Announcement Meet the OverUsed Tiering Council

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Smogon's OU tiering is ruled by a council of five people. The purpose of this thread is to introduce the five OU senators to the public and to explain how they'll handle the tiering process for the OU tier in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

The council (in alphabetical order):

ABR: ABR is the head of the OU Council (OUTL) and is a known ladder player turned tournament player who has created some of the most noteworthy teams and trends over the past few years, for better or worse. He has been frequently present in tiering and suspect discussions ever since the dawn of ORAS. He has a plethora of unconventional and unique ideas about the metagame and will present the council with an alternative perspective.

bro fist: bro fist joins the OU Council as one of the most experimented and successfull tournament player of Smogon. The man has been a force to reckon with since the DPP days, showing his proficiency of the OU metagame in various environments. Having won two Worlds Cups as an OU player, participated in multiple SPLs and numerous suspect tests (peaking #1 in the process recently), it shows that bro fist is more than qualified for the job. Finally, his approachable and chill personality compliment his playing skills.

Eo Ut Mortus: Eo is a veteran to the tournament scene, participating since 2009. He has shown specific interest in SM OU over the past couple of years, doing well in numerous team tournaments with unique builds and a handful of creative sets that made a lasting impact on the metagame. Also, Eo has been involved with tiering discussions for a long time, including as a member of the BW OU council. Eo's experience will be a great addition to the council and we hope he can help us improve the metagame moving forward.

Finchinator: Finchinator has been playing competitive Pokemon since 2011 and has transitioned from angry PO ladder kid to tryhard Smogon tournament player over the years. He is known for the efforts he puts into building and helping teammates in OU and NU metagames while making fairly wordy posts in policy threads. Despite being seen as more of a mainstay in BW OU, Finch has played SM in both Snake in SPL, making him a qualified council member. In addition, Finch is the leader of the OU mod team and actively follows the subforum, so don't hesitate to reach out to him!

TDK: TDK is commonly known as a general teambuilding fanatic across generations. Tournament wise, TDK is an active participant in all official tournaments since he joined Smogon and is currently a three time defending champion of the World Cup of Pokemon as apart of US East. In addition, TDK has held a number of high power positions on Smogon and has become one of the more household names throughout the community. Being the longest tenured member of the council and informed opinions on the state of the metagame allows TDK to be a valuable member of the OU Council.


As for the procedure, the council will employ towards handling bans within two protocols: 1) quick bans and 2) suspect tests.

I) Quick bans will be made when a certain aspect (be it a Pokémon, an ability, a move, an item or a combination of the aforementioned) of the metagame becomes so blatantly broken that passing it through a formal suspect test would be a waste of time and effort for everyone. From now on, quick bans will be made according to the following circumstances:
  1. Before the council makes the final decision, a thread will be posted in Policy Review, so that everyone who has posting privileges in that forum will get the chance to weigh in and potentially influence the decision. The thread will stay open for approximately one week;
  2. When the decision is made, the council will post a thread in the OU Forum. The post will provide the reasons behind the ban.
II) Suspect tests will be the standard protocol for handling bans and unbans, much like it happened during the B/W era. Suspect tests will last approximately one month each and will abide by the following procedure:
  1. The council identifies a potentially unhealthy aspect of the metagame and posts a discussion thread about it in the OU forum. The purpose for this is to see what the playerbase, at large, thinks;
  2. If there's enough demand for a suspect test, the council announces a suspect test. A suspect ladder is then implemented on Pokémon Showdown and a formal suspect thread is posted in the OU forum, for people to share their experiences on the ladder and to discuss the effects of the suspect in the metagame. For those that are interested in voting, they are required to achieve a certain rating/deviation on the ladder;
  3. After the account identification phase occurs, eligible voters vote on the suspect along with the council members (who are automatically qualified for voting);
  4. If the suspect achieves a certain majority, it is banned from the metagame (or unbanned, in case of formerly banned subjects).
 
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kumiko

formerly TDK
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
A while ago, boudouche stepped down from the OU Council, and recently CrashinBoomBang followed suit. As such, the OU Council explored potential options to join the Council and ultimately agreed upon three people rather than two. The Council agreed we wanted these three members to the Council and didn't want to drop one in favor of another, so we added all three. Having an even number may seem peculiar, but it's perfectly logical as majority simple of >50% to decide upon something is the same as before.

With that said, welcome ABR, bludz, and bro fist to the OU Council! :toast:
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
With the release of Ultra Sun and Moon, long-time OU council members PDC and M Dragon elected to step down from the council. We would like to thank them both for the time they spent on council and their playing a part in helping improve our metagame! Also, we have decided to add Gary to the OU council as we feel he will be a valuable addition to our team!

Welcome Gary to the OU Council! :toast:
 

kumiko

formerly TDK
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
yo,

I'm stepping down as Tier Leader. I'm not quitting entirely; I'll still remain apart of Council as long as they want me and as long as I'm interested, but I do not wish to be the leader. I still actively play OU and will continue to do such as long as I'm interested in it

In my place, ABR will be taking over as Tier Leader. Congrats to him!
 
Hey,

The OU Council has established Tournament Requisites as an alternative method of qualifying as a voter for suspect tests. We will now be including official tournament results as an optional requisite for voting. To be clear, you can still ladder to qualify for voting. This simply provides an alternative path for those who should automatically qualify without having to ladder.

A user qualifies through Tournament Requisites if they satisfy at least 1 of the following:
1) The user has won at least 2 games in an official team tournament (SPL, WCoP, SSD), with a win rate higher than 50%.
2) The user has reached the top 16 of the Official Smogon Tournament (OST).
3) The user has reached the top 32 of the Official Ladder Tournament (OLT).
4) The user has one of the 5 highest point totals in SM OU in a single season of Smogon Tour (ST).

The above tours only count towards suspect requisites if they have ended within 6 months of the suspect test commencing.
 
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