Welcome to the PU Room!
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Art by anundeadboy.
Introduction
Despite what they might say on YouTube, PU does not stand for anything! It is an English play-on-words joke: "Pee-yew these 'mons stink!" PU is the lowest official tier below NU, housing all of the Pokemon that don’t receive enough usage in higher tiers. PU started as a very small community on IRC in 2014 that had no ladder, but with some time for the community to grow, it eventually became a public room in late 2014 on Pokemon Showdown!. PU’s playerbase saw a spike in its growth around early XY and gradually started to break away from Other Metagames, which it used to be part of. Due to its insane popularity, PU eventually became an official Smogon tier in October of 2015, bringing in a massive wave of users. Similarly, the early days of Sun & Moon brought forth an influx of users who were eager to learn the tier. The most recent boom stems from winning PSPL in July of 2018, as PU was advertised in the news section of PS! and was put at the top of the chat room list. PU now stands as one of the most active metagame-based chat rooms on PS! Seeing the community grow over time has made PU very passionate about being inclusive and welcoming to newer users, which is one of the reasons why the community is so tight today.
What happens in the room?
The PU room is where the majority of metagame discussion happens, and it's a great place for newer and even more experienced users to discuss the metagame, seek feedback on teambuilding, and ask for battles. Discussion points in the PU room range from common sets on Pokemon to underrated threats in the metagame, a Pokemon’s rank on the Viability Rankings, tournament games, and subforum projects. Our goal is to help newer users ease into the tier, as starting off in a new tier can be very daunting without any guidance. Thus, we encourage newer users to look at the Room Intro, which contains a quick link to many useful resources like the Viability Rankings, Sample Teams, the Discord server, and current events. In addition to the discussion that goes on in the room, there are many room events. While not scheduled, the most common event that users can partake in are room tournaments, which are usually started upon request or at random when the room is less active. The room also occasionally hosts teambuilding workshops, where users can work together with other members of the community on teams. Hangman games are also started sporadically to test your knowledge of the tier. We have a great team of room auth who will try to answer any questions you may have!
How do I contribute?
Being helpful and being a good chat presence are great ways of contributing, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. Here is what we would recommend to becoming a good contributor to PU! You might even earn room voice (+) if you contribute well! Being active and a good presence is the best way to be part of the community. Being a good chat presence means that you are actively driving metagame discussion, helping newer users, and being positive. Having good metagame knowledge is also key when helping out, as without it, you might be mislead users. Maturity is a very important part of helping out. You could have all the meta knowledge in the world, but if you are constantly bashing newer users for not knowing something, going off topic, and arguing with room auth, you won't be helping much at all. Keep in mind that we want the room to be a welcoming place for anyone to learn and discuss the PU tier.
Discord
While the majority of metagame discussion occurs in the PU room on PS!, PU’s Discord server has become a very popular place to do just that as well! The Hub is a channel that features all of the news around PU! #offtopic is self explanatory; it’s where all of the non-PU discussion happens. #sm_pu is where all of the current metagame discussion happens! Similar to the room, this is a great place to get advice on teambuilding and meta knowledge, or anything else related to USM PU. #oldgens_pu is very similar to #sm_pu, but it’s about all the old gens PU has to offer! It’s a great place to learn and to discuss the PU old gens. #musicbotsgames is the final public channel, and features bot commands.
Meet the Room Owners!
Yo, I’m 2xTheTap. I started my Pokemon adventure at the tender age of 12, and two decades later, I've aged about as well as the original Game Boy graphics. PU is my home tier because it holds the Pokemon to which I relate most closely: smelly weirdos, unwelcome in most venues, but uniquely charming if you put in the right effort. The PU room has been the most welcoming atmosphere I've been able to find across all the simulators I've used over the years, Shoddy Battle, Pokemon Online, etc., and my primary goal as Room Owner has simply been to keep that going while engaging skilled players in quality conversations geared towards learning our metagame. I've been RO since 2015, and since then, I've had the pleasure of adding quality room staff like Specs Jigglypuff, Slowbroth, and many others to our ranks. When I’m not blocking Route 12, you can usually find me rating room regs' teams or testing my own on the ladder or in friendlies with other PU council like Akir or LordST.
Hi I'm Akir and I'm a PU Room Owner. My job mainly consists of fixing and improving the infrastructure of the room, managing promotions and promotion policy, and creating events for the room. My main focus for the room has always been and always will be community. I always do things like pick the auth based on integrity and helpfulness, but I also do small things like always saying "gratz!" to somebody after a tournament win. I also always start tournaments if you ask nicely!
Hey, I'm Megazard. I started frequenting the PU room very early after discovering Pokemon Showdown and just never really bothered to stop. It's a really nice community that lets you feel the more laid-back but still competitive nature a tier like PU can have. Rising to Room Owner and tier leader was almost an accident, just a byproduct of wanting to stick around the room, the Discord, and wherever else people get to socializing around PU. I always am working towards our community staying as inclusive and easy to get into as ever even as PU continues to grow in size and recognition within Smogon.
Hi, I'm Slowbroth, one of the Room Owners of the PU room. I began my time on Showdown about three or four years ago but didn't find a community to settle in yet at the time, jumping from NU to UU to LC. Eventually, I found myself in PU around mid- to late-ORAS and got really involved around the time when Machoke became a big issue in the metagame and DynamicPunch was a hot topic of debate. Anyways, I stuck around, became active, and really got to know and love the community here; PU exhibits a sort of "underdog" vibe for some reason in my opinion, and I really identify with that. It's also a place teeming with creativity as well as respectable and innovative players.
Hi I'm Taskr, I started playing PU midway through 2015 after getting reqs for an old suspect test. After that I became a lot more active in the PU room and went on to play in a couple of PU tournaments on the forums, even somehow managing to win one called PU First Blood. It was during this time I became friends with a couple of guys in the PU room such as ShuckleDeath, Akir and PokemonmasterTJ. It took me about a year and a half to finally get voiced, and I remember feeling super happy I was finally getting noticed lol. I worked my way up the ranks and became a roomowner in November last year which came with the privilege of being tier leader.
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