Smogon

Pokémon on the Internet. Let's make it happen. —The site's original slogan. It's still unofficially used.

Smogon is a notable competitive Pokémon battling community. The site was founded in 2004 by one of the creators of Pokémon NetBattle, then the only battle simulator with a GUI (other battle simulators were on IRC and were very hard to follow or use) and then the most popular simulator. The website was born very similarly to a marsupial: undeveloped. At the time of its launch, it only had a bare-bones Pokédex for the third generation. The site's staff spent much of 2005 building up the site. They gave it a revamp when they finished. Smogon then spent much of 2006 and 2007 on hiatus because they outgrew their servers. The site was relaunched in 2007 as you see today. Along with the revamping came a name change to "Smogon University" and a slogan change from "Pokémon on the Internet; let's make it happen!" to "Nil Sine Pokémon".

The site is the current largest influential authority in the English-speaking competitive Pokémon scene. One of Smogon's notable aspects is their Character Tiers that allows almost every Pokemon to find their place even in the lowest tier. Another aspect is Smogon banning certain elements that's deemed broken or unfair from time to time, such as the case of Garchomp in Generation 4 or Moody.

Additionally, Smogon regularly does analyses for Pokemon to aid players on what is considered the optimal set and how to utilize it. They also have articles covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from coverages or guides on the competitive scene to simply for entertainment purposes. Smogon also heavily research on mechanics in order for their battle simulator to faithfully match the game as much as possible.

It's unknown why this site is seen as an authority. One reason may be because the founder was one of the creators of NetBattle. Obviously, in order to create that simulator, there had to be a lot of ROM hacking to see how the Pokémon games worked. The site also claims that many of its staffers have been playing and/or hacking Pokémon since the days of Red and Blue. Another more likely reason is that the site's staffers simply work really hard in analyzing the game and its mechanics.

Smogon does the vast majority of its work on battle simulators, with the subsequent analysis fitting more with those simulators than for the actual game. This is easily justified, though, since it's an extremely hard (not to mention tedious) task to manually raise Pokémon to Level 100 in the actual games, especially since some mechanics, such as individual values (IVs), are beyond the player's control without hacking.

• Pokemon Showdown!: Their current supported battle simulator since 2012. In addition to simulating battles from Pokemon with several convenient features, one notable aspect about Showdown is its inclusion of Game Mods known as Other Metagames.
• Pokemon Online: Pokemon Online serves as Smogon's main battle simulator for the majority of the Generation 5's run before shifting to Pokemon Showdown in 2012. Due to declining playerbase, Pokemon Online shutdown in 2021.
• Shoddy Battle/Pokemon Lab: Shoddy Battle serves as the main battle simulator during Generation 4. It was shut down due to its incompatibility with Generation 5 and set to be replaced by Pokemon Lab. However, while Pokemon Lab was still in development, Pokemon Online has already been completed, it was scrapped.
• NetBattle: One of the earliest battle simulators. Unlike its successors, NetBattle was closed-sourced. It was shut down due to the decreasing popularity during Generation 4.

Smogon has an article on Bulbapedia.

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Tropes used in Smogon include:

• Batman Gambit: Most skilled players on the simulator end up doing this for their matches.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Smogon" is the German name for Koffing, the site's mascot.
• Butt Monkey: Most Pokémon that's deemed completely unviable are treated this way in their analysis. Luvdisc and Spinda are two notable examples.
• Boring but Practical: Protect, especially in Doubles. While its effect of blocking moves for a turn doesn't sound particularly exciting, Protect serves as the safest way to scout out the opponent's moves as well as stalling. Protect ends up becoming one of the most important moves in Doubles as it allows the user to avoid being double-targeted, potentially giving its ally a free turn.
• Character Tiers: As Pokémon are most definitely not created equal, and the tiers had to be established so that people could use the weaker Pokémon without being humiliatingly trampled over. In an interesting example of tier construction, tiers are primarily determined by the idea that the better Pokémon will be the more widely used ones — in a sense, therefore, Smogon and its tiers really do live up to the series' long-preached ideal of success through using the Pokémon you like.
• Crazy Prepared: Certain Pokemon's spread are designed to outspeed a specific Pokemon or survive a super-effective or strong hit under normal conditions.
• Difficult but Awesome:
  • Volcarona was one of the more famous examples. While its Bug/Fire-type grants it unfavorable weaknesses, the most notable one being Stealth Rock as well as being physically frail, Volcarona happens to be one of the few viable Quiver Dance sweepers thanks to its potent offensive type in Fire as well as having high special attack with decent speed. Although it can be difficult at times due to its aforementioned flaws, once it did pull off, Volcarona is a terror to behold. Generation 8 lessens the difficult part with the introduction of Heavy-Duty Boots, though Volcarona still remains a high risk, high reward Pokemon.
  • Choice Band, Specs and Scarf boosts the holder's stats by 50% (Attack, Sp. Attack and Speed, respectively) at the cost of locking them into the first move they used until they switched out. While forced to use the same moves make them easily exploitable by the opponent, the immediate firepower or speed advantage makes them all the worth it and these items are in fact one of the most used held items in the metagame.
• Development Hell: The Generation V analyses took a really long time to get put up on the main site — most of them were complete and ready for submission several months before the main site was ready and did it. Generation 8 suffered from this as well with the release of the DLCs significantly shaking up the metagame, resulting in them changing their approach by only publishing sets first, only once Crown Tundra was released where they started tackling analyses.
• Early Installment Weirdness: Earlier analyses tend to showcase damage calculation more frequently, a practice that has been avoided nowadays as it makes analyses cluttered and complicated for newer players. Additionally, Pokemon are frequently referred to with gendered pronouns in earlier analyses whereas modern analyses would always call them "it" with a few exceptions.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Unown's Generation IV analysis brags about how it can 1 or 2-hit KO a number of Pokémon... except all have either low Special Defense or a 4x weakness. The teammates section is basically "Team building for dummies", full of advice that is not specific to Unown.
• Game Mod: Pokemon Showdown features Other Metagames which have alterations that normally aren't possible in the game. Take Almost Any Ability as an example which allows Pokemon to choose almost every ability they normally don't have in the game as long as they aren't banned, or Partners in Crime where the Pokemon and its ally share their moveset and abilities with each other in Doubles.
• House Rules: In addition to the bans, Smogon also implemented several clauses to battle simulators.
  • The most notable one being the Sleep Clause limiting the amount of sleeping Pokemon to 1. Although Sleep Clause exists in Pokemon Stadium series and Pokemon Colosseum, it is never present in main series. Smogon Doubles do not have Sleep Clause with the exception of Generation 5 and Little Cup.
  • Endless Battle Clause forces the battle to end after 1000 turns has passed. Kickstarted by the infamous Funbro in Generation 6, the clause eventually had to be implemented in Generation 6 after several restrictions that attempt to prevent endless battles from occurring didn't work out, it also results in the battle to start lagging after too many turns has passed.
  • Freeze Clause limits the amount of frozen Pokemon to 1. Although most modern generation do not have Freeze Clause in place since it's much more luck reliant compared to sleep.
  • In Doubles, Gravity Sleep Clause disallows the combination of Gravity with any sleep moves under 100% accuracy on any Pokemon.
  • Dynamax clause bans the use of Dynamax after it was banned from its suspect test, although the official formats did briefly ban Dynamax in Series 10.
  • Unlike in official formats, Mythical Pokemon are not banned by default unless they turn out to be too overwhelming to handle, such as Genesect.
• Lethal Joke Character: On the surface level, Wobbuffet did not seem threatening in the slightest, with mediocre stats outside of its high HP and the only attacks it learns are Counter and Mirror Coat, both of which are Counter Attack that only works when Wobbuffet takes damage from a specific category of moves. However, Wobbuffet possesses Shadow Tag which prevents the opponent from switching out in conjunction with Encore that forces the foe to repeat the same move for the duration of it, allowing Wobbuffet to reliably secure a KO. As a result, Wobbuffet was banned to Ubers in Gen 3 and 4, and can be surprisingly effective in Ubers as well before Shadow Tag got banned in Gen 8 Ubers as well.
• Master of None: Silvally, despite having well-rounded stats and the ability to turn into any type with Memory Discs should make it a Jack of All Trades in theory, its relatively lackluster movepool (no reliable recovery, no Ground- or Fighting-type moves outside of Multi-Attack) means that it doesn't excel in anything, being relegated to an awkward position as a utility attacker with Defog most of the time.
• Nerf: This is invoked with the Baton Pass clause, in which it initially restricts the number of Pokémon that can have Baton Pass before preventing having any speed boosting move/ability with other stat boosting moves if it has Baton Pass. Even with those restrictions in place aren't enough to keep Baton Pass in check, and it was eventually decided to ban the move altogether.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Certain Pokemon that are considered too underwhelming in lower tier but ends up being too powerful in higher tier. Zamazenta Crowned was initially seen as terrible in Ubers but during its brief suspect test to OU, many players found out that it's difficult to wear Zamazenta down thanks to its immunity to Toxic and being incredibly resistant to Stealth Rock, most ended up objecting to drop it down to OU as a result.
• Not the Intended Use: In addition to lowering the chance to hit itself in its confusion from 50% to 33% in Generation 7, Misty Terrain now blocks confusion for grounded Pokemon in an attempt to combat the infamous Swagger. However, Doubles players quickly realize that Swagger can be used to give its ally such as Zygarde and Snorlax a +2-attack boost instead without taking up their precious moveslot and turn, with the main user being Tapu Fini that's able to summon Misty Terrain upon switch in. This interaction was one of the reasons why Swagger remains banned in Doubles.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: As a result of Power Creep, some Pokemon ends up being obsoleted by newer Pokemon that can perform the same role but better. For example, Haxorus in Generation 5 functioned as a Choice Band attacker with its Outrage and a whooping 147 Attack, a number that most Pokemon would be envy of. Then Kyurem Black joined OU with its outrageous 170 Attack, better bulk as well as Fusion Bolt, Ice Beam and Earth Power giving it excellent coverage and better use of Mold Breaker (Teravolt in Kyurem Black's case), making Haxorus look like a child play by comparison.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: "Nil Sine Pokémon" (Nothing Without Pokémon).
• This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman:
  • Certain moves that aren't useful in the maingame become extremely handy in Smogon metagames with the famous one being entry hazards (Stealth Rock, Spikes). As switching is a crucial part of the metagame, being able to punish switches makes entry hazards one of the most valuable assets. Similarly, Pursuit is more useful in the metagame with it being able to deal damage with its power doubled to the intended target before it switches out.
  • Despite Ditto's general low usage, it can be useful in all tiers thanks to its important Revenge Killer niche with Imposter. Ditto is particularly notable before Dynamax wasn't banned, Ditto skyrocketed in usage as it's able to copy the target's stat boosts by Max Moves, then it would usually outspeed them with its Choice Scarf, and can opt to Dynamax afterwards to temporarily lift to move lock from Choice Scarf and proceed to unleash powerful Max Moves.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Moves that only lower the foe's stat such as Charm and Scary Face aren't particularly useful in a competitive setting since they can simply switch out, resetting the stat drops in the progress. The only exception to this is Memento to provide momentum by fainting, allowing the next Pokemon to safely switch in.
  • In most scenario, semi-invulnerable moves such as Fly or Dig themselves aren't particularly useful in competitive play because it's easily telegraphed and the opponent can simply switch a Pokemon that resist it, or using Protect. These moves did see use with the combination of Prankster, Assist, and Lagging Tail back in Generation 5, though a generation later, semi-invulnerable moves can no longer be called upon by Assist due to this interaction. Sky Drop is one of the few exceptions in Doubles as it could make the opponent unable to act during its duration as well. Dragapult does run Phantom Force, only because of it lacking other good Ghost-type physical STAB outside of Shadow Claw and its ability to lift the effect of protection move.
  • Several moves also don't transition well into Doubles. One example is High Jump Kick, while it still has some uses on Pokemon that doesn't have other powerful Fighting-type options such as Tsareena, the move is generally much riskier in Doubles due to the prevalence of Protect, taking the hefty 50% crash damage from it if it ends up hitting one. Similarly, most Pokemon that run recovery moves in Singles typically don't run it in Doubles since there's the possibility of being double-targeted makes the health recovery from these moves hardly matter, being better off with Protect and Sitrus Berry instead save from a few exceptions such as Cresselia and Gastrodon.
  • Some held items falls into this category:
    • Big Root increases the amount of HP restored from Life Drain moves by 30%. This sounds useful on paper, but most Pokémon opted for Leftovers or Sitrus Berry instead, which doesn't require them to use draining moves to restore its health.
    • Mirror Herb copying the Status Buff on a foe sounds like a good way to beat the opponent in their own game with a faster Pokémon. Impostor Ditto can easily fulfill the role by transforming into the foe with its ability, copying its stat changes in the process, and can hold Choice Scarf to ensure it always outspeeds its foe. Alternatively, using Unaware Pokémon such as Dondozo or Haze can prevent the opponent from sweeping the player's team onto the ground.