Proposal Rebrand the BIGs; Should we be able to Rebrand Teams?

[Excal]

Disclaimer: Not speaking on behalf of the TD team, just my own opinions.

The BIGs are the most clowned on, least desirable franchise to be on in SPL. Regardless of being labelled as “cursed” because the franchise has been marred by unwinning SPL managers such as myself, ABR, Vulpix03, and Dave, that is not the reason why the Ever Grande BIGs need to be rebranded.

For a tournament that’s touted as the best, most competitive tournament on Smogon, there is no place for a franchise that is remarkably unserious due to its silly name and ugly branding. Snorlax is one of the worst Pokemon to be branded with, as the custom avatar options are severely hampered compared to other teams by design. It’s so bad that the past few years, the team has opted to not fit a trainer on the avatar and go for solo snorlax designs which look goofy and are not conducive to a competitive brand. The team’s color is represented by a hideous traffic cone orange, which is one of the ugliest colors on the wheel. Naming your team the BIGs is also inherently silly, as from the getgo you have players calling themselves “BIG [x]” for a whole season. It’s just unserious.

This is a serious post. At the end of the day, this tournament is supposed to be the best on the site and the most competitive. We have a franchise that literally nobody wants to end up on because it’s a complete joke via its reputation, its branding, and its name. We should consider retiring them like we have other franchises in the past and rejuvenate new life and branding into this tournament by updating the team.

It would be cool to get people’s thoughts in general about rebrands and updating team branding, and whether initial branding for official team tournament teams must be maintained at all costs or if we should have the flexibility to update them as a community as time goes on.

 

[blank]

I completely disagree with this.

The only rebranding I’d be ok with here is a change from the ugly orange color or maybe going back to Wailord… only if the goat Zracknel returned to make the logo. The uniformity and professionalism of SPL logos goes above and beyond what we deserve, and it would be silly to throw that away over foolish concerns. Beyond that…

The BIGs are a vital part of SPL and have an overall positive history. They’ve been an interesting team to follow for years with fun branding. I think they have been hurt by poor managerial decisions - Dave and Tony are two of the best on the site, but Tony’s one attempt with the BIGs was regarded as a poor draft by most of us with brains, and Dave will be the first to tell you SPL isn’t his forte.

Speaking personally, I captained US Midwest for 5 years, turning the little brother US team into a playoff staple and eventual winner. Ignore this year I wasn’t there for that. I bring this up because this was a team everyone clowned on that hadn’t made playoffs for several years prior to our 2020 run and had never even been close to winning the tournament. The team brand was literally changed to something WORSE too… it has “mid” in the name ffs the jokes write themselves.

Me and the other leaders of the team didn’t see the meme status as a detriment, but rather a challenge. I think those challenges build more character - a more competitive mindset that makes for a way more exciting storyline when you do inevitably win.

I suggest we move away from giving the BIGs to either a.) people who are affiliates of the group that has failed with the team for several years (sorry Dave) and b.) clouted managers seeking a foolish ego project. Give the BIGs to some people with heart this year, to some guys who are tearing it up in WCoP and SCL and perhaps aren’t SPL staple managers. There’s always a trio/pair like that picked anyway, so why not let them take the BIGs and go nuts instead of sticking them with the Cryos or a team like Ruiners/Scoots?

As a competitor I am obligated to clown on the shit BIGs, but in my heart I will always root for the underdog. I challenge a new, passionate trio of managers to take the BIGs and make it to the playoffs.

 

[Nat]

not a big post, but imo this is the type of subjective but also largely unexplored inquiry that a poll would do wonders for.

q1 should we as a community entertain entire spl franchise rebrands
q2 should we rename the bigs
q3 should we rebrand the mascot of the bigs

given how rather inarguably subjective any basis for change would be within this subject, gauging community pulse seems good. it's the type of problem where raw sentiment is going to be way more valuable than jockeying for change via the avenue of logical argument, etc.

 

[Luigi]

Very against rebranding the BIGs. For one, every claim in the op is subjective and/or presented with no evidence.

The BIGs are the most clowned on, least desirable franchise to be on in SPL.

This was the Tigers for like 12 years until Z0m took over, and the Bigs have some tough competition from the Cryos on that front even now. Someone has to be the underdog though.

For a tournament that’s touted as the best, most competitive tournament on Smogon, there is no place for a franchise that is remarkably unserious due to its silly name and ugly branding. Snorlax is one of the worst Pokemon to be branded with, as the custom avatar options are severely hampered compared to other teams by design. It’s so bad that the past few years, the team has opted to not fit a trainer on the avatar and go for solo snorlax designs which look goofy and are not conducive to a competitive brand. The team’s color is represented by a hideous traffic cone orange, which is one of the ugliest colors on the wheel. Naming your team the BIGs is also inherently silly, as from the getgo you have players calling themselves “BIG [x]” for a whole season. It’s just unserious.

Personally I quite like the BIGs' branding and have consistently ranked their avatars as my favorite every year, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that most people find the BIGs branding 1. ugly and 2. that that makes them not want to play for them. And how is fostering team spirit by renaming yourself to BIG Dave a bad thing? every team should have some dumb thing like that.

But more importantly, one of the reasons SPL is so beloved, especially compared to SCL is the long history of the tournament. The BIGs have been around since SPL 1 and as a result of that we can talk about how many times they've made or missed the playoffs, their lifetime record vs the Ruiners, the best and worst managers/players that played for them etc.

"but there have been rebrands before". Since spl 3, the only team that ever rebranded was the Tyrants which became the Frogs, then Falcons then Tyrants again. The other 9 teams have been around for over a decade. It'd be a real shame to lose that.

Also, taking those rebrands as a case study, we have 2 unsuccessful rebrands before one sticks. Why was the third one sucessful? Not because Tyrantrum is cooler than Toxicroak/Greninja and Talonflame, but because they got a competent manager that nailed a team identity. Similarly, after the proposal to rebrand the Tigers because they only made the playoffs twice in 13 tries a new manager came in and took them to the playoffs twice in a row and suddenly the Tigers aren't cursed anymore. The branding is far from being the problem here.

 

[DerpySuX]

Not super involved with SPL aside from lurking around and watching some games here and there but the reasoning for wanting to rebrand the BIGs outlined in the OP don’t really make sense to me. I’ll try to explain myself below

Pokémon is honestly an inherently pretty silly franchise. The whole concept of the games and a lot of the designs are pretty goofy, a lot of the characters they put in the story are silly in some way or another. Hell, half the plot of SV literally boils down to getting sandwich ingredients and your sentient bike stealing them. Why is being goofy a bad thing here? You can be serious, competitive, and silly. In fact, I’d personally argue that’s better than just being super serious and competitive all the time. What’s wrong with having a little silly flair?

Personally as well, for the past couple of SPLs the BIGs’ avatars have been my favorite, primarily because they don’t take themselves too seriously and still manage to look cool and visually appealing in the process.

As far as the orange goes, sure. I don’t think it’s ever bothered me but if ppl wanna update the logo, that’s totally reasonable, but I don’t see the necessity to force the entire franchise of the BIGs to rebrand.

Just my two cents as mostly an outsider

 

[Dave]

First off, Starry can kiss my ass. I don't agree with anything he said and he can keep my name out of his mouth. Dude wouldn't have even gotten to manage without me. Some people should stay humble. Dude was begging me to manage the BIGS with him just yesterday. Finchinator it's time.

Second, every professional sport has bad teams. If every team was successful it'd be boring. This is what narrative is about. When the BIGS do finally have a great season, it creates narrative and will be one of the best talked about things in SPL. That's why we do what we do.

One thing I heavily dislike is a mindset our users have sometimes. They get bored and feel the need to just change random things that don't need to be changed. Some things need to be left alone. And users who don't want to play for a team due to the franchise, don't sign up for tours. You'll just hold the team and manager back. Negativity aura mentality.

I cannot wait to see who the special user is that can achieve what the likes of Fabbles, Finch, Me, Pix, and Excal, ABR, and Tony could not - taking the Ever Grande BIGS all the way.

/endrant

Go BIGS

 

[Larry]

Keep your dirty hands off the BIGs. About every argument in favor of rebranding the BIGs is either subjective or a manager issue, not a brand issue.

Go BIGS