Gunthug

What a season, and what a way to close it out. It was a blast resurrecting these DPP commentaries for everyone and hope y'all enjoyed.

I’ll take tawlaa and pablobacas

IGN: Gunthug wc: 2956

JJ did a lot of winning this season and not a lot of talking. Historically it's been the opposite for him

NikhilR v. Blu3breath

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1770865819 won, gg

nice quick match!

IGN: Gunthug Time Zone: CST Preferred Tiers: DPP Fluff: I’ve got enough time to grab a fourth crown.

I want to specifically address what I highlighted in bold - this really isn't much of an obstacle for DPP in particular. First, the DPP ladder on showdown is, in my experience, instant queue until you reach the higher levels, and even then, finding a match is not all that difficult or time consuming. Further, you don't need friends "on smogon" to train with - one of the things I personally love about DPP is how accessible it is to those who know other metagames, like MMO's. PSL 3, all the way back in 2014, was the first time DPP made an appearance, and almost no one who played MMO had much experience with it. I was one of the group of players tasked with figuring it out. By the end of that season, and certainly by psl4, we had a nice grasp of the metagame as it shared a lot of cool similaries to MMO's own metagame at the time. Now, one of the reasons I've dropped my defense of DPP in recent PSL seasons is that, unlike back in 2014, the current MMO metagame bears little resemblance to DPP. In 2014, DPP was what the MMO metagame wished it could be. Now, MMO has adopted a ton of new gen mechanics that are arguably superior to DPP's mechanics (no twave on electric types, no spore on grass types, etc). I still love DPP as a metagame so definitely won't complain if it's chosen, and I still believe that it's a pretty easy metagame to jump into. There are thousands and thousands of teams out there readily available for people to use, which should make training for weekly matchups a lot easier. Just my two cents

I mean they literally were the epitome of high level mmo events lol, PSL has been the absolute pinnacle of MMO unofficial events since it started. Yes, I'm using an incredibly subjective viewpoint that the last idk, 4 PSLs without a showdown tier have lacked the hype they usually do, but it's impossible to avoid a subjective opinion on this topic. Your own opinion that you dislike showdown for whatever dumb reason is coloring your stance on this issue, for example. Ultimately, it isn't the host's job to give the community input on anything whatsoever when it comes to PSL. The fact that kaynine even gave the option for public input on WHICH showdown tier is more than he needed to. He didn't give us the option, for example, of including gen 1 UU as one of the tiers - did he DEPRIVE the community of this option?? No, that's ridiculous. The host gets creative license to host the event that they want to put together, and the players can decide for themselves if they want to play or not. If the inclusion of one single showdown tier is enough to deter players, I guess we'll see that come signup time, won't we?

The two worst psl’s to date - you’re making the opposite argument you think you are

as someone invested in wanting to play a showdown tier, i'm going to throw a few dollars towards the donation pool. It's not much but hopefully will be a little something to give PSL the hype it deserves

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8hackmonscup-1578318038 turn 31/32 probably the weirdest shit I’ve ever seen in a showdown match. Let’s see who can explain the mechanic responsible!

just to be 100% clear i don't have any issue with the copying of the format (teams of players fighting in multiple tiers each week) its a great format and there's no harm in using it a lot. But I agree that we've hit an impasse and I respect your position. Ultimately if the host doesn't change the name it isn't the end of the world. If I was host - I'd change the name, because there's better reasons FOR changing than AGAINST changing. But hey, I'm the best PSL host in pokemmo history, so I can't expect everyone to live up to that

Look - I do understand your point. I just disagree - I don't think calling this event "PSL" does anything to prevent confusion or to "let people know what kind of event it is" - there's a huge wall of text explaining exactly what kind of event it is lol. I also disagree that this event won't affect regular PSL - youre right it won't affect WC! that's because it's not called "WC Lab." If it was called WC Lab, it would be confusing and definitely have an effect on WC. What i don't understand, is how you and others can claim to not understand the problem. It's ok if you disagree, and don't think the name of the event is a big deal. But to say "I really can't understand why people are mad" or whatever - really? It's pretty simple why some people are mad about it. It's ok to care about things - like PSL, which has been the only good thing this game has had to offer in 5 years. Again, couldn't we add another new event to get pumped about? Why does it always have to be under the umbrella of PSL? Can't PSL just be PSL, and this be something new?

and they couldn't think of another name? Like they could literally just change the name right now to PokeMMO Labs and everyone would drop their complaints, the tournament would be completely unaffected and no one would be confused. Or LSL - lab super league ESL - einstein super league coming up with unique names isn't hard if you arent lazy

Draek is the man, but I disagree that lifting the PSL name is even remotely necessary for people to understand the format

I don’t think anyone cares that they’re using the format

Psl itself is just a cheap knockoff now anyway so if every random person that can raise 300m of worthless fake money wants to use the name for some reason then whatever. Not really sure why it needs the psl name though? How would it change anything if it was named Pokemmo Labs or something?

The only reason I mentioned shed shell was in reference to magnet pull, a similiar "trapping" ability but one that isn't deemed banworthy. Huge difference between having to consider shed shell on steel types, vs. having to consider shed shell on literally every grounded mon in the game. Steel types are extremely strong but come with their drawbacks, one of which is magnet pull. Grounded mons make up like 75% of the entire metagame and fit into all sorts of categories - it's an objectively healther metagame where 75% of the mons don't have to sacrifice their item slot to avoid getting picked off anytime they see duggy

two things that I think should be addressed: 1. it absolutely matters what kind of environment dugtrio is in, in a given tier, when determining if it's banworthy. As we've discussed on this site for YEARS, just because something is uncompetitive does not mean it is banworthy. Magnet pull is technically uncompetitive - it restricts user autonomy, takes away your ability to switch simply because you have a steel mon on your team. However, given that steel mons are only a small part of the meta, and that you can actually hold an item that negates magnet pull, it's not SO uncompetitive that it's banworthy. Same goes for dugtrio depending on its tier. It is uncompetitive in every tier, yes. But is it so uncompetitive that it becomes banworthy? That's a decision that needs to be made in each individual tier. Personally, i almost always think that answer is yes, but I still see the need to have that discussion - hence why this is a UU dugtrio thread and there may be an OU dugtrio thread down the road, if necessary. 2. usage DOES NOT EQUAL viability, and what people need to realize is that there's a certain stigma associated with using certain strategies deemed "uncompetitive." Therefore, you'll often see somewhat low usage of extremely effective and uncompetitive strategies just because people don't like to play that way, or don't want to be considered "cheap" for using that strat. Best example I can think of is the old full baton pass team. It was rare to see a full BP team back in the old OU - but it was EXTREMELY overpowered and uncompetitive. Why didn't you see it in 60% of matches, then? Because the community kind of recognized that it was uncompetitive, and that drove down usage. I absolutely think that affects dugtrio's usage, and hence usage should not be counted for much in this discussion (or any discussion about uncompetitive mons, IMO)

Would like to take a moment to acknowledge those that we've lost - for me, Facsimile. I had a ton of good shit on that alt and the e-mail verification means he's gone forever ;-;

just got a PM from a guy named Facsimile, he'll match as well. He just sent me the 5m

Deal

Didn’t realize this psl was filled with a bunch of poors who hate fun. I tried shifting away from auction style for years and suddenly people don’t like auctions??