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Finally, there were also some questions on current Ubers that could be tested in the metagame. We are currently planning to focus on the potential problems in the metagame, but this is still valuable data and we will continue to discuss them moving forward. I will include the graphs of them as well.
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Please note that just because these Pokemon were not grouped with Cinderace and Magearna at the top does not mean they are being ignored in the present or future. The metagame will continue to evolve, there will be more surveys in the future, and we will continue to keep a close-eye on the metagame as it develops. If you have any questions on these graphs or the responses in general, feel free to shoot me a PM anytime. We also received lots of valuable written input when responded to the final open-ended questions and I personally have read through many of these (thankfully most were brief :psynervous:); thanks to everyone who provided input!

The council will be present to address any issues we believe deserve tiering action when appropriate! Stay tuned for what is next for SS OU in the coming days or weeks. Have a great day and stay safe everyone!
 
Hello everyone, the OU Council is putting out another survey to gauge public opinion on the current metagame. Anyone with Smogon account may respond and we will be taking a particularly close look on those who have experience on the ladder or in tournaments. We will keep this open through the end of Friday, April 2nd, but the council will be reading responses as they come in.

Please respond to the survey here! If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM or VM anytime! Thank you so much for participating and have a great day.

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On a personal note, I would like to thank Jordy for his massive contributions to the OU community over the last few years and wish him the best of luck moving forward!
 
We have finally hit the deadline for the March/April SS OU Tiering Survey! We have received over 1250 responses, which is absolutely amazing, and I personally read through plenty of them. I appreciate everyone who went out of their way to respond and I encourage you guys to keep it up in the metagame discussion thread or anywhere else in the OU subforum if you are interested!

I'm going to discuss the responses to some questions using two different demographics -- you guys may recall this from last time. The first will be of everyone who responded and the second will be individuals who had accounts in the top 150 of the ladder OR qualified via tournaments. Unfortunately, I do not have the Google Forms graphics for the latter group as we sorted them out manually by their responses to if they qualified and then had to confirm each respondent individually, but there is still data for both groups and we can share this!

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy the current metagame? See: do you enjoy playing it?
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This is 1271 different responses and the average response was a 6.818/10, meaning that most players are enjoying the metagame. The overall enjoyment of the metagame has increased since the last survey by a noteworthy margin, going up over half of a point.

Of the 44 qualified responses, the average response was a 6.75/10, meaning that most experienced players are enjoying the metagame, too. The overall enjoyment of the metagame is virtually identical to where it was last survey, dropping from 6.9 to 6.8 due to a few low-end outliers bringing down a vast majority of answers between 5 and 9.

On a scale of 1-10, how good do you find the current metagame? See: do you find it competitive?
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This is 1256 different responses and the average response was 7.24/10, meaning that most players find the current metagame very competitive. This is easily the most competitive the tier has been in the eyes of the people, indicating that the recent quickbans and other OU trends were viewed as favorable by the playerbase.

Of the 44 qualified responses, the average response was a 7.27/10, meaning that most players experienced players find the current metagame very competitive, too. While one individual gave the metagame a 2/10 and another individual gave the metagame a 4/10, a whopping 42 of 44 people -- over 95%, gave the metagame a 6/10 or higher, which is a noteworthy increase from prior metagame states.

Should we retest Cinderace in SS OU?...

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While exactly 30% of the playerbase supports a Cinderace retest, a majority of the playerbase does not support a retest on Cinderace at this time. 54% of players oppose or strongly oppose a Cinderace retest.

This margin is even larger among the 43 qualified responses. Only 2 support the retest whereas 5 are indifferent. The average response was a scarily low 1.65, meaning that there is strong resistance to a Cinderace retest among qualified players.

Should we test Zamazenta-C in SS OU?...

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While 34.4% of the playerbase oppose a Zamazenta-C test, a slight majority of the playerbase supports a test on Zamazenta-C at this time. 51% of players support or strongly support a Zamazenta-C test.

The qualified demographic is also seemingly split on the matter with an average response of 2.91, which is slightly on the opposition side of the indifferent option in the middle of the 1-5 scale. Moreover, the qualified demographic shows virtual indifference to a Zamazenta-C retest. 17 people supported it, 19 people opposed it, and 8 were in the middle by voting indifferent.

Are there any Pokemon in the current metagame that you believe deserve a suspect test?...

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The playerbase does not currently support any suspects. The same goes for the qualified playerbase.

Mentions of Tornadus-T, Rillaboom, Dragapult, Toxapex, and Heatran all were noteworthy, but none accumulated more than a few dozen specific mentions. Finally, some of the most intriguing responses in particular can be found below:

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:psycry:

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I guess Gilbert Gottfried was right all along...die Toxapex.

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Great job egalvanc

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That's all for now friends; stay tuned for future SS OU tiering updates and plenty more! Thank you again to everyone who responded and we hope to hear from you guys again next time!
 
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