Smogonite Pollution, or The Top 3 Reasons Smogon Is Hurting Pokemon

For those of you who don't already know, let me clue you in on a little internet community called Smogon University.  Smogon is a website and forum dedicated to competitive Pokemon.  Playing Pokemon on the highest level while trying to maintain as fair a balance as possible in an environment as competitive as possible.

Smogon provides in-depth and comprehensive strategies, movesets, and EV spreads for almost every pokemon.  They also have created a few rules, or clauses to promote a competitive environment, as well as determining a list of tiers, or relative power potentials for pokemon.
This might sound good in print, and if you read their mission statement you might find yourself growing quite fond of Smogon and what it has to offer.  However, under the surface of this community you will discover a dark undercurrent of elitism, snobbery, and outright bias that is damaging not only its own community, but competitive Pokemon playing in its own right.

1. Circular Reasoning Destroys Variety

It all makes sense now.

Smogon attempts to categorize all Pokemon based on their percieved potential power.  This is typically a combination of looking at the base stats of the pokemon, the type combination, the abilities, and the available moves the pokemon has access to.  This seems reasonable and simple enough.  However, Pokemon is not like most games in that it is not immediately apparent what is strongest, or what is going to work the best.  The sheer number of Pokemon and possible combinations of moves and teams and many other factors means that it is extremely difficult to accurately say that one pokemon is "better" or "worse" than another or "the best" because of the myriad different roles and interactions between the pokemon.

Smogon attempts to alleviate this problem by taking a completely different approach, and base the relative power groupings of each Pokemon based on usage.  The idea is to make it into a democratic system where the players are "placing votes" on which Pokemon are superior by placing them in their competitive teams or not.  This makes sense at first.  A generally terrible Pokemon is not likely to find itself on many teams, and so its ranking will naturally drop.  The same is likewise true of a superior Pokemon finding itself in more and more teams.
While this seems reasonable at first, the crucial flaw with this system is that many people aren't aware of or forget just how much of a dramatic influence Smogon has on competitive Pokemon.  Indeed, its powerful influence that they would brush off as coincidence. But let's look further.


By agreeing with Smogon's rules and viewpoint, and then subjecting yourself to them, you are entering into their 'meta-game' or, their own circle of players.  It's simply the group of players in a given area or capacity, and the gaming environment that emerges from these players actions.  You are now in their realm.  All of the teams that you see, all of the Pokémon that you encounter, and most of the decisions that will be made by the other players will be in some way influenced by the community and its beliefs.  The flaw here is that they are trying to maintain some image of objectivity in their efforts while simultaneously creating a completely subjective playing field relative to Pokemon as a whole. 


Since Smogon is the premier location of competitive battling on the Internet, the only resources that a new player will find with regard to battling are either outdated FAQ's which contain little to no actual strategy or recommendations, Smogon itself, or various scattered forum posts, many of which will be infiltrated by Smogon strategy or ideology.  Now, remember when we said that the system in which powerful Pokemon are ranked, the tier system, is based on usage?  What this means is that the vast majority of people coming to battle competitively will be quickly exposed to this list, and not knowing any other alternative capacity to battle with, will adopt these rankings into the creation of their teams.


These players will use these highly ranked Pokemon in their teams, and in doing so bump up the Pokemon rankings that Smogon bases the tiers off of.  Then new players will reference this list while constructing their teams and the cycle continues indefinitely.  It essentially boils down to a popularity contest, as the most popular Pokemon are the most used, and the most used are touted as the best bet to players looking to play competitively.  The strategies unhealthily revolve around these popular Pokemon, while the others are left in the dark.  Could you imagine a competitive Street Fighter tier list based on popularity, and not actual excellence?  Ryu would be considered top tier even though many other characters can easily mow him down.

Ken, being fierce.

 The problem with this is that popularity is never a good or precise indicator of how good something is, especially when the environment it is in is subjective.  If a Pokemon is considered really good, and its usage rises as its tier level rises, then there is going to have to be some way for people to stop it.  So people will start using a Pokemon or strategy to counter it.  This makes sense, but if the Pokemon whose popularity was boosted isn't actually all that good, and the hype makes it's tier level increase, then it will indirectly and artificially boost the usage stats of the counters.  Take Justin Bieber's popularity.  He sucks at singing, and doing pretty much anything.  But his popularity was artificially boosted by record executives.  People looked at what was popular, got into it, and increased it's popularity.  Then proportionally, Bieber-haters emerged who hate him.  Their hate increased as his popularity increased.  But do you think we would see so much anti-Bieber hate if he never became famous?  Of course not.  And this exact same situation is playing out in the Smogon meta-game. 


This effect is doubled when you consider that these changes only occur in the Smogon meta-game itself.  Outside it, where you have people just playing the game normally, using what they want, or a local hobby store holding Pokemon tournaments, or even Nintendo's sponsored tournaments using completely different rules, the Smogon tailored Pokemon are out of their element.  When Fire-type Pokemon Infernus jumps into the Smogon metagame and destroys, Smogonites will devise an Infernus counter.  It will be mandatory on all teams because everyone is using an Infernus because he is so good. (Or because I looked on Smogon's tier list and saw that he was top tier).  Soon every team will have a decked out Infernus and a pimped out Infernus counter (Let's call it 'Dowser').  However, since this popularity contest isn't happening outside of the Smogon metagame, people won't be using Infernus nearly as much, and Dowser will be much more useless.  Dowser was only top tier because he was a boss at stopping Infernus.  And Infernus was only top tier because a lot of people used him.


This is where the circular logic really gets its momentum in Smogon.  Eventually all Pokemon interaction and strategy are based on these dynamics of usage-based popularity or countering highly used Pokemon.  It all exists in a bubble, and the antics often look like the rainbow tinted oozing of an actual bubble to people outside it.  Eventually this bubble, like all bubbles, will pop.  Smogonites are playing their own game.  It's not Pokemon, it just uses the statistics, moves, and type matching of a game called Pokémon.


2. Arbitrary Rules Destroy Strategy

Legally, I just can't let you get away with beating me.

Another 'highlight' Smogon brings to the table to competitive Pokemon is the addition of clauses.  A clause is a rule that both player agree to before hand.  If the clause is broken, typically the offending player will be disqualified, or in some cases be forced to make an unfavorable move in response to breaking the clause.  Clauses are good for the game, if created and used logically, and for good reason.  Nintendo's own offical ruleset for battles contains some clauses, among them Species Clause (ie. you can only have 1 each of a particular Pokemon specie in each team.  So you can't have 2 Charizards, but you can have a Charizard and a Charmeleon).

One unique to Smogon, but practiced almost universally is the Sleep Clause.  It dictates that only 1 given Pokemon can be put to sleep on the opponent's team at a time (excluding Rest).  This makes the game much more fair for all players because you must put a lot of thought into what Pokemon you are going to disable, and it prevents the game from devolving into a mess of Lum berries, Sleep Talkers, and Insomniacs.  It opens up strategies for players while keeping an extremely powerful ability in check.


A term that Smogoners seem to have an infatuation with is 'over-centralizing'.  What over-centralizing means is that something (a Pokemon, move, item, ability, combination, strategy) is too powerful and is diverting too many competitive resources into dealing with and/or circumventing the over-centralizing element.  For a quick example, take Sleep above.  Sleep is very powerful, and if left unchecked will completely change the game into seeing who can sleep the other player first or who can strategize to bypass sleep and still prevail.

Enter 'Stealth Rock'.


Stealth Rock is a move that scatters floating rocks onto the playing field.  When a Pokemon is switched in, it will take unavoidable Rock-type damage automatically.  This damage is affected by typing, including weaknesses and resistances  It may not seem like much.  Nice, but nothing game-changing, right?

Wrong.

   Stealth Rock does 12.5% damage to the Pokemon's total health at neutral.  It does 25% of total HP to a Pokemon with one weakness to Rock-type, and a staggering 50% HP loss to Pokemon unfortunate enough to have two weaknesses to the Rock-type.  What this means is that when unchecked, Stealth Rock causes a large number of Pokemon to come into battle a quarter or half dead.  This simple move, only taking one turn to set up, single-handedly shuts down a sizable portion of viable Pokemon.  Their tier rankings suffer considerably, and they are seldom seen not because of their stats, but because of their typing.

Is this move banned by Smogon?  No.  No it is not.  While there are a few counters to Stealth Rock short of not running Flying, Fire, Bug and Ice Pokemon, they all rely on forcing your Pokemon to be the team lead, or dedicating a separate Pokemon with the move Rapid Spin to get rid of the rocks.  If you do not, then you are forced to use these Pokemon at an extreme disadvantage, or not use them in the first place.  It has gotten so bad that having a Stealth Rock user is almost required in every team, and if not, at least an answer to it.  It's not considered just a strategy, but the strategy and a cornerstone of the Smogon meta-game.  Banning it would result in a surge of new Pokemon being seen in all levels of play, resulting in more diverse teams, type combinations, and movesets.

Just the facts:

16%

Only 16% of the 348 species of fully evolved Pokémon are considered to be competitively viable.  56 out of 348. 

Typing is a common reason for a Pokemon being put into a lower tier.  If a type is seen as having too much vulnerability to common attacking types, the Pokemon will be seen as weaker or less useful.  This is because of the modular design of Smogon Pokemon.  A Pokemon in Smogon is built from the ground up to have one very generalized role: either all out attack ie. doing the most damage possible, being the best at taking up damage and crippling the enemy's damage dealers, or other support effects.  They are designed such that they cover a very general use and can be put into pretty much any team, ignoring any specific compatibility or niche usage that other Pokemon can bring.  If a Pokemon has stats that fit perfectly into Smogon's image of the perfect tank, having good HP, Defense, Special Defense, solid attack, a nice movepool, decent typing and decent offense, then this Pokemon will be outfitted generically to fit into any team as a tank, and will appear in almost every team in this role.

This is ignoring the fact that other Pokemon exist whose specific stat distribution, typing, ability and movepool can be utilized to create an ideal highly specialized team member to a teams very specific needs.  A true team is one that is carefully crafted in every capacity to complement every other member of the team to bring out the absolute best in all of them.  To cover weaknesses, to address counters, to do everything together as one unit.  This requires being intimately familiar with EV spreads, to the point where you are calculating the exact damage you expect to receive and stacking your EV's accordingly.  This means training Pokemon that would otherwise be considered 'poor' or bad choices when separated from their team, but in the right team that capitalizes on their strengths while downplaying their weaknesses in the team.

Smogon on the other hand has different ideas.  They want just one generic role filled.  Once a Pokemon has maxed out that cookie cutter mold, all other Pokemon vying for a similar role will be stacked against it.  If the stats are less, or the typing isn't considered optimal, the Pokemon is tossed aside like trash.

3. They HATE Chance

ABSOLUTELY NOT, KIDDO

Pokemon was never a game to not include an element of chance.  From the most basic critical hits, to deciding if a status will cripple a Pokemon on a given turn, randomness has always been an import of the game.  It gives some uncertainty and a sense of excitement when it is used.  It is not something that can be used reliably, but if used there is always a chance that it will put you, or your opponent, ahead.

As interesting and influential a role chance plays in Pokemon, there are some out there that absolutely loath it.  The very idea that someone out there could be using a move, item, or ability that relies on chance and are KOing Pokemon on occasion with them really makes their blood boil.  The idea that someone facing against them in a battle can use a move that has a 30% chance of even hitting KOing their EV trained and IV bred perfect specimen of a Pokemon just makes them want to hurl with rage.

And so they make bans.  They ban things like One Hit KO moves, such as Fissure, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, etc.  If you remember above, banning something is usually very serious.  It means that the thing being banned is extremely powerful and just too good.  So what do these fantastic moves do?  Simple.  At the cost of 30% accuracy (which of course means that these moves will do absolutely nothing 70% of the time), these moves will cause an instant knock out of the opposing Pokemon.  Ignoring defense, type, HP.  Everything.  That doesn't sound overpowered to anyone but hardcore Smogonites and those influenced by them.  Let's take a look at why banning these moves is ridiculous.

First of all, competitive Pokemon is a pretty fast paced game in itself.  Pokemon are trained to be able to deal massive amounts of damage.  Typically, if the defending Pokemon is not built to withstand hits, or has no specific defensive typing advantage, it will be KO'd by any standard and properly trained attack-oriented Pokemon within 1-3 hits.  One hit KO's from standard moves are commonly seen.  So if a person is using a fully trained damage dealing Pokemon KO's a Pokemon in one hit, nothing much is said.  But if a player uses a OHKO move and faints a Pokemon, they are seen as being cheap, a scrub, possibly cheating.  All around, they are looked down upon?  But why?  How is that they did any different?  Because the move was designed to rely on luck?  If this person consistently uses this move, than statistically they will average 3 KO's out of 10 total attacks.  This means that they are likely to miss 2-3 times when trying to use this move against someone giving the person using standard attacks plenty of time to deal with this threat.

It all evens out to be the same.  There is no difference between one person whittling down a Pokemon's HP over 3 turns to someone who uses a OHKO move and misses 2 times before landing it on the 3rd.  And in a tournament setting, using OHKO moves over and over again will statistically result in the person losing most of their matches.  Because while they will occasionally get lucky and land a KO on the first use of the move, subsequent uses will reveal the inconsistency of the move and allow competitors to destroy this person.  So why care if someone is using shitty moves?

The answer is that it damages the pride of a Smogon user when a person KO's their precious Pokemon, which they spent hundreds of hours breeding and training (or 12 seconds creating in a simulator).  They just cannot psychologically handle someone whom they consider lesser than themselves, be it because of their experience with competitive Pokemon, sharing or not sharing the Smogonites hivemind viewpoints on competitive battling, or not putting as much time and effort into Pokemon defeating them.  It is unthinkable to allow this to even have the tiny percentage to happen.  How sad is this?  Truly it is a depressing state of affairs.

So instead of letting newbies try these moves, occasionally get lucky, and lose the tournament over all, these moves are banned.  Because letting a scrub land a lucky KO on a pro's Pokemon is utterly unthinkable.

Then there is the issue of banning evasion boosting moves.  There is a stat in Pokemon called evasion.  Basically, after the attacking Pokemon's move is calculated to hit or not based on it's accuracy and other factors like held items or abilities, a second calculation takes place involving evasion.  Normally it is neutral, so a move with 80% accuracy should hit 80% of the time.  But if a move like Sand Attack is used, the evasion is reduced, causing the accuracy to reduce below 80%.

This usually isn't a big deal, because moves like this allow you to simply switch out and regain full accuracy.   However, there are two moves that do not reduce your opponent's accuracy levels, but rather, increase your own.  Minimize and Double team are these moves.  When used, the Pokemon's evasion stat is raised, which in turn lowers the opposing Pokemon's accuracy.  The true power of this is that it doesn't give the other player any control of their accuracy.  Switching out doesn't solve the problem, and if you do switch out, you are giving the opponent another chance to Double Team or Minimize again.  This drastically increases their survivability and decreases yours.  If you can't hit the opposing Pokemon, you can't KO it, and the more turns you spend attacking it, the more chances you have of being attacked.

So on the surface, you can see how this could be an extremely powerful strategy, and how it might be considered good enough to be banned.  However, unlike Sleep status, you don't have to rely on items or 1-2 moves to combat Evasion.  There are a plethora of moves of many types that allow you to hit a target no matter what, evasion be damned.  Swift is one, Ariel Ace is another.  This is one way to counter evasion.  Another is abilities.  No Guard allows the enemy to be unable to avoid hits.  There is a move called Lock On which makes your next move hit 100% of the time.  Then there are moves like Hone Claws and Coil, which also boost accuracy.  There are held items that boost accuracy.  And there are moves like Haze which nullify all stat changes.  Finally if you can force the Pokemon out of the ring with moves like Roar, you can eliminate any evasion used.  So there are a ton of overlooked strategies for dealing with a Double Teamer.  Also  the fact that only these two moves can raise evasion, and are limited to a specific number of Pokemon also makes dealing with this strategy manageable.

So why is it banned?  Again, it is because of Smogon Pride.  A Smogonite can never allow a 'lesser' to best them in even one battle.  And if that means banning an entire strategy tree, then so be it.

These are a few of the most important ways that Smogon University, and communities that rely on it, are killing the competitive Pokemon community.