Implemented Standardizing what "required replays" means

[Merritt]

Disclaimer: over 90% of people handle posting their replays without problem, so this is to address a pretty small subset of players.

I hate that we even need to think about doing this, but some of y'all have been really pushing what it means to "post your replay" in the winpost. Posting your replays as two hyperlinks embedded in the 'gg' part is relatively standard, but there are too many cases of people doing things like linking the replays in random letters, putting the link embedded in an image, putting a picture of the link (no embed) in their winpost, embedding the links in size 1 periods, and of course replays that link to a file on somebody's computer (this one's usually people who don't understand how to share replays thankfully).

What should be the line? Personally I'm on the side of if it's immediately obvious where the replay is and it's actually a link then it's fine, but that's pretty subjective.

 

[MANNAT]

First of all, I agree, but can we use this opportunity to address something else, which I think is the main reason for sus replays.

For the most part, replays are required after round 1 of almost every tour on Smogon. Why do we do this outside of compiling stats?

The only people who watch round 2 replays for the most part, are your round 3 opponent. This leads to people needing more teams, which increases burn out and advantages people in larger social circles (who have more access to more teams).

I think we all love replays, but I think for like early classic/early slam rounds these really shouldn’t be required.

I’d like to propose that replays for both officials and non-officials are now only required for top 8 and onwards. Replays should remain required for playoffs for all official individuals.

I recommend reading the thread that incited this change in the first place before posting here lol. The new replay system is way better, and addresses a lot of the concerns about information asymmetry that the previous system had.

 

[Luigi]

ggs

just full replay links please

 

[FNH]

Seconding above. I'd prefer just removing all embeddings. My fat thumbs struggle on mobile.

There is probably a middle ground if people for some reason hate seeing urls in their posts. Something like game 1 game 2 game 3 seems acceptable.

 

[Rewer]

So, the brazilian forum PokéEVO has something like this: it's tourney's hub, where you can directly report your win and add your replay, with a forum in the back (the forum is dead, but the hub is absolutely awesome)

Here's what reporting a win looks like there. (venci means won and perdi means lost)

The hub is excellent to help keep track of tours happening, and it makes reporting wins really easy, and it straight up eliminates the need for tour hosts. There are no tournament hosts in PokéEVO as the Rotom bot does everything (who is also integrated with discord, you can also join and report wins by typing /in and /gg won on discord). It only has tour admins (equivalent to TDs) to decide situations where a human analysis is needed.

I don't know if this is possible here because Smogon is XenForo and PokéEVO is not. If it's possible it would be absolutely crazy (but likely a years-long project). If it's not possible, it's probably possible to include a form for win reporting in official tours (the same way you do signups) where people can add their win and replay. The tour yapping can happen at the commencemeat thread (and most of it happens on discord anyways). The only downside to this is that it would kill the anime gif win posts (is it a downside?).

 

[Dorron]

Anything that isn't the raw replay link is more annoying for literally everyone, supporting no embeds

 

[Celever]

Though we’ve never ruled for it to be the case, just about everyone in the rands community just posts the links in their posts with no embed. I agree that if someone really hates the look of long web addresses in their posts then they could embed over clear text like “game 1, game 2, game 3”. I’ve hosted a tour before where someone would post “won ggs (1 2 3)” and I don’t even mind that, while I hear the above comment about fat thumbs on phone, usually tour hosts are updating on their PC anyway because ctrl+F is optimal / stat collection you need tabs for.

The things listed in the OP such as image embeds (??? how do you even do this) are clearly just trolling though. Make the hosts lives’ harder for no gain except I guess gloating that no one respects? Hard pass.

While posting on separate letters of gg or ggs might be somewhat standard practice in the stours community, I’d say a good requirement for a rule could be to have to put a space between any links. It just saves the host a bit of hassle with how accurate they need to click while in the middle of stat collection / tour updating, and it’s no skin off the players’ back. g g looks uglier but I’d argue 1 2 should be standard practice anyway for people who want to take that approach.

My suggestion for a first draft of the rule would be:

When posting replays, players must follow these guidelines:
i) Replay links must be either posted in full to the post as a web address, or hyperlinked to text.
ii) If hyperlinked to text, that text must be contiguous, i.e. all links must be subsequent in the text with no other text between them.
iii) There must be a space between any text hyperlinked where the replay hyperlinked changes.

The second clause aims to combat the OP’s observation of replays being linked to entirely random letters throughout a post. The third clause precludes ggs links, which I’ve justified above, but also preemptively precludes the possibility of somebody keyboard smashing and then hyperlinking random parts of that keyboard smash to different replays. The OP hasn’t noted this as occurring, but it’s possible that it could, and that’s just a nuisance for tournament hosts and organisers.

Notably enough it doesn’t preclude this type of post:

[link] g1
[link] g2
[link] g3

This is the second most common type of win post we receive in rands (besides just urls to all 3 replays with linebreaks no text between) and that type of post is just fine.

 

[teal6]

So, the brazilian forum PokéEVO has something like this: it's tourney's hub, where you can directly report your win and add your replay, with a forum in the back (the forum is dead, but the hub is absolutely awesome)

Here's what reporting a win looks like there. (venci means won and perdi means lost)

View attachment 636110

The hub is excellent to help keep track of tours happening, and it makes reporting wins really easy, and it straight up eliminates the need for tour hosts. There are no tournament hosts in PokéEVO as the Rotom bot does everything (who is also integrated with discord, you can also join and report wins by typing /in and /gg won on discord). It only has tour admins (equivalent to TDs) to decide situations where a human analysis is needed.

I don't know if this is possible here because Smogon is XenForo and PokéEVO is not. If it's possible it would be absolutely crazy (but likely a years-long project). If it's not possible, it's probably possible to include a form for win reporting in official tours (the same way you do signups) where people can add their win and replay. The tour yapping can happen at the commencemeat thread (and most of it happens on discord anyways). The only downside to this is that it would kill the anime gif win posts (is it a downside?).

This seems like a great idea Rewer. Thanks for mentioning it, I've long thought an automated system would work for what we need (and, if anyone remembers, was part of our failed attempt at integrating with smash.gg a few years ago).

I'm nowhere near technical enough to know the feasibility of getting this to work on our forums but we have enough geniuses around that I'm sure it's doable.

 

[mason]

Bumping this thread, would be awesome to have a sitewide policy on this. Especially as a host this kind of formatting is genuinely so annoying/frustrating to deal with and is easily avoidable.

 

[Princess Autumn]

When posting replays, players must follow these guidelines:
i) Replay links must be either posted in full to the post as a web address, or hyperlinked to text.
ii) If hyperlinked to text, that text must be contiguous, i.e. all links must be subsequent in the text with no other text between them.
iii) There must be a space between any text hyperlinked where the replay hyperlinked changes.

Wanted to bring this part up in particular, the premise is awesome but does it need to be this complicated? I get that we don't wanna rock the boat too much but at the end of it, anything that makes the hosts ability to host the tour more difficult isn't worthwhile (and on a wider scale, this also makes the spectator experience worse too, albeit that doesn't apply anywhere near as often outside of playoff rounds).

Instead of something that's open to subjectivity, why not have an exhaustive list of what is and isn't allowed? Any rule that's open to subjectivity will leads to qualms down the line from people who disagree with how to interpret it, having a hard and fast rule on the other hand leaves no room for this. I'll put a list of formats that make sense to me in the spoiler below but this is far from exhaustive.

Plausible Link Formats

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-790760
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-790556
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-790905

g1 g2 g3 / game 1 game 2 game 3 - any variation on these also makes sense, although I do admit it opens up room for subjectivity

All other formats seem more confusing/are unnecessarily complicated

As the odd one out that's a hot topic for all:
won ggs - this one's very questionable, for one game it's fine but for 2/3 it's a pain in the ass even on desktop and outright frustrating on mobile, but I get that trying to remove this will ultimately be a cultural change to the way a lotta people post results. If cutting this from the site is possible we really should.

Having a clear list of what is acceptable and that anything else is not seems like it's easier for all involved parties

 

[DerpySuX]

I’ve always been partial to embedding with “game 1, etc” since it cleans up the post while still making it easy to access the replays.
If the set is just a single game I don’t see any issue with embedding it in the “won” or “gg,” though for a best of 3, while I don’t think it’s as difficult as people in this thread are making it out to be to access the replays, it still can be mildly annoying, especially since I’m one of those weirdos that does everything but copyediting on mobile.

My main gripe with just posting the raw links is that for best of 5 and beyond it can start to look rather messy, and this might just be a me problem but all of the links start to kinda blend together and it becomes difficult for me to tell if I’m clicking on the next game in the set.

I think the optimal way to post replays is “game 1/2/3 etc” with embeds. This keeps the win post clean and short while making it easy to access replays in the set in order (which is something else I feel people haven’t brought up, a lot of people post replays out of order from what I’ve seen).

 

[ABR]

It is my universal human right to view a mobile replay without trying to precisely place my thumb on a g, g, then an s.

If we wanna allow what the above post references then okay but I'm at least certain that hyperlinking individual letters is the worst thing ever.

 

[teal6]

Are there like, any objections at all to moving toward a standardized, forum-integrated system? Are there any negatives to this approach?

 

[w_r]

Are there like, any objections at all to moving toward a standardized, forum-integrated system? Are there any negatives to this approach?

Would appreciate some transparency here

First of all how is this a problem for hosts the stats are generated by pasting the thread link into a tool unless ur generating stats for individuals? Adding to this the officials already have replay threads that have the very same embeded links that this thread is based on lmao like wtf https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...ament-xi-replay-thread.3750361/#post-10250917

Why does it even matter for side pls / circuit tours, stats aren't even generated for them afaik

Is this new system supposed to alleviate the burdens of hosts to solely making activity decisions in which case this is great (no more manual bolding names, checking replays w/e) if not this change is not required in a practical sense unless you suffer from fat fingers :sob:

Another thing that comes to mind is scouting, after the new system is implemented would you now be able to type in someone's forum name and tier and get the replays of all the tours they've played till date all in one place w/o searching manually.
This would be cool combining forum + scouter and probably painful for anyone that wants to reuse old teams! Make this available for everyone if that's the idea behind this

Gonna conclude by requesting the current status of the replays that were supposedly wiped out from the main server dating from 20xx to 2024 or smth, there were some rumors that currently only a handful of insiders / ppl with downloaded replays have access to them. Is that even true & why wasn't there a detailed explanation of what really happened. What measures are put in place to address the information asymmetry that exists between ppl that started recently and older players?

Why even bother posting replays if someone decides to randomly nuke replays from the last 5 years? (Probably a more relevant issue to start a thread if anyone wants to) https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/replay-outage.3731998/post-9877666

Overall sounds like a good change if it could revolutionize hosting making it more of a laid back chore if not gg

 

[Vertigo]

Gonna conclude by requesting the current status of the replays that were supposedly wiped out from the main server dating from 20xx to 2024 or smth, there were some rumors that currently only a handful of insiders / ppl with downloaded replays have access to them. Is that even true & why wasn't there a detailed explanation of what really happened. What measures are put in place to address the information asymmetry that exists between ppl that started recently and older players?

Why even bother posting replays if someone decides to randomly nuke replays from the last 5 years? (Probably a more relevant issue to start a thread if anyone wants to) https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/replay-outage.3731998/post-9877666

You're making it sound like the replays disappearing was intentional; it was an accident and PS Upper Staff have restored what they could. The explanation of what happened can be found here, so not sure where those "rumors" come from.

 

[Luigi]

Are there like, any objections at all to moving toward a standardized, forum-integrated system? Are there any negatives to this approach?

Yeah we lose shitposts. We lose some of the peagentry that makes this whole thing worth it. Most communication happens in discord nowadays but there are still worthwhile posts that are better suited for forums. If this existed for SPL last year we would never have gotten this masterpiece for example, and the world would be a worse place for it.

It sounds to me like you have a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist here, when the solution to the problem this thread is talking about is just mandating people post replays like humans instead of animals: ie, in any of the reasonable ways, as outlined by DerpySuX or Autumn

 

[SparksBlade]

Quite similar to suggestions by Celever, Autumn, and Derpy, I had the idea that we could make a simple enough rule and allow some hyperlinking.

Replays should be posted as simple links or individually hyperlinked to a combination 2/3 or more letters and/or digits.

This could be expanded upon with additions maybe like "have a space between them" and "they shouldn't be far apart in a wall of text" etc but I think it does the job.

If someone wants to post "Won ggs. Uno Dos Tres" and hyperlink like that then let them do it, it's not very troubling. I'm of the opinion that letting people express some creativity or just make clean winposts for their aesthetic preference is something we can still keep while removing most of the possibilities for being annoying.

Replying to w_r

First of all how is this a problem for hosts the stats are generated by pasting the thread link into a tool unless ur generating stats for individuals?

Stats are generated for individuals and we wouldn't want to take away that possibility anyway just because they aren't happening for enough tours for you to have noticed.

Adding to this the officials already have replay threads that have the very same embeded links that this thread is based on lmao like wtf

And collecting those replays from the main thread when they're posted in a stupid way is still detrimental. How did you think those threads are being made lmao like wtf

Why does it even matter for side pls / circuit tours, stats aren't even generated for them afaik

sighs and repeats first point but for all other types of tours

this change is not required in a practical sense unless you suffer from fat fingers :sob:

But causing a fatfinger problem at all is already stupid and we don't need to keep that around

after the new system is implemented would you now be able to type in someone's forum name and tier and get the replays of all the tours they've played till date all in one place w/o searching manually.

This is thinking too far ahead. Currently we don't even have a design for how this should work on Xenforo let alone even starting a proof of concept. Side QoL ideas like these are a thought for many steps later.

Gonna conclude by requesting the current status of the replays that were supposedly wiped out from the main server dating from 20xx to 2024 or smth, there were some rumors that currently only a handful of insiders / ppl with downloaded replays have access to them. Is that even true & why wasn't there a detailed explanation of what really happened. What measures are put in place to address the information asymmetry that exists between ppl that started recently and older players?

This is stupid yet aggressive in a way I could only raise my eyebrows at. The replays weren't "supposedly" wiped out they were lost due to an error. The ones that could be restored have been restored by painstaking effort from our developers. If people have downloaded replays they have no obligation to share them around. Maybe there's an overlap in your definition of "insiders" and people who just like to download replays but equating it to some conspiracy is a bit silly. Finally, there will always be asymmetry in information between older and newer players that's just normal. I don't think we're in a position at the moment to compile all tour replays in existence in a singular large resource for quick access similar to chess games stored in databases from decades ago.

Why even bother posting replays if someone decides to randomly nuke replays from the last 5 years?

Instead of always looking for a conspiracy and attacking everyone else that isn't you, you can do two steps: Take off the tinfoil hat, and learn tact.
It's really upsetting to see this kind of finger pointing after our devs already went through so much during the incident all the while they were trying to restore as many replays as was possible. You could really do with some typing lessons.

 

[w_r]

This is thinking too far ahead. Currently we don't even have a design for how this should work on Xenforo let alone even starting a proof of concept. Side QoL ideas like these are a thought for many steps later.

To my understanding this is an American forum it's kinda absurd why people need to get defensive over demanding details over something that affects a good many people. The controversy angle is something I wasn't trying to infer but it's true that some ppl could have benefitted from the aftermath of an honest mistake. Replays have contributed to the information asymmetry ever since they have existed some well known incidents such as Mazar bot (2017), stuff like staff (that actively play tours) power abusing alt checking luxuries & getting quietly demoted have been a thing of the past & probably still is we may never know because they are never publicly dealt with. But suggesting this was a controversy is not my intention it's something you came up with

Replying to sparks
Stats are not generated for individual (players)
Moving towards an automated system isn't something that's impossible as far as I understand
Not exactly my domain but it is doable (auto generating replay threads after a round has ended/ bolding winners / and any other repetitive boring tasks that plague the hosting experience

Why shy away from something that makes life easier besides the only negative factor being putting some hours into this neat project and obviously getting used to a new system.

All I did was request transparency regarding the replays, someone to provide a technical explanation (someone that is in the know of things) of what exactly happened with more details ideally through a forum post none of ur replies seemed to do that. No ones saying this is a controversy or pointing fingers at anyone over an year old incident and no proof exists to arrive at that conclusion.

All I know is replays that were once public were privated in bulk and some replays are lost forever.

Tldr;
provide an update on the lost replays and what was done since then to ensure something like this doesn't happen again. It's absurd enough how someone got hacked in spl semis and the tds ended up punishing the person that got hacked while the same thing was dealt differently in stour finals between abr and pohjis there was never an official post on that either maybe it'd do you good to get off your high horse and learn some tact instead SparksBlade wtf was that thing on making rby bo1 in spl (any comments on ur colleagues? guess not)

drop halfway measures and seriously consider automating some of the host responsibilities (appreciate the time you guys put into it) if we really care about the wellbeing of the hosts. Make hosting less stressful if that's what they desire

agree with luigi funposting should still be around!

There's no further transparency to give besides what you've already been given. By derailing this thread to go "I want transparency about why someone decided to randomly delete all of the replays

Gonna ignore the fluff / bait.
Onto your main point roundabout way to say you know nothing more than what was posted just two days after the replays went down. I went through the thread vertigo linked it lacked any real details so if anyone could reply with a techical answer that would actually be helpful - the question being what exactly happened that lead to some replays getting nuked / unavailable to public + bulk privating replays that were once public & what measures were taken to ensure this doesn't happen again?
Good day to you!

 

[Maia]

This post is so unhinged that I don't even know where to start but here we go.

To my understanding this is an American forum it's kinda absurd why people need to get defensive over demanding details over something that affects a good many people.

This has nothing to do with anything.

stuff like staff (that actively play tours) power abusing alt checking luxuries & getting quietly demoted have been a thing of the past & probably still is we may never know because they are never publicly dealt with.

This also has nothing to do with anything.

All I did was request transparency regarding the replays, someone to provide a technical explanation (someone that is in the know of things) of what exactly happened with more details ideally through a forum post none of ur replies seemed to do that. No ones saying this is a controversy or pointing fingers at anyone over an year old incident and no proof exists to arrive at that conclusion.

Vertigo gave you a response, but in case your reading comprehension failed, this is the thread where they talk about where the replays went. Not a single person who has access to the replays database (less than ten people total) gives a shit about tours to the point of deleting five years worth of replays to give some people an advantage. There's no further transparency to give besides what you've already been given. By derailing this thread to go "I want transparency about why someone decided to randomly delete all of the replays because I heard some insiders have access to all of them" is pointing fingers and creating a conspiracy. The insider in question is Zarel. He owns Pokemon Showdown.

It's absurd enough how someone got hacked in spl semis and the tds ended up punishing the person that got hacked while the same thing was dealt differently in stour finals between abr and pohjis there was never an official post on that either maybe it'd do you good to get off your high horse and learn some tact instead @SparksBlade wtf was that thing on making rby bo1 in spl (any comments on ur colleagues? guess not)

All of this also has nothing to do with anything.

Stop derailing this fucking thread with your tinfoil hat nonsense and unnecessary attacks on people for things that have nothing to do with it. The topic of this thread is the format of posted replays, not your opinion on how a decision in SPL XV that was made seven months ago should have been handled. Stop replying to it unless you have something constructive and useful to say.

 

[roxie]

I understand the frustrations from all parties being the hosts and the standard player. As a host clicking on three “ggs” gets tedious and hosting on mobile makes me just want to cancer the tour overall especially if replays are required. As a non-host maybe you don’t care about hosting and ur only concern is “your opponent is going to see your replay for a round 1 tour when they got a bye”. Pretty selfish saying out loud right? Im not afraid to admit I started out doing this and I stopped because overall it just causes more frustration on everyone on Smogon: the players trying to view your game to literally look at you win & the hosts who look through the replays to keep this site running. If all the hosts get frustrated with this then they will quit.

1. Disable The Hyperlink Feature for select Tournament-Affiliated SubForums

I noticed that certain features of the site are customizable like C&C got the CopyEdit reply. If Hyperlink is a disable-type feature then I think it should just be disabled in certain areas. This is the best middleground solution that comes to mind similar to how the CopyEdit reply feature got implemented for C&C. This pretty much forces a raw paste for official tournaments without having to make a rule. Hyperlink is the feature causing frustration between the host & player parties.

2. Replay Feature

Rewer screenshotted an upload feature from another forum showing how each game has an insert link. I think this is really great and can lead to even easier hosting and even easier statistics creation.

3. Disallow Tedious Winposts

Just simply disallowing the more tedious winposts is a solution but that means more labor on infracting individually. Maybe if this is just done by the TD team but I just feel like infractions for this should start off really lightly and it does feel really harsh rn.

Smogon should not feel like a job. Although it may not be intentions of most players to frustrate hosts but the reality is tedious / complicated replays only make hosting harder. I would put yourself in the shoes of a host then a player (that probably never has hosted a tournament) when thinking about what’s best - had 90% of the community start doing this I’d assume we would’ve lost a lot of our current host faces by now.

 

[chaos]

I'm interested in automating more of the tournaments section, it's a matter of when I can fit you all into my schedule. I guess it ruins the surprise but we are about to roll out suspect test automation tomorrow.

Note that I don't read PR so unless someone on staff summarizes the discussion for me or I happen to see the link in passing, then nothing is going to happen. My understanding with replays was that I solved most of the problem with the replay fetcher /tool/. If there was something else needed, then nobody communicated it to me.

Further posts on the subject of automation won't be necessary, because the person you are talking to, will not be present in the discussion. When I have time to take on a new project I'll discuss with the TDs on what would be helpful in this regard.

 

[UT]

Proposal: clarify that linking replays should be obvious and easily clickable even on mobile. While a strict definition is likely unnecessary / more trouble than it's worth, we can put together some examples of "yeah this is fine" and "no this is not." This still allows for users to stylize their winposts and add shoutouts or whatnot, but makes life easier for hosts / players / spectators.

As for enforcement in official tours, I leave this more generally to the Tour Director team, but it could be similar to unlisting games (warning for first offense, followed by unsportsmanlike infraction).

While "it's obvious, duh" is really the criteria here, we can put together examples of ones that are definitely okay and ones that definitely aren't, and over time fill in more examples / more borderline cases as they come up.

Examples of acceptable winposts (can be added to with time)

Raw Links

won ggs
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138135469
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138186261
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2141924385

Hyperlinked to whole words

won ggs game 1 game 2 game 3

Hyperlinked own line

won ggs
1
2
3

Replays before a big block of text

won ggs
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138135469
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138186261
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2141924385

Wow, this is such an incredible tournament run, and I am so happy to be here. I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart now: CorvBlissPert

These mons generate an insane amount of momentum together. Surround them with three strong sweeper/wallbreakers who enjoy switching in for free, and you've got a stew team going. Lead with an attacker, break things until you get forced out, switch to whichever pivot handles the threat best, and then Teleport/U-turn/Flip Turn to whichever attacker threatens the current mon.

Chansey as always is your catch-all special wall. Very few special attackers can break through it, so when one of your mons is forced out by a special attacker, switch to Chansey, sponge the hit, and then Teleport away and heal with Regenerator. In many battles the only move Chansey will use is Teleport, turning what is normally a momentum-killing mon into a great generator.

Soft-Boiled and Seismic Toss are pretty standard moves so you can recover against more potent attacks and deal some damage back. You have a lot of choices with the last move slot including status, status healing, and secondary hazard setting, but usually it's best to just Teleport away. Sadly Wish+Teleport is an illegal combination.

Blissey is a good alternative here. She can hold Heavy-Duty Boots and is less crippled by Knock Off, but I have found Chansey's better bulk and Corv's excellent Defogging abilities usually mean Chansey is the better pick.
I have changed my mind, I would now recommend Blissey over Chansey. Knock Off is too common right now. Also Heavy-Duty Boots takes more pressure off of Corv to defog, helping its longevity as well by giving it more turns to Roost.

Corv is physical pivot #1 and it's a great one. It checks a wide range of physical attackers boosted by either Intimidate or Dauntless Shield. Even powerful neutral attacks have a hard time breaking through:
-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 153-181 (38.3 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Intimidate is probably the better ability here, since Corv will normally be switching out immediately, and it allows it to hand off a weakened attacker to Swampert if Corv can't fully check it. However, Dauntless Shield+Body Press gives Corv a surprising amount of offensive presence and should not be discounted. Rocky Helmet is great for punishing physical attackers, but Leftovers can get a small bit of extra recovery (usually not much, but every little bit helps). The zero speed IVs are important for having as slow a U-turn as possible.

Since Corv is the only pivot without Regenerator, and is responsible for Defogging hazards if they are up, it is the easiest one to wear down, so spam Roost liberally. Remember you have a secondary physical pivot if you need to recover and then hard switch. Even without Regenerator, it is an amazing pivot that is hard to wear down.

Corv is weak to Fire and Electric, so another physical pivot that can handle them is required. Enter Swampert! It's amazing typing, access to Flip Turn, and good-enough physical bulk make it a great teammate to Corv.

The set is pretty straight-forward. Flip turn as much as possible to take advantage of Regenerator and build momentum, Stealth Rock if you have a free turn and the other team is weak to it, Earthquake as secondary STAB and Toxic to hurt walls. It is not nearly as physically bulky as Corv, so don't expect it to be, but it can take a hit and switch out.

This core will only ever be as good as the attackers around it. If you don't have dangerous and powerful attackers to take advantage of all the free turns, this team will eventually fold to repeated powerful attacks. They aren't walls, they are pivots, so make sure you have something worth pivoting to and can punish the opponent right away.

The biggest weakness this core has is set-up sweepers that can boost speed. Genesect and Volcarona are the best examples; if they get up a Shift Gear/Quiver Dance they can outspeed your attackers and muscle through your pivots. However, if you're able to keep momentum up, it should be very hard for them to set up. Ideally your attackers will deter set up if they are out, and if they try to switch-in on a pivot you will hopefully be pivoting out, but a well-timed double switch or catching Corv on a Roost can spell trouble. Repeated strong neutral attacks will also eventually wear down this core, but hopefully before that happens your attackers will have already done the same to the other side.

Weavile is also a big threat to this core. It can wear down both the physical pivots, but it will take 2-3 switch ins each to finally knock them out, so make sure at least one of your attackers beats Weavile one-on-one to punish them for bringing Weavile in.

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Wow, this is such an incredible tournament run, and I am so happy to be here. I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart now: CorvBlissPert

These mons generate an insane amount of momentum together. Surround them with three strong sweeper/wallbreakers who enjoy switching in for free, and you've got a stew team going. Lead with an attacker, break things until you get forced out, switch to whichever pivot handles the threat best, and then Teleport/U-turn/Flip Turn to whichever attacker threatens the current mon.

Chansey as always is your catch-all special wall. Very few special attackers can break through it, so when one of your mons is forced out by a special attacker, switch to Chansey, sponge the hit, and then Teleport away and heal with Regenerator. In many battles the only move Chansey will use is Teleport, turning what is normally a momentum-killing mon into a great generator.

Soft-Boiled and Seismic Toss are pretty standard moves so you can recover against more potent attacks and deal some damage back. You have a lot of choices with the last move slot including status, status healing, and secondary hazard setting, but usually it's best to just Teleport away. Sadly Wish+Teleport is an illegal combination.

Blissey is a good alternative here. She can hold Heavy-Duty Boots and is less crippled by Knock Off, but I have found Chansey's better bulk and Corv's excellent Defogging abilities usually mean Chansey is the better pick.
I have changed my mind, I would now recommend Blissey over Chansey. Knock Off is too common right now. Also Heavy-Duty Boots takes more pressure off of Corv to defog, helping its longevity as well by giving it more turns to Roost.

Corv is physical pivot #1 and it's a great one. It checks a wide range of physical attackers boosted by either Intimidate or Dauntless Shield. Even powerful neutral attacks have a hard time breaking through:
-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 153-181 (38.3 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Intimidate is probably the better ability here, since Corv will normally be switching out immediately, and it allows it to hand off a weakened attacker to Swampert if Corv can't fully check it. However, Dauntless Shield+Body Press gives Corv a surprising amount of offensive presence and should not be discounted. Rocky Helmet is great for punishing physical attackers, but Leftovers can get a small bit of extra recovery (usually not much, but every little bit helps). The zero speed IVs are important for having as slow a U-turn as possible.

Since Corv is the only pivot without Regenerator, and is responsible for Defogging hazards if they are up, it is the easiest one to wear down, so spam Roost liberally. Remember you have a secondary physical pivot if you need to recover and then hard switch. Even without Regenerator, it is an amazing pivot that is hard to wear down.

Corv is weak to Fire and Electric, so another physical pivot that can handle them is required. Enter Swampert! It's amazing typing, access to Flip Turn, and good-enough physical bulk make it a great teammate to Corv.

The set is pretty straight-forward. Flip turn as much as possible to take advantage of Regenerator and build momentum, Stealth Rock if you have a free turn and the other team is weak to it, Earthquake as secondary STAB and Toxic to hurt walls. It is not nearly as physically bulky as Corv, so don't expect it to be, but it can take a hit and switch out.

This core will only ever be as good as the attackers around it. If you don't have dangerous and powerful attackers to take advantage of all the free turns, this team will eventually fold to repeated powerful attacks. They aren't walls, they are pivots, so make sure you have something worth pivoting to and can punish the opponent right away.

The biggest weakness this core has is set-up sweepers that can boost speed. Genesect and Volcarona are the best examples; if they get up a Shift Gear/Quiver Dance they can outspeed your attackers and muscle through your pivots. However, if you're able to keep momentum up, it should be very hard for them to set up. Ideally your attackers will deter set up if they are out, and if they try to switch-in on a pivot you will hopefully be pivoting out, but a well-timed double switch or catching Corv on a Roost can spell trouble. Repeated strong neutral attacks will also eventually wear down this core, but hopefully before that happens your attackers will have already done the same to the other side.

Weavile is also a big threat to this core. It can wear down both the physical pivots, but it will take 2-3 switch ins each to finally knock them out, so make sure at least one of your attackers beats Weavile one-on-one to punish them for bringing Weavile in.

btw here are my links for the week:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138135469 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2138186261 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2141924385

 

[Merritt]

Alright let's finish this. As said by chaos above, automated solutions may become a reality in the future but that doesn't mean we need to put this whole thread off.

Mandatory replays in winposts must be easily findable and accessible going forward. This is a little vague, but frankly it's a waste of everybody's time to try and enumerate all the ways that people could try to make their replays more difficult for people to actually watch.

This means that if you're going to hyperlink your replays, do not attempt to disguise them and do not make them extra difficult to click on - yes this means hyperlinking into each letter of "ggs" is not going to be permitted. Don't make your link size 1 font, don't try to make them blend into the background, just post the replays normally.

First and good faith offenses will be met with a warning and a requirement that your winpost be edited, repeat offenders will be infracted.