okay first of all
What is competitive Pokemon?
Basically where people who enjoy the battling part of pokemon but enjoy a fun and fair environment. Not for PvP retards from the Dragon Nest Nexon forums.
Wait . . . How can you make Pokemon fair? Mewtwo is OP and so is Darkrai...?
Everyone knows pokemon is unfair. Blame the guys at GameFreak and Nintendo for not being able to understand balance in their own games. Smogon's ruling is regarded by a lot of communities to be reasonable and credible. All the rules are created by the community and for the general interest. These includes bans on overused and overpowered pokemon, tiering pokemon, creating clauses, etc.
What is Smogon?
A community created to make a fair and fun environment for pokemon. As said before, their rulings are considered to be the most reasonable and credible. Mainly because, the board is made up of people who plays [S]over 9000[/S] significantly more pokemon battles than the average person. Also, the community does regular testing periods to consider the usage of each pokemon (about 10,000 to 100,000 battles per testing). Also, the members in this community often write articles on the metagame and commentary for pretty much every pokemon which is helpful for people who are new to competitive pokemon.
So do we have to follow their rulings?
You don't have to but their recommendations are pretty legitimate and makes sense (most of the time). We will be using them for the first round and then adjust accordingly for future events.
Okay. Whats the point of tiers?
Tiers are just recommendations, not set in stone. It ranks pokemon for their potential and practical ability based on usage. For example, even though Garchomp has a 4x Ice weakness, he's still used by a significantly large amount of teams because of his amazing base stats, movepool, typing, Sandstorm evasion, and synergy with other pokemons. Smogon saw this making Pokemon boring since more than 25% of teams have garchomp and all people do is put garchomp and garchomp counters in their team. That's their ruling on Garchomp's status as an Uber. Of course, this does not mean the pokemon in OU tier completely beat the crap out of the lower tiers. It just means that most of the community saw them being more useful than other choices. When we set our Nation tourneys, any pokemon that's not banned can be used.
[SIZE="6"]Tiers according to Smogon
[/SIZE]Uber
Ubers are Pokemon that are considered too powerful for the OU metagame. The Uber tier is not meant to be a balanced tier, and therefore isn't the main metagame. Every Pokemon, ability, and item is allowed in this tier.
OU
OverUsed is the main metagame and used for most competitive battles and tournaments. It is the balanced tier that bans as few Pokemon as possible. However, placement in OU is based on usage rather than power, because power is difficult to gauge objectively. A Pokemon is OU if it shows up in 1 out of every 20 teams in the standard metagame.
BL
Borderline is a non-competitive tier that has a function similar to that of Ubers. It is to include Pokemon that aren't used sufficiently to be considered OU, but are too powerful to be used in UU.
UU
UnderUsed is a lower competitive metagame than OU and is generally composed of Pokemon that aren't powerful enough to compete in OU. It is also based on usage.
NU
NeverUsed is the lowest tier in the system and denoted Pokemon that are extremely weak. It is based on usage and doesn't exist in RBY or GSC, due to there not being enough Pokemon.
Limbo
Limbo serves as a place where Pokemon that do not yet have a decided tier are put.
[SIZE="6"]What are clauses?
[/SIZE]Basically rules against the dumb parts of the Pokemon system. For example, you can only put one enemy pokemon to sleep at a time. Otherwise, it'll just make the battle way less interesting and onesided. It is recommended that we use all the causes except item clause because: it's pointless, nobody uses it, and doesn't really encourage strategy and team building.
All the clauses are here
Evasion Clause
Moves that boost evasion (i.e. Double Team and Minimize) are not allowed.
Freeze Clause
Two or more Pokemon on a team cannot be frozen at the same time.
Sleep Clause
Two or more Pokemon on a team cannot be asleep at the same time. Self-induce sleep via Rest does not activate Sleep Clause.
OHKO Clause
One-Hit KO moves are not allowed.
Species Clause
Two or more of the same Pokemon may not be used on the same team.
Self KO Clause
If both players have only one Pokemon left, moves which KO both the user and the opponent are not allowed (e.g. Explosion, Destiny Bond). If recoil damage would cause a tie, Self KO Clause does not activate, and the player who last attacked is the winner.
All smogon articles are here
http://www.smogon.com/bw/articles/
[SIZE="6"]This is the current ban list for our standard tourneys
[/SIZE]Items
All items that increase Evasion (BrightPowder, Lax Incense)
Moves
All moves that increase Evasion only (Double Team, Minimize)
All instant OHKO moves (Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill, Sheer Cold)
Abilities
Moody
Drizzle + Swift Swim on the same team
Species
Arceus
Blaziken
Darkrai
Deoxys-A
Deoxys
Deoxys-S
Dialga
Excadrill
Garchomp
Giratina
Giratina-O
Groudon
Ho-Oh
Kyogre
Lugia
Manaphy
Mewtwo
Palkia
Rayquaza
Reshiram
Shaymin-S
Thundurus
Zekrom