OU Leadership

The OU Council

The OverUsed council oversees all tiering that takes place in the tier. They are some of the most respected Smogon members, and have years of experience to provide insight with. Their roles include selecting suspects, creating discussions for said, and making sure the laddering and voting run smoothly. The council currently has five members—aim, haunter, McMeghan, M Dragon, and Tesung. Bloo and gr8astard have recently retired and been replaced with aim and Tesung, respectively.

Current Members

aim

IDM’s #1 YouTuber, aim is a player who has impressed many in the tournament scene. While his rise to stardom may stem more from his YouTube popularity than actual ability as a player, aim's contribution in many areas of the site cannot be questioned (except by TOAST and a slew other relevant users). aim's extensive metagame knowledge and experience as a player will assist the council in making decisions for the improvement of the metagame, as long as he is well-rested.

McMeghan

McMeghan is a Tournament Director and a very well-known tournaments player. According to many sources, he's been known as the best Smogon B/W player. His competence in regards to everything that relates to competitive battling is invaluable. He's an extremely intelligent and nice person to work with.

M Dragon

Much like McMeghan, M Dragon represents the tournaments section within the council, where he’s known as a Tournament Director and a long-time tournament player. He was also an avid ladder player during the D/P/Pt era and is a former Smogon Pokémon Online moderator. His extensive knowledge of the metagame along with his multi-year competitive battling experience make M Dragon an essential presence in the council.

Tesung

"Hi, I’m Tesung. Most of you know me from tournaments or from steeleagle17’s tagpro lives. I’m a highschooler from Philly who likes to play mons among other activities. I got started on the ladder, and currently play a lot of tourney, so I respect both sides of the spectrum. I would like to see the metagame get better, and to see people stop complaining about matchup. My innovative dartboard building method still remains supreme. I consider myself approachable most of the time if you wanna talk about mons."

Important: Please refer to him as Tessy.

Past Members

Aldaron

Aldaron, while not necessarily the most friendly face in the community, was a member of the OU council who brought a certain fierceness and firmness to the table. Way back in Round 2 of OU suspect testing, he made a controversial proposal that kept rain in OU and defined the generation, which is known as Aldaron's proposal—the Drizzle + Swift Swim ban. He was also one of the original 5th Generation tiering leaders. He once lead Smogon IRC and was a Tournament Director, which meant he helped facilitate the discussion and growth of competitive Pokémon at the highest level. His role as a community administrator could not be understated either, being the most important role in the community. All of this combined with being a former Pokémon Showdown administrator (he was also one on Pokémon Online) made him an exemplary member of the council, as he contributed to many areas that the council's reach affects.

Bloo

Bloo, one of the more friendly (and some would say say trolly) people on the council, brought a more approachable persona to the council, despite being a forum administrator. Being a former leader of Battling 101 and the former head Tournament Director, each section teaching new battlers the ropes of the game and promoting the highest level of play, respectively, allowed Bloo to interact with a large amount of users on a daily basis. She was also a formidable tournament player herself and a master of many tiers.

Earthworm

Earthworm was a member of the first OU council, which voted on Deoxys-S's fate, unanimously deciding to banish it to Ubers, as well as the original 5th Generation tiering leadership team and a super moderator. He was the Tournaments leader, known for his focus on fairness and neutrality when making decisions, most specifically in favor of gr8astard in the 9th Official Smogon Tournament. He was also a formidable tournaments player, being a literal superpower. He has since been lost to the accursed League of Legends, which slowly kills off even the best of Smogon's members.

gr8astard

gr8astard was one of Smogon's most successful, competent tournament players—known sometimes as one of the greatest BW players—and his extensive knowledge of the metagame proved to be an asset to not only the OverUsed council, but across the entire competitive community.

Iconic

Iconic, known for being Bloo's long lost cousin, has badges in almost every area of the site and is a super moderator. He is a Tournament Director, which means he helps run and manage play at the highest level, and is one of the most proactive council members. He was the one who pushed for the council + suspect voters system in OverUsed, despite knowing he was next in line for the council. Iconic at a time was a leader in the OverUsed Contribution & Corrections forum, and was an avid DPP Ubers battler, a tier that is rarely played nowadays. He posts almost all of the threads for suspects as well and provides a unique insight on each one.

JabbaTheGriffin

JabbaTheGriffin was at a time the leader of two tiers—OverUsed and UnderUsed. He has since handed off UnderUsed to suspicious user kokoloko and now solely focuses on OverUsed as a super moderator. He is known for being the most liberal member of the council in banning, which comes from his experience leading UU. UU has made bans this generation that create the best metagame as opposed to following the traditional definition of "broken." The bans have made for an enjoyable tier, something which many players do not think OU is. He pushes for an enjoyable OU metagame, a trait that is reflected in his posts and decisions as a council member.

Pre-Council Policy Leaders

Before there was a council, Philip7086 and his five henchmen—Aldaron, Earthworm, Gouki, Jibaku, and reachzero—led OverUsed tiering (and Smogon tiering as a whole). The descriptions of everyone besides Philip7086 were written by Philip7086 himself in his original 5th Generation Course of Action statement.

The Leader

Philip7086

Philip7086 was chosen to be the leader of BW tiering at the start of the generation. He was a forum administrator and contributed to many areas, which is reflected in his variety of alumnus badges. He was a leading contributor to 5th Generation in-game research, which enabled analyses, articles, and ultimately the simulator to be accurate. He was the Battling 101 leader, a program that teaches new battlers the ropes, and led #stark, which was Smogon's first Pokémon-specific official IRC channel. Finally, he created the first Quality Control team in the Contributions & Corrections forum and ran his own column in The Smog. These various traits made him a perfect candidate for the job of tiering leader.

The Advisers

Aldaron

"Aldaron has proven time and time again that he is a top notch player in any metagame he ventures into. He is also very familiar with Pokémon policy and how it has been dealt with in the past, and is not afraid to disagree with anyone. He tends to look at things from a realistic viewpoint rather than an ideological one, which is very valuable to me. Though he can sometimes get pretty heated when debating, he does not resort to irrelevant personal flames. Aldaron is one of the first people I considered as a part of this team."

Earthworm

"Earthworm is arguably the best battler of the 4th generation, at least from a consistency perspective. Though he tends to be shy in public venues, I speak with him in private all the time about policy issues, be it about tournaments, ban lists, or clauses. Though he's shy, he is definitely not a pushover, and will stick to what he believes is right, even if it means disagreeing with me. His history as a Tournament Director also lends him a lot of experience dealing with controversial issues."

Gouki

"Another user who is considered one, if not the best battler of the 4th generation. Gouki has always proven to keep a level head and will call things like he sees them. The combination of his battling prowess and his unwavering sense of justice has made him one of the most widely respected user on Smogon."

Jibaku

"Jibaku is one of the most active 5th gen players, experimenting with all sorts of Pokémon and strategies. Although he is not currently a Tiering Contributor, his fresh perspective will prove to be invaluable to our efforts. I have gotten into debates with Jibaku in the past, and he is one of the few users who has been able to bring a fresh idea to the table which makes me think about things differently. I like that."

reachzero

"reachzero was one of the leaders of the UU suspect tests in the 4th generation. He is very experienced when it comes to Pokémon policy and decision making, and always maintains a calm and collected presence. reachzero and I discuss Pokémon policy on a fairly regular basis, and whether we agree or not, we always see each other's stance at the end of the day and respect each other for it. I'm glad to have him on board."