Imperial

Monotype is cool, but the time is the same as the Champions League final. Also are we allowed to change teams during each round?

Hire a person specialised in Public Relations so that we can have clearer communication between the community and devs about features in the game. One minute they appear out of nowhere, then suddenly they disappear for months.

At the moment there's no other solution considering that nerfs don't happen in lower tiers. Shaymin is clearly a problem in UU and if it's not good enough to be in OU because of better tools like Serperior, so be it and it'll suffer the same fate as Porygon-Z, Dugtrio and Haxorus who are stuck in BL1. Regarding your second point, that's not necessarily true although maybe not for Shaymin. Once Serperior's HA was introduced and it was clear that there were hardly tools to handle it since there were barely any HAs added, the devs immediately introduced Crobat and Chandelure's infiltrator alongside Assault Gear.

It's been mentioned several times but I'll include it here - the devs don't implement nerfs unless the Pokemon is too strong for OU since we don't have an Ubers category in the game. That's why there's been discussions about Gallade in OU since sharpness is too strong for the lower tiers. So personally the most logical sense would be to temporarily ban it to BL1, wait until more HAs and potentially legendaries are introduced and then TC can re-evaluate Shaymin and drop it back into UU when it's appropriate to do so.

I thought I'd contribute to this discussion, hopefully, it will be helpful. First off, I'll list all of the sets I've seen being used: Seed Flare, Recover/Synthesis, Hidden Power Fire/Ice, Psychic/Earth Power (life orb) Seed Flare, Hidden Power Fire/Ice, Psychic, Earth Power (choice specs) Seed Flare, Recover/Synthesis, Sleep Powder, Psychic/Earth Power (life orb/leppa berry) Leech Seed, Recover/Synthesis, Giga Drain, Protect/Toxic (rocky helmet) From what I've seen, it's clear that the biggest threat from Shaymin is its impressive base stats (as it's a legendary) + Seed Flare combination. Not to mention the fact that as I speak, the tier is dominated by water types (Poliwrath/Crawdaunt/Jellicent/Empoleon/Swampert/Gastrodon) to list a few making Shaymin an excellent Pokemon to use generally and the usage statistics justify this (there's probably more water types I've missed out but these are the most common. I know Empoleon is dual-typing so Seed Flare does neutral damage, but Shaymin pressures it enough that it can't afford to switch in safely, especially with the 40% chance for a special defence drop). Shaymin also has Natural Cure, meaning it can't be crippled by status conditions such as Toxic/Thunder Wave, it also can't be put to sleep due to its typing. All it has to do is switch out to a mon which perfectly synergies/supports it and Shaymin can switch back in to repressure the opposing team. Finally, it's great defensively and is perfect in stall teams, with the overall stats making it great offensively as well (e.g. Giga Drain). My personal opinion, the reason why Shaymin dropped to UU in the first place is that OU is currently dominated by several steel types which installs a lot of immediate pressure (e.g. Scizor/Skarmory) and the tier has Serperior which pressures these mons way better than Shaymin with its more aggressive Leaf Storm + Contrary + HP Fire combination(s). Now, with Shaymin in UU, I believe the main counters are only Dusclops (PP stalling with Pressure + Rest), Umbreon (PP stalling with Wish + Protect) and potentially special defensive Snorlax (PP stalling with Rest), although all three are completely vulnerable if the 40% special defence drop activates. You also have Durant and Rotom-H, but I personally don't think it's safe for these to switch in, and with Rotom-H it doesn't outspeed meaning a non-scarf Rotom would take 2 hits alongside risking a special defence drop. There's also Salamence, which speed ties with Shaymin, but you risk potentially switching into an HP-Ice which will pretty much KO it. Shaymins high base speed makes it amazing as it outspeeds most non-scarfers except for Durant, Mismagius (which can't really do much in return) and Crobat, meaning it can pressure a lot of the tier with its good special attack stat + seed flare and generally amazing movepool (although currently we almost have a 4ms). I looked at the official Smogon site to compare its viability and Shaymin currently sits in UU there, however, the main difference is that the Smogon meta has all of the Hidden Abilities and most importantly the legendaries implemented to counter/pressure it, which we currently don't have in this game. To summarise, I can see that Shaymin is pretty centralising in the tier right now and the usage statistics prove that. People have to teambuild around this alongside having to look for answers to potential special defence drops if activated by Seed Flare. I think until we have enough utilities in the game to support teams against Shaymin, it should be temporarily banned to BL1 under offensive characteristics although I stress that Shaymin is also great defensively.

This seems pretty cool, are you able to give us a general idea what to expect in the event as these will likely be very similar if they're going to be reoccurring each year? I assume the regular/golden anniversary chests will return, but curious about the concept (will the main principle be to battle gym leaders/e4 members every year to collect chests for prizes)? I also assume that there may be exclusive vanities each year, but was wondering if there'll be any other differences considering that the kanto alphas and particles were exclusive or whether implementing future HAs/legends will be delayed for these sort of events.

Details and prices on the following? Walrein, Smeargle, Golduck, Ninetales, Raticate, Hypno, Sawk (on dn), Dodrio, Haunter, Raichu, Hitmontop, Hitmonchan, Dusclops

I personally feel 128 player tournaments are fine and they don't need to expand it further. Here's a trick - set up your teambuild around 5-10 minutes before the Tournament is about to begin. Once there's 5-10 seconds before the sign-ups start keep an eye until you see the notification that sign-ups are open. From there you should have around 30 seconds which is enough time to enter. As long as you join the queue, if you're locked into your party instead of a battle box team you can customise your teambuild until the tournament officially starts. In practice, you have 15 minutes and whatever your team is locked into when the tournament starts is what you will use. TLDR - As long as you have 6 Pokemon ready when you join the queue you can edit the team for the 15 minutes until the tournament officially starts.

I don't understand what you exactly mean, but it's always advertised on the forums every month and there's an official Discord which is updated regularly. All the teams can register whenever they want but half of the new ones never show up when it's due to start so it's pointless to register in the first place...

Sooo since this isn't being answered can the mods lock this thread? Thanks.

Not necessarily the 'best', but thought I'd share some common cores which newer players can build around for each tier which includes some hazard setters and removers. Obviously there will be weaknesses but that's where the remaining slots will hopefully be utilised. NU - Piloswine/Steelix, Slowbro/Slowking, Golbat UU - Empoleon, Salamence, Shaymin /// Dusclops + Umbreon OU - Gliscor, Amoongus, Rotom-W, Chansey (you can also include Skarmory somewhere)

Fantastic services - affordable, efficient and also includes genderless mons etc.

The difference with Darmanitan and Staraptor is that they will likely use moves which will take heavy recoil damage (Flare Blitz and Brave Bird/Double Edge). Alongside this, Sheer Force increases damaging moves by 30% whilst Sharpess increases moves by 50%. You mentioned Crawdaunt, but this is harder to utilise with Amoongus being spammed a lot in the tier and the average speed makes it easier to play around (e.g. Rotom-W which can't safely switch in and outspeed Gallade) whereas with Crawdaunt if it really needed to can just recover HP with Pain Split as a banded Crawdaunt very likely won't want to risk being KO'd by a Volt Switch. As Rys mentioned, Gallade has fantastic type coverage (e.g. It doesn't suffer from rocks weakness like Darmanitan and Staraptor) and has moves which covers a lot of the walls in the current meta.

I've decided to list the most common physical attackers and play potential scenarios if these Pokemon were to face Vaporeon 1v1: Physical attackers in NU: Blaziken, Piloswine, Azumarill, Ninjask, Cloyster, Golem, Scrafty, Drapion, Absol, Escavalier, Hitmonchan, Pikachu, Sharpedo, Swellow, Cinccino, Abomasnow, Braviary Depending on the Vaporeon set and being versatile that you can customise EVs accordingly, even some special attackers may struggle to take it down without taking unnecessary chip like Zoroark and Alakazam. The best counters for this would obviously be grass types like Lilligant, Ludicolo, Sceptile and Eelektross, and some decent checks like Clefable (offensive set) and Rotom-F (offensive set). I didn't want to spend too much of my time providing calcs unless absolutely needed (feeling lazy), but I've played quite a few games against Vaporeon and it can handle a huge proportion of the mons in the current meta. The sets are predictable, that's true, but unlike other walls it also has a decent special attack stat to chip/burn a lot of potential switch ins. To me, it brings out similar vibes to Porygon2 in UU in the sense that it pressures almost every physical attacking mon (yes you could say Sableye does as well except it doesn't carry incredible bulk), has an amazing ability in Water Absorb, has great special attack to potentially be decent offensively and has the option to heal its status if it gets poisoned. What makes it most difficult to break down Vaporeon is the Wish + Protect combo. It can also PP stall against Pokemon like Golbat who now has access to 8 Roosts PP maxxed, and if you really want to be niche Vaporeon can pivot out with Baton Pass after using Wish if it really does feel pressured, switching in later if it can. Personally, I think this Pokemon should be considered as a defensive-uber and it should not have dropped to NU in the first place, but it did because people were spamming Poliwrath and Toxicroak in UU due to Crawdaunt. P.S. Sorry if this post feels poorly worded compared to my previous ones, feeling quite lazy right now but wanted to address my concerns.

Apologies I meant Gallade to try and pressure the regenerator mons, but I agree with your point regardless just my theory.

I agree with all of your points completely except for one point - my theory is that they may have introduced Gallade as a balance to potentially adding more regenerator mons in the next update (e.g. Slowbro/Alomomola/Tangrowth) or potentially one/two new legends like they did with Shaymin for the CNY event. I say this because I know how opposed the community were to regenerator mons being added to the current meta, and adding more alongside Amoongus with no knock off buff etc is just going to be incredibly annoying to face, if not boring. My POV is I'd like to see what they're planning to add in the next update. If they're planning on introducing legends/regen mons, keep Gallade. If there won't be any new significant changes in the next update, then either nerf Sharpness from 50% to 25% or remove the ability altogether.

Hi Darkshade, I think there may have been some confusion so wanted to check with you: Team Of The Year - This is for teams who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in Team Tournament 2022 (OpTc, SLSY and VGC). Could you please confirm if the animated globe you showed us are for those three teams, in gold, silver and bronze respectively? Cup Of The Year - This is for the team who won Cup Of The Year 2022 which was a one-off tournament, so [Lo]Romantic (my understanding is there were no vanities for 2nd and 3rd for this competition). Could you please confirm if they will receive the same gold globe vanity, or if they will receive a different exclusive vanity?

I appreciate your reply and the update on what's been going on. I understand that a lot has been happening behind the scenes but I'm grateful for you communicating what's planned. The design looks great like with many of the vanities you create, and myself and I'm sure many others look forward to receiving it when it's ready!

Team name: Guangdong Tigers Players: JustaChamp, HALOTT, Incognition, Skylux, Tomaselio Sub: BernardZhenga

I said that and someone deleted my response in literally 30 seconds even though it contributed to the discussion. I was just talking slang like the dude was, why did it get removed?

I'd suggest Randoms to get used to the PvP mechanics that MMO have introduced (e.g. Gen 5 mons with gen 9 learnsets/abilities etc...) and then OU as it's the most popular tier and incredibly easy to find matches, meaning it'll be quicker for you to adapt against your opponents and come up with a solid teambuild/playstyle. UU and NU are great, but unfortunately it's hard to find matches in this tier outside of tournaments. OU is also the most stable in terms of not being affected by losing/gaining Pokemon in the tier, since all Pokemon can be used.

With all due respect, assuming the people you asked are like this person in the recent Doubles tournament, I don't think Global chat is a fair sample to base your judgement on:

Thank you for creating the thread, I've waited for so long but it's got to a point where we need clear communication.

I did not want to address this publicly, but I feel I should as I saw this thread was created. First off, I would like to thank the team for considering implementing the vanity as an addition in the first place - it was a really cool idea and a great incentive for future teams to try and reach the top 3 teams in Team Tournament. However, the process for how this was handled was completely wrong and I hope this process never repeats for future winners. First, we were told that we would expect to receive the item within the first few weeks of the New Year. All teams were requested to provide a list of players to receive the vanity, which was done so fairly. I understand this would take a while as staff would need to cross-check with their records. Secondly, we were informed that there was a dispute about how the vanity looked, causing a further delay as the design had to be changed, which was completely outside of our control. The Lunar New Year event passed, by which time the COTY winners were announced, which were [Lo] Romantic. After checking with @Bearminator he informed me that this would likely happen in the next update, around April/May. On a side note, I would like to apologise from my side for any pressure put on you, as you were placed in a very difficult spot, but I appreciate the communication you've had throughout. However, the recent change logs have happened, in fact, three in total if you include the ones happening this morning. Still nothing. I now got told that it's not guaranteed we will even receive the vanity in the Johto update, which means that almost six months later, we still wouldn't have received anything with no clear ETA as to when we will receive it. It could easily be near the end of the year when it comes, which is when the 2023 winners will receive their trophy. Now, I understand that people not involved with this will ask what's the big deal? After all, it's just a pixeled item in a virtual game. Well, let me tell you: If this was your team in the same position I guarantee that there would be a big fuss about how the process has been handled. This was discussed and planned months in advance before Team Tournament finished in 2022, all of these delays could have been avoidable or compromised whilst Johto and other changes were in the works. I guarantee future winners won't have to wait this long, but just in case, I hope this gives you some insight as to how long you may be expected to wait. When I see this being avoided but trivial priorities being made such as implementing an egg hatching animation (which I personally find pointless), and I've received several questions as to why we've not heard any clear update on this, it's beginning to feel incredibly frustrating and I can understand why. It's not about the vanity, but the complete lack of communication which has been replicated in so many issues which have been raised with by the wider community. I am not looking for any compensation for us, SLSY, VGC or Lo as this was a nice addition and didn't have to be implemented in the first place, but the lack of communication and the process I'm regrettable to say has been absolutely disgusting. @Kyu @Desu

Bro he's clearly trolling, I realised his account joined less than 24 hours ago, has a Gallade banner (coincidence?) and talks like a wanna-be gangster. But I think he has a point, we can always counter Gallade by running this team: Trick Room offensive Reuniclus with life orb Max defensive HP Dragonite with rocky helmet Max defensive Garchomp with endure Suicide lead Skarmory to stack those hazards Specs Pelipper with Hurricane Scarf Spiritomb