History YMMV / Smogon

* CharacterTiers: Despite having over 1000 Pokémon of varying balance (as well as mons with alternate forms and Mega Evolutions), Smogon has taken to heart to organize all Pokémon into tiers. It is also continuously changing, with Pokémon changing tiers based on usage, and even implementation or removal of clauses. In the most popular format, Overused, or OU, acts as Top Tier and is considered "standard", while Ubers falls under God Tier since it functions as a banlist tier (though it has a metagame in itself). Beneath that, there was initially just Underused for everything not in OU, but as the list of Pokémon grew, [[RankInflation more tiers were added to encompass the Pokémon with low usage in UU]], and then the Pokémon with low usage in that tier as well. The current metagame as of the seventh generation boasts, in descending order, RU (Rarely Used), NU (Never Used), and PU (no common meaning; [[PermanentPlaceholder the name was a bad pun that ended up sticking]]). Starting with Gen 7, everything too bad to be commonly used in even PU is regarded as "Untiered", though as that still leaves over a hundred fully-evolved Pokémon, there are communities trying to make a competitive tier out of even that, which generally favor ZU (Zero Used) or occasionally FU (for the pun) as a name. Since the tiers are usage-based, the viability ranking thread does contain quite a number of Pokémon that's residing in a lower tier. Additionally, each tier besides Ubers has their own banlist, which is for Pokémon that are banned from a lower tier, but doesn't have enough usage to rise to a higher tier. In addition to these tiers there is also Anything Goes, a format with absolutely no bans or clauses (bar the endless Battle Clause, but that is only there to keep battles from being endless) that contains Pokémon that not even [[GameBreaker Ubers can handle]]. As for Doubles, it has 3 tiers, Doubles Ubers, Doubles OU, and Doubles UU. In Gen IX, there were so many Pokémon banished to Ubers that not even all the Ubers saw use in their tier, and after having players float the idea as a sort of fan-tier, the Ubers UU tier was eventually made official.

** "OUBL" is used to refer to Mons who are too good for OU but not good enough for Ubers, hence being stuck in banlist hell due to being unviable in the face of titanic Legendary Pokémon. The theoretical "[=UUbers=]" tier has also been thrown around for several years to give said Mons a place by squeezing in a tier between OU and Ubers where Mons banned from OU but with low Ubers usage can hang out. Power creep and the sheer amount of OU bans from ''Scarlet'' and ''Violet'' eventually pushed enough people (and enough Mons) into making "[=UUbers=]" a real unofficial tier, with a custom ladder and community.

* CharacterTiers: Despite having over 1000 Pokémon of varying balance (as well as mons with alternate forms and Mega Evolutions), Smogon has taken to heart to organize all Pokémon into tiers. It is also continuously changing, with Pokémon changing tiers based on usage, and even implementation or removal of clauses. In the most popular format, Overused, or OU, acts as Top Tier and is considered "standard", while Ubers falls under God Tier since it functions as a banlist tier (though it has a metagame in itself). Beneath that, there was initially just Underused for everything not in OU, but as the list of Pokémon grew, [[RankInflation more tiers were added to encompass the Pokémon with low usage in UU]], and then the Pokémon with low usage in that tier as well. The current metagame as of the seventh generation boasts, in descending order, RU (Rarely Used), NU (Never Used), and PU (no common meaning; [[PermanentPlaceholder the name was a bad pun that ended up sticking]]). Starting with Gen 7, everything too bad to be commonly used in even PU is regarded as "Untiered", though as that still leaves over a hundred fully-evolved Pokémon, there are communities trying to make a competitive tier out of even that, which generally favor ZU (Zero Used) or occasionally FU (for the pun) as a name. Since the tiers are usage-based, the viability ranking thread does contain quite a number of Pokémon that's residing in a lower tier. Additionally, each tier besides Ubers has their own banlist, which is for Pokémon that are banned from a lower tier, but doesn't have enough usage to rise to a higher tier. In addition to these tiers there is also Anything Goes, a format with absolutely no bans or clauses (bar the endless Battle Clause, but that is only there to keep battles from being endless) that contains Pokémon that not even [[GameBreaker Ubers can handle]]. As for Doubles, it has 3 tiers, Doubles Ubers, Doubles OU, and Doubles UU.

** "OUBL" is used to refer to Mons who are too good for OU but not good enough for Ubers, hence being stuck in banlist hell due to being unviable in the face of titanic Legendary Pokémon. The theoretical "[=UUbers=]" tier has also been thrown around for several years to give said Mons a place by squeezing in a tier between OU and Ubers where Mons banned from OU but with low Ubers usage can hang out. Power creep from ''Scarlet'' and ''Violet'' eventually pushed enough people (and enough Mons) into making "[=UUbers=]" a real unofficial tier, with a custom ladder and community.

** "OUBL" is used to refer to Mons who are too good for OU but not good enough for Ubers, hence being stuck in banlist hell due to being unviable in the face of titanic Legendary Pokémon. The theoretical "[=UUbers=]" tier has also been thrown around for several years to give said Mons a place by squeezing in a tier between OU and Ubers where Mons banned from OU but with low Ubers usage can hang out.

** Terastallization is highly contested topic within the community. Some players believe Terastallization adds variety to both offensive and defensive playstyles that previous mechanics lack and view it as a healthy and balanced mechanic. While the other side dislike Terastallization due to its unpredictability as every Pokemon can undergo it on top of having to guess which Tera-type they're going to utilize, and argue that several Pokemon such as Volcarona and Regieleki are banned because of their ability to eliminate their checks with it, believing some form of restrictions or ban needs to be taken on Terastallization.

** Their dedication to 6v6 singles while official tournaments follow doubles format is contentious within the competitive community.

** Crowned Zamazenta receives this treatment due to being designed as a defensive-oriented counterpart to Zacian, yet it lacks the tools to excel in Ubers such as Toxic and Stealth Rock, and at one point, is ranked lower than its Hero of Many Battles forme in the viability ranking[[note]]This is no longer case as its Hero forme has been unranked with its Crowned forme finding its niche as a Yveltal check after Zacian's banned to AG[[/note]]. To add insult to injury, Zamazenta receives a {{nerf}} to both its stats and its Dauntless Shield ability despite being nowhere near as overwhelming as Zacian was. In spite of its underwhelming performance in Ubers, Crowned Zamazenta ends up being a NormalFishInATinyPond in OU; not receiving enough votes to be unbanned from its Gen VIII's suspect test and Gen IX.
** Avalugg's Hisuian form is definitely considered this due to being the only Hisuian form that is considered outright worse than its normal counterpart. To be specific it has similar stats to [[StoneWall regular Avalugg]] but trades off 10 of its special attack for 10 more physical attack and also trades 10 of its already bad Special Defense for Speed. Not only does this additional 10 speed barely help, it also makes it worse in Trick Room. The most notable and mocked part however is its typing. Regular Avalugg was mono ice, which was bad to begin with but Hisuian Avalugg on the other hand is Rock/Ice, which is considered to be arguably the worst duel typing possible. While normal Avalugg was able to fight through its weaknesses to have [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman some niches]], its Hisuian counterpart is just bad.

** Terastallization is highly contested topic within the community. Some players believe Terastallization adds variety that previous mechanics lack and view it as a healthy and balanced mechanic. While the other side dislike Terastallization due to its unpredictability as every Pokemon can undergo it on top of having to guess which Tera-type they're going to utilize, and argue that several Pokemon such as Volcarona and Regieleki are banned because of their ability to eliminate their checks with it, believing some form of restrictions or ban needs to be taken on Terastallization. Eventually, Terastallization receives a suspect test in OU, concluding with no actions taken on it. However, this doesn't not stop the debate with it, and another discussion thread of Terastallization is made after ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' receives its compatibility with Pokemon HOME.

** Terastallization is highly contested topic within the community. Some players believe Terastallization adds variety that previous mechanics lack and view it as a healthy and balanced mechanic. While the other side dislike Terastallization due to its unpredictability as every Pokemon can undergo it on top of having to guess which Tera-type they're going to utilize, and argue that several Pokemon such as Volcarona and Regieleki are banned because of their ability to eliminate their checks with it, believing some form of restrictions or ban needs to be taken on Terastallization. Eventually, Terastallization receives a suspect test in OU, concluding with no actions taken on it. However, this doesn't not stop the debate with it, and another discussion thread of Terastallization is made after VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet receives its compatibility with Pokemon HOME.

** Terastallization is highly contested topic within the community. Some players believe Terastallization adds variety that previous mechanics lack and find it balanced. While others find Terastallization unpredictable as every Pokemon can undergo it, on top of having to guess which Tera-type they're going to utilize, and argue that several Pokemon such as Volcarona and Regieleki are banned because of their ability to eliminate their checks with it, believing some form of restrictions or ban needs to be taken on Terastallization.

** Crowned Zamazenta receives this treatment due to being designed as a defensive-oriented counterpart to Zacian, yet lacked the tools to excel in Ubers and at one point, is ranked lower than its Hero of Many Battles forme in the viability ranking. To add insult to injury, Zamazenta receives a {{nerf}} to both its stats and its Dauntless Shield ability despite being nowhere near as overwhelming as Zacian was. In spite of its underwhelming performance in Ubers, Crowned Zamazenta ends up being a NormalFishInATinyPond in OU; not receiving enough votes to be unbanned from its Gen VIII's suspect test and Gen IX.

** Crowned Zamazenta receives this treatment due to being designed as a defensive-oriented counterpart to Zacian, yet lacked the tools to excel in Ubers and at one point, is ranked lower than its Hero of Many Battles forme in the viability ranking. To add insult to injury, Zamazenta receives a {{nerf}} to both its stats and its Dauntless Shield ability despite being nowhere near as overwhelming as Zacian was. Despite its underwhelming performance in Ubers, Crowned Zamazenta ends up being a NormalFishInATinyPond in OU; not receiving enough votes to be unbanned from its Gen VIII's suspect test and Gen IX.

* GoodBadBugs: When the Almost Any Ability (AAA) metagame launched after ''Pokémon Home'' released, all of the default Uber Pokémon were banned... except for Groudon, who [[FailedASpotCheck somehow managed to slip under the radar]]. This allowed the Continent Pokémon to briefly wreak havoc on the metagame before the council caught on and promptly had it banned.