Smogon’s usage-based tier system has been, for the most part, effective. It’s one of the best indicators of metagame trends, useful Pokemon, and worthwhile sets. However, in this fairly fine-tuned system, there are some glaring exceptions. They go by many names, but they are most often known as...
The Noobtraps
What are they?
You’re probably already aware of what a noobtrap is if you’re an average frequenter of policy review. But for the uneducated, a noobtrap is a Pokemon that is actually very underwhelming in the tier it lies in, but since it looks so good on paper (albeit being awful in practice), low/mid ladder players use it anyway because it seems great. They eventually may realize it’s underwhelming, but by that point, the damage has been done. Their usage of the Pokemon has already contributed to the Smogon usage stats. And when said stats come out, people see these horribly inflated statistics that do not properly reflect these crappy creatures’ viability. This, in turn, leads to a vicious circle where new players to the tier see these high usage stats and think “Wow, this Pokemon must be really good if it’s being used so much!”.
There have been some very infamous cases of noobtraps ending up in places they shouldn’t be. The most well-known is probably DPP OU Electivire, which remained OU the entire generation, despite being garbage. This was because new players saw Electivire’s good Attack stat and nice coverage and assumed it must be good. This generation, the biggest instance of a noobtrap is probably RU Donphan, which,
despite currently residing in a blacklist tier of terrible RU Pokemon, consistently lands itself in the top 10 for usage, even reaching #1 at some points.
So it’s just low ladder idiots using bad Pokemon. So what?
Think about this for a second. Why did we create Smogon tiers in the first place? The whole point of tiers was to (theoretically) make a system where every Pokemon could have a place where it could be at least somewhat viable. Ubers and OU are for the best of the best, while NU, PU and LC allow the weaker Pokemon to have some time in the spotlight. Noobtraps basically throw this idea out of the window: They force crappy Pokemon to stick around in tiers they can’t do shit in just because some children don’t know how to play the game. They also have contributed to the poor reputation of the usage stats in general: No remotely experienced player considers them the reliable picture of the metagame that they should be. In short, noobtraps in their current state are dragging down the reputation of Smogon’s own tiering systems. They also drag down Pokemon that could be great in lower tiers. Dhelmise could be awesome in NU as a nice blanket check for bulky Pokemon like Mega Audino, Steelix and certain Xatu variants, but alas, we may never know, because the RU ladder is stupid.
How do we put an end to this?
And here’s where my main proposal kicks in.
My proposal is to allow certain Pokemon that are “bad” in the tiers they are in but remain in those tiers by usage to be able to be suspected and allowed in lower tiers, a la BL Pokemon.
To show you how this system will work, I will be using an example of a hypothetical NU Donphan suspect.
Step 1: The NU Tier Leadership takes a look at the RU VR one day and realizes “Well geez, Donphan is ass in that tier, why not let it down here?” So what they do is they first must host a vote amongst the council on whether to let it in or not. The ultimate tally must result in at least 70% of the council agreeing to suspect Donphan.
Step 2: Once Step 1 is done, the NU Council must then show the RU Council their vote and their reasons for letting Donphan into the tier. If the RU Council decides that Donphan is bad enough in RU to warrant a test in NU, they just give the NU Council the green light to go ahead with their plans.
Step 3: From this point on forth, the NU Council treats the Donphan suspect like re-testing a BL3 Pokemon. A post is made on the NU forum announcing the suspect, a ladder is made where Donphan is allowed, it goes on for a few weeks, and at the end of it, those who qualify for voting get to vote on whether to allow Donphan in NU or not.
And that’s it. Pretty simple, eh?
The whole goal of this system is to try to alleviate people’s concerns about high ranking members using a system like this for personal gain. Not only would they need permission from the guys managing the upper tier, but they would also ultimately have the community decide whether to open the gates to this Pokemon.
Benefits:
- D/C-/C rank Pokemon only in that tier because of usage can finally drop to a tier where they can really shine
- Dropping Pokemon like this could lead to new possibilities and meta changes in the tiers they drop to
- Using this system could also indirectly get the usage of the noobtraps down: If children see their broken god mon is in the tier below what they’re playing, they might think it isn’t as good as people let on and skip out when making their team
- It doesn’t cause upper tier leaders to waste time: It’s ultimately the choice of the lower tier councils whether to suspect a “bad” Pokemon in the upper tier.
Q&A
Q: Isn’t this a little complex when it comes to usage-based updates?
A: Is it, really? Surely it can’t be that tough to just keep a list of dropped noobtraps somewhere and cross their names out every month when tier shifts come around.
Q: Wouldn’t it be easier to make PSAs or something telling people not to use these Pokemon?
A: Thing is, these PSAs have been made in the past. And they have never worked. The types of people who would use crap like Forretress in UU and Donphan in RU often don’t read nor participate in Smogon forum discussions. Therefore, the info doesn’t reach them. Meanwhile, the people who do read these posts probably are knowledgeable enough in that tier to realize these Pokemon suck anyway. These PSAs are like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound: They may have a tiny effect in the short term, but long term, the wound will continue to fester, and the band-aid will just peel off and be forgotten. You can’t even say that they’re faster/easier to do: Making a long article about a mon sucking only for it to have zero tangible effect on usage seems a lot more like a waste of time than just unbanning/suspecting it in the tier below and being done with it.
Q: Something being “bad” in a tier is purely subjective, you can’t force things like this.
A: Let me tell you about this thing. It’s called “community consensus”. That’s the main concept that most, no, all formats’ Viability Rankings are built upon on. Pokemon higher on a viability ranking means that players of the format that Pokemon is ranked high in generally think that it has a series of very good qualities that make it worthy of being placed in that rank. Sure, there’s always going to be someone who thinks that Rotom-H is a slept-on monster in UU, or that Latias is overrated trash in that tier. But when a mon is placed somewhere in a VR, it typically means that’s the overall perspective of that Pokemon’s usefulness from a good majority of the tier’s playerbase. This same idea applies to low-ranked Pokemon, too. Blastoise, Dhelmise, Donphan etc. are low ranked in RU despite their high usage because most of the experienced portion of the playerbase agrees they are horrible and outclassed. Same goes for Hitmontop in NU, and Forretress/Arcanine in UU. These are Pokemon that almost everyone who actually knows what they’re doing agrees that they should drop to lower tiers, but may never will because of the stupidity of newbies. It’s not like dropping them equates to banning them in the tier above. Children/noobs can still spam the “op and good” Donphan in RU, or the “broken defensive wall” Arcanine in UU. It just means that they can actually see usage in high level play in lower tiers.
Q: Up to how many tiers can you suspect a mon from?
A: TLs may only suspect Pokemon in the tier directly above them.
