Banning sandstorm teams? Why?
Let's be honest, when we all first entered the little cup meta-game, we all went in wanting to use sets such as dragon dance Charmander to funk around on our teams.
But in my personal opinion sandstorm teams prevent that element of ambiguous innocence and freedom over set choice.
Really, all sandstorm teams are, is the result of a metagame that is overlooked and ignored. If this kind of unbalance was abused in OU, it would be stopped so damn fast.
I mean let's face it, not much can stop Drilbur.
For example: Bronzor, seemingly every-bodies favorite justification for sandstorm teams being legal. But does Bronzor really wall Drilbur?
The generic scenario for Drilbur vs Bronzor would be Drilbur switching in often against a pokémon that doesn't stand a chance (i.e Scraggy), giving Drilbur the opportunity to swords dance freely.
In this scenario, Drilbur has a 98.78% chance to 3HKO Bronzor. (at full hp; guaranteed after stealth rocks.)
But the worst thing that Bronzor (generically) can actually do to Drilbur is go for the 0.02% chance of 3HKOing, of which will not happen because Drilbur will hit first on the third turn, only allowing Bronzor to get 2 hits in. Besides that Bronzor can merely toxic Drilbur.
But there is one counter to Drilbur I will openly accept;
Snover
Snover cripples Drilbur and (the rest of sandstorm abusers) by replacing sandstorm with hail and further more OHKOs any (regardless of special defense invest) Drilbur with Blizzard.
But when you only really need to counter one Pokémon, stopping snover isn't a tough job.
-Snover is often incredibly frail and requires a choice scarf to actually have some use (sub seed is nonsense in my opinion).
-It's ice typing means that it is worn down quickly by stealth rocks (whilst sandstorm team ground types take absolute pittance)
-Pokémon resisting it's stab moves are plentiful and are clear counters that can easily wear down or kill Snover. For example Pawniard takes next to nothing from stealth rocks or Snover's blizzard and can pursuit upon Snover switching out, combined with the stealth rock damage, Snover wouldn't be able to play a huge part in the game after an encounter such as this.
I've played little cup a long time now and the sheer designation that some sandstorm team users have been able to afford to use to stop Snover has been remarkable. I have had Snover OHKO'd numerously by a hidden power fire from Lilleep (which can survive a Blizzard from Snover, although Snover is meant to be a counter for Lilleep.)
Even that goofy hippo, Hippopotas has OHKO'd by hitting it with a HP fire on a switch in.
Besides, should every single team be forced to use Snover or sand?
So really, what I think is best for the entire LC metagame and it's players is resorting one of two solutions;
1) Ban sandstorm teams.
2) Create tiers within little cup.
I am completely aware that these solutions are very unlikely to be implicated, but I felt the need to rant.
Bye. Thanks for reading my thoughts and stuff and please let me know if I'm wrong.
(I may edit this further if I think of more interesting stuff or whatever)