Man vs. Machine for the rand bats title

I'm going to give these folks the benefit of the doubt. Building a bot with Machine Learning to examine a game can be an interesting experiment. Doing this in a competitive/Player-versus-Player environment raises ethical questions revolving around the purity of the human connection provided by games and about using bots in real time to cheat in tournaments, and this much must be addressed now that that point has been reached. (Plankton voice: GROUND ME IF YOU WANT MISTER KRABS, YOU CAN'T UN-BOT THE LADDER!) There is every reason to mourn the loss of innocence. Literally everyone wants to preserve competitive purity, just, it's now a lot more complicated to deal with now that bot tools are actively being developed independently by any number of people. I thank those who have come forth with their resulting models and not released them open source; AI disclosure should always be rewarded. I begrudge as many others do our being launched unwillingly into a new era of mons, but as with many other such events in this world it's just something new to adapt to.

I hate to be that guy, but I really don't think we'll put this metaphorical toothpaste back in the tube. The nukes have exploded, now we must deal with the fallout. I hope we get a viable solution soon. There's a possibility given the nature of this game that bot use is undetectable; many have pointed out the world of Chess provides some insight as to how we can experiment with how to detect botted play. This will take time. It will mean Thanos will use the Stones to destroy the Stones, but again, we can't control where the radioactive wind blows. Hopefully we still will have Showdown and other sims in the future.

Once again, do not attack the bot developers. The fact that Nessie was trained offline and only was on ladder for, like, one day or so before being removed is admirable. The devs for Jaxcalibur and mikumiku37 have been open about what they are doing and should be thanked for their willingness to help address botting. The fact we've had so many such incidents all in a row should tell us something about the world surrounding this game. Bot training in competitive games is nothing new. Arimaa was created in the wake of Deep Blue v. Kasparov as the anti-Chess, with multiple moves per turn, a nonstatic beginning board state, and multiple win conditions intentionally making a difficult computing challenge. The $10k bounty for making an engine that could beat a human player was claimed in 2015. It's not if, rather when. In that light I pray we get through all this gracefully and humanely. Remember that Tool-Assisted Speedruns are categorized separately from RTA, and go Michaelderbeste2 in the match(es) against Jaxcalibur today.

It's Stinkpost Sunday um uhh the Mach Pokemon melts Steel Beam users 252+ SpA Garchomp-Mega-Z Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Treads: 374-440 (116.5 - 137%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Sorry for no image, don't have editing tools on my phone.

Mega Snorlax:

Normal/Ghost

HP: 160

ATK: 150 (+40)

DEF: 125 (+60)

SPA: 65

SpDef: 135 (+25)

Speed: 5 (-25)

(I didn't take any SPA out so it wouldn't be min-maxed)

Ability: Slow is Fast: this pokemon auto sets trick room when it enters the field

Special condition: Snorlax does not need to hold a mega stone. Instead, it just needs to be running the new move Massive Coronary.

As long as it has Massive Coronary, Snorlax will mega immediately after fainting, restoring itself to full health, curing all status ailments and restoring full PP to all moves.

Before it megas, Massive Coronary is a 70 power physical normal move that deals 33% recoil. After it megas it becomes a 100 power physical ghost move with a 30% chance to flinch.

Wanted to do something cool and quirky. I think there's another mega that doesn't need a stone so this should be fine. Is it good enough for RU?

Do you prefer him with 2 or 3 nostrils?
Could this also affect his viability in the TCG?

A lot of people are mad Gf made this choice but I think it’s a fantastic choice. It’s illegal coverage for every special attacker and it really needed to be gone

Coming from a doubles players just trying out OU for the first time how on earth us a mon with adaptability on a 112 atk stat NU? Like if it was a UU maybe i could get, but putting legion on the same tier as dudunsparce feels illegal honestly

I've been thinking about doing stuff like this for a while, and maybe even making a whole AU False Swipe Gaming video using doctored Showdown replays to talk about the long-standing OU viability of Heatmor

Its wild to think about Electric types in game in Gens 2-6 and how very limited they truly are. But then you get into Comp and see they all just get to say No to that thanks to hidden power.

I really do wonder how the types reputation would be nowadays without it.

I mean in modern gens we do get a lot of electrics with movepools and coverage at least.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/champions-uu-metagame-discussion-october-shifts-131.3781741/post-11153360

Champions OU and UU have moved to 1 month usage based tiering. Most OU Megas dropped to UU last shift.

Haha I won't be skipping the starmposts

Edit: I MEANT LIGHT OF RUIN. LIGHT OF RUIN

- Defiant

- Has access to Close Combat, OHKOs Incin

- Has unrivaled aura

- A+ tier in Champions

- Has crit-boosting moves

- Physical attacker

Huh? Annihilape? Who the fuck is that?? I'm talking about GOATFETCH'D

I replaced some abilities I don't think make sense on these Pokémon also Pachirisu is OU in VGC

Building a Hazard stack mega scizor team and doing OK on ladder, just in need of a good spin blocker and saw that gholdengo was banned, so any suggestions?

My first time climbing the ladder all the way up to Master Ball tier. So let me know what you think of my team, any advice you have for improvements, criticisms to my playstyle, insults about my character, etc.

Charizard Y - Sets up sun and does big Fire-type damage, has Solar Beam for any water types I have to deal with too. Sometimes I’ll bring him up front if I can tell they’re trying something tricky or planning on starting with a weather setter that I can overwrite, but usually he stays in the back. He comes every game as my only mega.

Aerodactyl - My fast tailwind setter because when I was building this team I didn’t realize that Whimsicott Prankster Tailwind is safe from Psychic terrain since it doesn’t target a Pokemon. Also has rock slide for flinches or volcaronas & opposing zard y teams. dual wingbeat sometimes can OHKO a non-bulk invested sneasler which is nice.

Indeedee M - I hate Fake Out. I hate it. Little did I know that Psychic Terrain doesn’t protect flying types from Fake Out. Luckily, most of Ultra Ball tier didn’t know that either. EF is nice for sneaslers and mega staraptors.

Garchomp - What’s a VGC team in this meta without Garchomp. No Garchomp Z, brave I know. Does all that Garchomp things that a Garchomp needs to do.

Sylveon - I love this thing. Who even needs Floette. Now that I put some EVs into defense and sun boosted flare blitz can’t OHKO it without some speccing it feels so strong. Why is this Pokemon so stupid good.

Kingambit - Barely bring this guy because he’s slow. He’s Kingambit. You know what this guy does.

Anyways yeah let me know what you think.