This is gonna be a long one, I apologize for any incoherence as it's late at night and I decided to let my fingers fly on a very important subject to me.
I did TL;DR at the end just in case you're not interested in a ramble
I came across SSPL II a few months ago and binge watched literally all of it. While I know this generation of Pokemon has its detractors(whether it be dexit gen, no generational mechanic available in singles, it being "too slow," etc.), I think it's awesome that the community has managed to put on two successful PLs for it after it was no longer CG. It's the only gen I find interesting from top to bottom tiering wise(bit of a spoiler for what I'm going to type next) and gave me a newfound appreciation for more methodically paced games. And that leads me into my personal tl;dr hope:
SS ZU's definitive inclusion into SSPL, and either another OU or monotype pick for the 12th slot, with a SLIGHT preference toward OU getting it.
Some might argue that an unofficial tier making it into a gen's PL is not a good idea. That said, would this not be the best possible stage to celebrate the player base of SS ZU for keeping their tier alive and thriving, and put more of a spotlight on it for other players and spectators to potentially get interested in it and pick it up?
I get that OU is and will always be the "main stage" of competitive Smogon; no matter which gen, their OU ladder will stay alive long after the gen concludes. SS OU tours still exist today and it's not hard to request matches in the format, whether it be on discord, in Ruins of Alph, or queuing up the ladder(though I understand why some people may not enjoy that last one). However, the nuance of what
Slowpoke Fan wrote isn't lost on me; if SSPL has really become a feeder system for newer players to show their stuff, then I completely understand the importance of allowing some "breathing room" for managers to give newer SS OU players a chance in an additional slot. It may be easier to get basic matches in SS OU if you have a budding interest in the tier, but the opportunity does not come too drastically often for newer players to play the tier with eyes on them and support from other established vets of the tier. I would hate for managers to feel pressured to grab ONLY proven names instead of someone who could use this tour to break out and flourish as an SS OU player. I feel like I'm talking myself more and more into supporting the OU slot, but proven managers and teammates can do a lot to help accelerate the growth of a player who needs access to teams or game feedback/review, and another slot for OU gives a team more heads to put together and discuss what went right and what went wrong.
Moving on, it's generally harder to get matches for an LT if it isn't already super popular, such as outliers like DPP Ubers. I should know, I mained ADV Ubers for like a year(one of the lesser touched formats) and got really lucky falling into a great friend circle that would help teach me and play it consistently, but that circle was maybe 7-8 people strong and nearly represented the entire playerbase that mained the tier. This is also not discounting the fact that even when these LTs get their RoA spotlight ladder once a year(if that) that these ladders are not guaranteed to be active. I once was able to make myself a full dinner before my queue for getting a GSC UU ladder match was answered.
I also advocated for GSC PU to be included in GSCPL last year for a very similar reason, and the team I helped support saw a lot of intermingling between tiers after just two or three weeks. It would be awesome if someone who only came to this tour to play SS UU or Monotype took an inspired interest in supporting or learning another tier like PU or ZU. Maybe I'm idealistic, but I know the number of people this has happened for in tours is not zero, and that's enough for me to suggest it.
The second argument I can see against these tiers' inclusions is a simple dislike of having bigger teams and more slots added to the tour. I don't have as logical an argument against this as much as I'll say that I think with SS being such an underdog generation, we should be looking for any chance we can take to elevate it and its playerbase a la Slowpoke's post.
If the community agrees that a fourth OU slot would make the most sense and the decision simply MUST come down to ZU vs. monotype, my belief is that ZU is more in line with a traditional 6v6 Smogon singles tour would represent,
BUT if the demand for monotype eclipses the flourishing ZU community, then I'd understand monotype getting the nod. However, it's still pretty clear that SS ZU is one of the more popular ZUs and I believe that deserves recognition in its own right, especially because Monotype has its own community in which SS monotype can be played in other tours.
It may sound weird for a relative nobody to write so passionately about a tour he's never played in. However, I really cannot express enough how far SSPL II went in changing my opinion of a generation I was not around for and how much I really enjoyed watching every single game to see what the playerbases had prepped for that week. Even the janky ones. I love how there's such a vast variety of mons that can work well up and down the tiers as long as you know what you're doing and how to position yourself well, and I hope to see this tournament thrive whether as a spectator or a competitor.
I might edit this when I log on again for coherency but if you need the
TL;DR:
- expanding the tour is a decision that harms nobody and only stands to benefit the SS community at large
- My personal compromise for variety + competitive development is adding ZU and another OU to the tour, I think this is best but I am biased
- If tour hosts care more about variety, add ZU + monotype
- If tour hosts care more about creating a launchpad for more SS OU development, add two more OU slots(my least preferred option when we could reward ZU for working so hard)
Thanks for reading and my thanks to the SS community for working hard to keep this generation of pokemon alive
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