Sleep is overrated! It's almost 7am, I haven't slept, and I'm bringing you the results of the tiering survey. First things first, thank you very much to the 69 (!!) people who responded to the survey. Out of these responses, 26 come from highlight players who hold a peak spot on the 1v1 ladder or played multiple SV games in 1v1PL. Your input means the world especially in these times, and should help immensely in guiding us towards a path forward.
This was our first time using Smogon forms for the data, so I didn't quite figure out how to properly visualise the results, so I'll just go over the questions one by one, starting with
general 1v1 questions
How much do you enjoy SV 1v1 right now (with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best)?
Generally this one looked a solid amount better than the last time we did a tiering survey, with the average result being
6.87 and the median being
7. This means people generally think the metagame is in decent shape, but there's room for improvement, and I strive to bring this number closer to an 8/10 in the future. Highlighted players responded similarly, with an average of
6.73 and a median response of
7.
How competitive do you find SV 1v1 to be right now (with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best)?
I'll keep this one short because the response is incredibly similar to the previous question. Both your average player and highlighted players responded to this with an average of
6.7 and a median response of
7.
Pokémon questions
Instead of going over each pokémon individually, here's the results in a neat table, sorted by the average response
| All | | Highlight | |
| Average | Median | Average | Median |
| How do you feel about Gouging Fire? | 3.49 | 4 | 3.62 | 4 |
| How do you feel about Regidrago? | 3.35 | 4 | 3.31 | 4 |
| How do you feel about Pecharunt? | 3.04 | 3 | 3.23 | 3.5 |
| How do you feel about Hoopa-Unbound? | 2.49 | 2 | 2.38 | 2 |
| How do you feel about Iron Valiant? | 2.41 | 2 | 1.96 | 2 |
| How do you feel about Ogerpon-Wellspring? | 2.19 | 2 | 1.73 | 1.5 |
| How do you feel about Primarina? | 1.9 | 2 | 1.69 | 1 |
| How do you feel about Ursaluna? | 1.77 | 1 | 1.31 | 1 |
With this, 2 Pokémon stand out: Gouging Fire and Regidrago are perceived by the average player and highlighted players to be in need of moderate to severe tiering action. It's also worth noting that Pecharunt has received mixed opinions, with especially the highlighted players slightly leaning towards wanting some tiering action seen on Pecha. It's worth noting that responses to Pecha were quite spread out, receiving quite a few 1/5 votes but also plenty high votes. Although the Pecha issue doesn't seem pressing now, it's worth keeping it in mind in the future.
Open questions
I aimed to keep the form low effort by not including many open questions and leaving them entirely optional, so those who did take the time to fill them out get special thanks. Starting with the first question, there were a few Pokémon that weren't on the form that a few people thought should have been. Out of these, Iron Crown and Urshifu were mentioned more than once. When the time comes for another survey, we'll be sure to poll the community to see if these mons (as well as a few others that were mentioned like Goodra-Hisui) are still worth adding to the survey.
Last but not least there's the "is there anything else you'd like to say" question. Most people didn't have a whole lot to say here, and as promised on the form I will not be quoting anyone here, but I want to take the opportunity to address a few things that were mentioned here. Firstly, several people expressed concerns about the state of the 1v1 ladder. I agree that ladder activity is down quite a bit compared to what we're used to, especially around the top of the ladder. I don't have any plans ready to revitalise the ladder, but am very open to suggestions. It was also quite nice to hear the few responses that remarked that Smogon forms are an upgrade from google, especially when it comes to how easy it was to fill out to form.
Lastly, there were a few responses asking about the state of 1v1 old gens and resources. I'm sorry to say I don't have any news here (these past few weeks have been a lot) but I have been thinking about it and am getting close to having something that makes sense. I plan to have more to tell you in 1-2 weeks time.
That's all folks
Thanks again for taking the time to fill out the survey. Following the results above, we've decided to
Suspect test Gouging Fire. If all goes to plan, this suspect should be going live Friday 30th (today). After this Gouging Fire suspect concludes, we'll be looking into a Regidrago resuspect as well.
