Potential improvements to the "ADV OU Sample Teams" post.

[Andromay]

As someone who is still quite new to ADV, its really hard for me to understand how to pilot a team and what each Pokemon does. In general, I very often feel like teams put together Pokemon for a given purpose, to beat certain options, or to be played in a certain way, that I just can't see when looking at the team without further information.

This often leads to me just trying out the team and seeing what works and what doesn't, which helps, but takes a lot of time and is kind of frustrating, as I will naturally lose a lot without knowing what I am doing wrong. I'm also left wondering what else I might be missing or how the person that made the team *intended* the team to be played. When do I switch out, who do I switch into what, when is it a good idea to bring in a more fragile mon, what mons should I be careful about and how do I beat certain mons. Some teams want to switch the mons around a lot, some want them to stay in until the bitter end.

I try to search the forum for team write-ups, but often find nothing. The forum is kinda hard to use IMO (I might just be dumb) and I often don't find what I am looking for. The two screenshots I've attached are two examples of teams that I wanted to use and tried looking up on the forum, but the only mention where the Sample Teams post itself. I can and do read up on the Pokemon on the Smogon dex website (https://www.smogon.com/dex/rs/pokemon/), which does give me a good idea of each mon's role in a team, but it doesn't cover individualized options on these teams and how these mons interact with each other, if that makes sense. If there is more information on these teams, for example a write-up as I've mentioned, I think just linking it on the forum post would reduce friction for newer players.

In my personal opinion, I think something like a short write-up on how a team is supposed to be played and/or what the thoughts and ideas of the creator where would be highly appreciated by newcomers and significantly lower entry for newer players. I also think it would improve the longevity of competitive ADV. Maybe a new section under the sample teams list on the "ADV OU Sample Teams" forum post, maybe a short link to another forum post with the write-up next to the sample teams name. I hope this is okay and not rude, but I will be tagging the moderators , given that the "ADV OU Sample Teams" post was made by them. Hiro', mielke, Star, vapicuno.

Maybe I am completely off here, maybe I am just stupid and overlooked obvious information, maybe I am just bad at Pokemon. But I still wanted to share my thoughts in case anyone agrees with me and I hope that this post can have a positive impact on the community. I really really like ADV and think it is the best competitive Pokemon meta game. I want this to be the "Super Smash Bros Melee" equivalent of Pokemon, with a flourishing community for years to come.

Thank you for reading :)

 

[4lowray]

i think what you said is not dumb at all and is worth considering. some other sample teams threads in other tiers have a short explaination of how they work. we have this for ADV OU too, just not in the official sample teams thread: the revival tournaments discord server has a sample teams channel, where each team has a short (but effective) explanation of how it is supposed to function. you should also consider taking your questions to the beginner's lounge thread, i've personally never used it but people seem very open to helping new players starting out and some questions about the sample teams have already been answered

 

[Siglut]

This has been brought up before, but I'm not sure anyone is willing to put in the work to do it. When you think about it, it would be a whole lot. Beyond that, though, I'd just like to say that there's nothing wrong with losing. I urge you to learn through experimentation and use your own teams instead of the samples, even though they'll certainly be worse. That's how you're going to develop your own take on the tier. If someone tells you what move to make in what position then you're not really learning anything.

 

[gorditoconbigote]

Hey, i think we all went through the same thing when we first got into the tier. One thing i found useful for understanding the teams used in the tier was this archetype analysis by Vapicuno and UD -> https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...pes-and-cores-a-data-driven-approach.3654874/
Comprehending how teams are built and what their gameplan is will improve your ability to pick up any team and easily deduce every pokemon´s role (and also will help you teambuild on your own!).
You can also find some creators that will build a team and break down the process for you (i.e.

)
though they are so much scarce that the amount of sample teams on the site.
Lastly, as everyone has mentioned, experience is a great factor on improving and is a necessary and fun step. Once you build a team that can´t break through SkarmBliss you learn to never make that mistake again.
I understand your point, you don´t wanna bash your head against the wall losing with teams that you´re using wrong, you want to take advantage of all the information that is available about a 20 years old metagame. The information is there for you to get, is not super easy to find, and i agree that the sample teams post could be improved with some begginer friendly tips on each archetype, but with patience and a lot of reading you can find everything you´re looking for and clear every doubt you have.