(mind if I piggy back a little bit? often folk don't even read non op posts when they're going to post but whatever I'll ask anyways,)
I've been meaning to make a thread about encyclopedic knowledge for a while, I was talking to a friend about d&d some time ago and was surprised to learn he was quite into it (he had done camp for a couple of years, then was a counselor at that camp after he was too old for it, he's pretty legit at it), and I found the breadth of information he had about the game kind of staggering. Hundreds of different types of monsters, weapons, stats and rules, about as much information is necessary to be a rather competent dm. Back a couple years ago said friend and other mutual folk got into paintball, and listening to them talk about it is impressive, all the guns, parts, brands that they just throw off the cuff is something to behold.
This put me in mind of the information that all of us here at smogon have about pokemon. Although it's not true for gen V/VI (don't even have a 3ds lol) for me, at one point the amount of sets and spreads I knew about pokemon was stupid, about as stupid as any other member of this site who used "battle simulator" frequently. Over a hundred pokemon (most of ou and uu, some uber) two or three sets per, different ev layouts, etc. You can be battling, and without seeing any moves know what set a pokemon will have just based on the rest of his team. For one second, just think about all the sets you know for salamence. It's absurd, you could make him six different ways, just off the top of your head without having to google shit. It's kind of unbelievable eh? All these things that everybody here knows so intimately that any schmo on the street will never learn in his life.
So the thread was just going to be "what do you have encyclopedic knowledge of that's not pokemon?" I guess my thread en potentia and your thread would have a square-rectangle relationship (all the persons who're the best in the world at something are going to have extensive knowledge about it, the reverse isn't necessarily true)(although that's not true for your example but whatever), so for all those who aren't the best in the world but do know a lot of shit about something, pray tell!
