Hello, all!
With our first set of usage stats coming out tomorrow, I wanted to give everyone an idea of how we plan to implement lower tiers this generation.
First, a major change: after much discussion, Smogon is adjusting its usage threshold for Generation 8 to 4.52%, using unweighted months. In addition (and as was previously discussed in Policy Review), we are fully removing quickrises.
Why are we changing this? Well, last generation there were serious concerns with how disruptive tier shifts could be to lower tiers. While drops could always be handled via bans, rises could completely destabilize a tier, causing major impact... impact that then needed to be reset in a few months when the risen element fell again. Even a single popular sample team could end up causing major ripples in the tiers below due to nothing more than a passing trend. This was especially true if it occurred during the months weighted more heavily. While rises are always going to be a part of any usage-based tiering process, we wanted a solution that made them a bit less frequent.
So what does it mean to increase the tiering threshold? Well, the end result will be smaller tiers overall, where rises are less frequent but drops are more common. And ideally by going with an unweighted metric for tier shifts, eliminating quickrises and keeping quickdrops fairly low, we would also favor shifts based on consistent usage over a sustained period of time, rather than spikes in usage during certain periods. Also, a happy side effect of smaller tiers is that it allows lower tiers to be more practical despite the reduced Dex size.
In addition, I'd like to announce our planned schedule for how we will implement lower tiers this generation. Following one month of usage stats from the tier above, a lower tier will enter into its alpha period. Alpha will represent a lower tier's "open" period, with no bans or suspects. It will remain in alpha for one month, after which it will automatically enter its beta period. During beta, tier leadership and councils will work to rapidly get the tier into shape, generally involving council votes for quick bans. Once the tier settles, it will exit beta, and future suspects will generally be by public tests except in cases where rapid action is needed.
This means we will be looking at the following schedule for the formation of lower tiers:
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or to your tier leadership.
With our first set of usage stats coming out tomorrow, I wanted to give everyone an idea of how we plan to implement lower tiers this generation.
First, a major change: after much discussion, Smogon is adjusting its usage threshold for Generation 8 to 4.52%, using unweighted months. In addition (and as was previously discussed in Policy Review), we are fully removing quickrises.
A lot of numbers and terms get bandied about when we talk about tiering: 3.41%, 4.52%, quickdrops, quickrises, etc. But ultimately, our usage-based tiering has been based for more than a decade on one simple proposition: a Pokemon is considered Overused if it has at least a 50% chance to appear in 20 randomly selected games.
In practice, this has meant that anything with a usage of 3.41% or above over the course of a tier shift period has been considered OU, while all those below that usage fall to UU. There's more to it than just that, including weighted months, quickdrops, quickrises, etc., but ultimately it has all been based around that core assumption.
When we were looking at refining our tiering thresholds, we decided that we would still work off of that same basic concept: a Pokemon would be considered OU if it had a 50% chance to appear in T games. We looked at different ways we could adjust that T value to better reflect our modern tiering processes. What we settled on was T=15, which results in a 4.52% usage threshold.
In practice, this has meant that anything with a usage of 3.41% or above over the course of a tier shift period has been considered OU, while all those below that usage fall to UU. There's more to it than just that, including weighted months, quickdrops, quickrises, etc., but ultimately it has all been based around that core assumption.
When we were looking at refining our tiering thresholds, we decided that we would still work off of that same basic concept: a Pokemon would be considered OU if it had a 50% chance to appear in T games. We looked at different ways we could adjust that T value to better reflect our modern tiering processes. What we settled on was T=15, which results in a 4.52% usage threshold.
Why are we changing this? Well, last generation there were serious concerns with how disruptive tier shifts could be to lower tiers. While drops could always be handled via bans, rises could completely destabilize a tier, causing major impact... impact that then needed to be reset in a few months when the risen element fell again. Even a single popular sample team could end up causing major ripples in the tiers below due to nothing more than a passing trend. This was especially true if it occurred during the months weighted more heavily. While rises are always going to be a part of any usage-based tiering process, we wanted a solution that made them a bit less frequent.
So what does it mean to increase the tiering threshold? Well, the end result will be smaller tiers overall, where rises are less frequent but drops are more common. And ideally by going with an unweighted metric for tier shifts, eliminating quickrises and keeping quickdrops fairly low, we would also favor shifts based on consistent usage over a sustained period of time, rather than spikes in usage during certain periods. Also, a happy side effect of smaller tiers is that it allows lower tiers to be more practical despite the reduced Dex size.
In addition, I'd like to announce our planned schedule for how we will implement lower tiers this generation. Following one month of usage stats from the tier above, a lower tier will enter into its alpha period. Alpha will represent a lower tier's "open" period, with no bans or suspects. It will remain in alpha for one month, after which it will automatically enter its beta period. During beta, tier leadership and councils will work to rapidly get the tier into shape, generally involving council votes for quick bans. Once the tier settles, it will exit beta, and future suspects will generally be by public tests except in cases where rapid action is needed.
This means we will be looking at the following schedule for the formation of lower tiers:
- December 1, 2019: UU Alpha is released
- January 1, 2020: UU exits Alpha. RU Alpha is released.
- February 1, 2020: RU exits Alpha. NU Alpha is released.
- March 1, 2020: NU exits Alpha. PU Alpha is released.
- April 1, 2020: PU exits Alpha.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or to your tier leadership.
