Hi all.
I'll specifically talk about usage stats which are used between to say what is OU or what isn't (and so change what is available in lower tiers), and not about all the numerous other things which are concerned too by tiering policy (like how many tiers, which cutoff, what is seen as desirable, why ban/not etc)
So I start :
Why ?
It's the obvious question, why change something ?
Actually, tier use stats from main showdown server, just looking at them in the last 3 months, weighting them in a way the last count the most. It seems pretty ok, till we realize what these stats are. Showdown is today a popular pokemon battle simulator, appealing numerous casual players who want to fight other players for fun. We have also some players who would like to play more competitively but are at the moment pretty unskilled. These stats suffers thus in competitive side.
Now, look with me on that quote Smogon's on-site presentation :
And Smogon have stats which set official tiers who are very poor. It's oustanding, isn't it ?
"But it won't change the tiers a lot" may you ask ?
Oh, you know, it depends of how much you change. We would have for sure, with a tiering based on a more competitive battling, some changes like Tornadus in OU or Metagross in UU. More importantly, having a better tiering policy means that the community would be able to have more trust in their quality and that the influx of casual players won't be able to influence significantly the result.
Also, another thing important, outside of what go in UU, is that what is OU influence what people play in OU. It may seems tautological, but it has a real weight, since people (especially new) will easier pick something which is OU for an OU team. A bad tiering policy means a worst tier that what we could have, which leads to a vicious circle, helping to maintain inconsistent usage.
How ?
I see two main way for a possible change : -a cutoff (if your [rating/probability having more than a given rating] is over a certain value, then you count fully, otherwise you do not count at all)
-a weighting, as we can have in so-called 1850 stats (you count with the probability of having a better real rating than a given rating)
I would myself prefer a cutoff, to not count at all "for fun" players while counting people with a decent level, but it's just mine opinion.
The more important is still to know if the community and smogon's autorithies agree to change.
What is your opinion and why ?
*I disagree with that choice but I'm just an user
I'll specifically talk about usage stats which are used between to say what is OU or what isn't (and so change what is available in lower tiers), and not about all the numerous other things which are concerned too by tiering policy (like how many tiers, which cutoff, what is seen as desirable, why ban/not etc)
So I start :
Why ?
It's the obvious question, why change something ?
Actually, tier use stats from main showdown server, just looking at them in the last 3 months, weighting them in a way the last count the most. It seems pretty ok, till we realize what these stats are. Showdown is today a popular pokemon battle simulator, appealing numerous casual players who want to fight other players for fun. We have also some players who would like to play more competitively but are at the moment pretty unskilled. These stats suffers thus in competitive side.
Now, look with me on that quote Smogon's on-site presentation :
Smogon defines itself as a community who want promote competitive battling. Here, on the forum, we can see the threads who want a certain quality of discussion. Stats threads were even closed because commenting on which mon is too/not enough used/why seemed poor.*We are now widely acknowledged on the web as being the authority in the competitive Pokémon arena.
And Smogon have stats which set official tiers who are very poor. It's oustanding, isn't it ?
"But it won't change the tiers a lot" may you ask ?
Oh, you know, it depends of how much you change. We would have for sure, with a tiering based on a more competitive battling, some changes like Tornadus in OU or Metagross in UU. More importantly, having a better tiering policy means that the community would be able to have more trust in their quality and that the influx of casual players won't be able to influence significantly the result.
Also, another thing important, outside of what go in UU, is that what is OU influence what people play in OU. It may seems tautological, but it has a real weight, since people (especially new) will easier pick something which is OU for an OU team. A bad tiering policy means a worst tier that what we could have, which leads to a vicious circle, helping to maintain inconsistent usage.
How ?
I see two main way for a possible change : -a cutoff (if your [rating/probability having more than a given rating] is over a certain value, then you count fully, otherwise you do not count at all)
-a weighting, as we can have in so-called 1850 stats (you count with the probability of having a better real rating than a given rating)
I would myself prefer a cutoff, to not count at all "for fun" players while counting people with a decent level, but it's just mine opinion.
The more important is still to know if the community and smogon's autorithies agree to change.
What is your opinion and why ?
*I disagree with that choice but I'm just an user