Showderp is a community (in the loosest sense of the word) of Pokémon Showdown players on 4chan's /vp/ (Pokémon) board that serves as a self-regulating, self-maintained, 24/7 tournament. Depending on who you ask, Showderp is based around the concepts of creative and non-stagnant teams, unorthodox but effective strategies, and the ability to adapt to any situation tactically instead of relying on copy-pasted competitive sets to carry your team.
…Or depending on who you ask, it might just be a chaotic mess of Forced Memes, spam, and name-calling.
Showderp started in Spring 2013 when a user named "LC Guy" started the first thread and acted as the original champ. It has somehow kept itself going, sustained entirely by the efforts of the mostly-anonymous users, for over a year and shows no signs of slowing down. The generally accepted rules are as follows:
- When the old "Showderp Champ" calls for a new Champ, the first user to post with a tripcode ID (tripfags, as they’re commonly known), becomes the new Champ.
- The first six (validnote ) Pokémon requests posted after the new Champ’s claim are the new Champ’s team. No exceptions. note
The requests can vary wildly in quality, and can be as specific as a fully-created moveset, something as general as the species name or “Something that reminds you of a cock”, or it could be one of the universally-accepted and recorded "Mememons" posted at the beginning of every Showderp thread. Purposely skipping a requested valid Pokémon is seen as very bad policy and will usually result in unanimous impeachment of the Champ by the other users. - Champ goes into Showdown and builds the requested team, then searches for a random OU-tier (usually) match and posts the link to the battle in the thread. Everybody enters the match and commentates on the fight, often mercilessly heckling both the opponent and their own champ.
- Champ continues battling until he gets bored, he calls for a new team or new champ in the thread, and the cycle starts all over again.
Given the constantly-shifting nature of 4chan, it’s impossible to post a direct link to a Showderp thread. The standard method of access is through a redirect link or /vp/'s catalog. You can also access Showderp's private chatroom on Pokémon Showdown by typing "/join showderp" in the chat client or visiting play.pokemonshowdown.com/showderp after spending enough time in the thread and battles. The room generally restricts access to avoid a constant influx of newfags, and generally requires that room moderators be contacted.
On March 20th, 2019, for whatever reason, global auth (primarily those involved in Smogon's "Ubers Tier") decided to delete the room despite the protests of Showdown site owner Zarel. Might as well call it Dead-derp now, eh?
For information on common Ebin Memes seen in Showderp, check out the (in-progress) list at Characters.Showderp.
As a 4chan derivative, there’s inevitably some NSFW content below and on the other pages.
Tropes present in Showderp:
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The role of "champ" shifts between users regularly, as it tends to be claimed and discarded at will by anyone up to the task.
- Arch-Nemesis: Smogon. Stupid people who need to "git gud". People who copy/paste sets directly from the Internet. People under the age of 18. People with dumb or edgy usernames, avatars, or Pokémon nicknames. Talonflame. Female Goodra. Anal-retentive global auth. Global auth who ERP with children. Global auth in general.
- Ascended Meme: In Pokémon Sword and Shield, enemies in the Battle Tower sometimes send out a Drapion which appears to run a watered-down/weaker version of the Citizen Snips set (namely, it uses Leech Life and two other STAB/coverage moves, as opposed to the original's Rest-Talk/Accupressure/Knock Off set.) There's also a Rhyperior variant of the "Solid Suggester" set, which runs Dragon Rush for coverage as opposed the original running Rock Wrecker for sheer power.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: For all the times boost/Metronome sets take out a stall team. Expect a flood of “#REKT”, “NICE TACTICS FAGGOT” and “B-BUT SMOGON TOLD ME-“ in the chat following one of these.
- The Blind Leading the Blind: You'll wish jimml were still champing.
- Canon Name: If a requester asks for a specific nickname for the Pokémon they request, the champ is expected to comply. Many specific sets have shorthand names (ebin cade, BOOM BOOM v2.5, GIGA NIGGA, etc.) used to request them.
- Celebrity Impersonator:
- It's not uncommon for the viewers to try to convince their opponent that the Champ is a famous PokéTuber like Marriland, Shofu, or Haydunn, and that they're doing a live stream on Twitch for "Autism awareness". Sometimes it actually works.
- Not "Celebrities" per say, but the Showderpers will sometimes claim that they are "from Reddit :^)" or "le 9gag army xD", for irony's sake and as an attempt at stirring up hatred for these other websites. This usually does not work.
- Character Portrait:
- The viewers will often make fun of the opponent’s avatar, on top of everything else, especially if the opponent picked something “edgy” like Red or Giovanni.
- Since Pokémon Showdown treats "Shiny" as nothing more than a check box, teams of six shinies will be unfailingly met with "Nice shiny, did you catch it yourself?"
- Com Mons: Expect to see one of these on Champ’s team at least every once in a while, including the infamous Choice Specs Weedle.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Some of the gimmicky movesets and tactics requested have no other option but this.
- Defeat Means Playable: Invoked with the “Pokémon Trainer” mememon, which is a Gallade holding an Iron Ball that knows the move Fling. If Gallade knocks out an enemy Pokémon by using Fling, that Pokémon is considered “captured” and a copy of it is used instead of Pokémon Trainer until a new team is built.
- Defiant to the End: Enforced. If the current Champ forfeits for any reason, they are immediately impeached and replaced, even if the match is an obvious Curb-Stomp Battle or stall-fest. Unless they have sudden prior engagements or get an unanimous agreement to leave from the viewers, the Champ must see the match through to the end.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Happens sometimes, either because the opponent was AFK for too long or the viewers rused them into accidentally closing their browser window. When the opponent does this everybody pretty much treats this as a roaring success for the champ and a great cause for celebration. Notably, the champ is not allowed to let the opponent win this way, EVER.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: You think anybody actually LIKES the Champ? Wrong. However, in the context of each match Champ is almost always seen as the lesser of two evils and most everybody would prefer to see him win rather than the opponent.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Champ gains nothing more than A Day In The Lime Light for his efforts (and the rage he endures).
They do it for free, after all. - Emergent Gameplay: Invoked, often sarcastically, with the phrase “NEW METAnote ” when the champ or opponent uses an ineffective or extremely strange tactic. Sometimes meant honestly when an obscure tactic is actually pretty good.
- Foregone Conclusion: There will be times where Champ has a team of Com Mons with useless items and moves. Opponent has a team filled with legendaries. Still doesn’t stop the viewers from spamming “CHAMP WHAT ARE YOU DOING” and “You could have prevented this”.
- Idiot Ball: When the opponent grabs this, chat bursts into laughter and greentext arrows. When Champ does this, chat becomes a roiling pit of hatred and cursing. Being handed the idiot ball is commonly referred to as “having a stroke”.
- Irony:
- Showderp really, really hates opponents who copy-paste sets off of Smogon or other websites instead of developing their own teams, and yet almost every Showderp team has at least one Pokémon copy-pasted from their “Mememons” pastebin because it was requested.
- And on top of that, some of the most popular Mememon sets aren’t really all that different from Smogon sets. Skydoge (Shaymin-S) and Blood Totem (Sigilyph) are two examples of this.
- In the more meta sense, all of the "cancerous" stuff that the Showderp participants do, including the spamming and overuse of memes, is supposed to be ironic. Some people believe this still holds true, while others think that the influx of newfags who didn't get the irony have filled Showderp with unironic shitposting and completely ruined it forever.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Usually averted; Champ is not allowed to forfeit from any match, no matter how long it's been going or how inevitable defeat is. The viewers will, however, encourage the opponent to give up. Played straight when Champ is being risky with stat boosts and the viewers encourage them to "Stop greeding" and "just kill it already"
- Lethal Joke Character: A Sigilyph holding a Flame Orb, a Drapion that won't stop spamming Accupressure, a dancing Lilligant, a Clefable with Metronome as its only offensive option, a Togekiss with no STAB moves, and a Weedle with Choice Specs. This team was not copy-pasted from competitive play sites. This team was assembled by a group of six random strangers on the Internet who hate each other and had no idea what the other people were going to request. And this team is going to kick your Smogon-copying OU ass six ways to Sunday.
- Loophole Abuse: How some of the more unorthodox requests end up working. Also, Funbro the Slowbro revolved around this for trolling purposes (at least until he was banned).
- Moe Anthropomorphism: Show-Tan, the pink-haired, cheery mascot of Showderp. She'll root for champ and then cut his fucking throat if he dares to screw up at a vital moment. Showderp has also created "Smogon-Tan", the characterization of Smogon's beliefs and a rival to Show-Tan, with an Aegislash motif.
- Moral Myopia: To a degree. The purpose of the group is to show that atypical sets can compete with the usual pick-and-mix, but if they encounter a trainer using a suboptimal setup, they'll usually break out the snark.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: They’re called the “Champs of Showderp” but they’re usually treated as butt-monkeys, especially if they aren’t popular or skilled.
- No Item Use for You: If requested, obviously, but it’s more common for trolls to request an item on a Pokémon that gets no benefit (or actually an impairment) from its’ use.
- Player Punch: Often sarcastically invoked when a shitmon on Champ’s team goes down, prompting messages of “nuuu!”, “;_;7”note or “rip” in the chat. Less sarcastic when a good Pokémon that could have won the match is unexpectedly KO’d.
- Shout-Out: Plenty of the names of the memes are references to other media.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: When Champ is forced by requests to do things that will most definitely not benefit himself.
- Victory Is Boring: One of the main reasons Showderp continues to function: if the same unbeatable set was used every time, there would be no reason to keep going. The randomness of community suggestions keeps the tourney going.
- Victory Quote: “rekt” is most commonly used, both by the winning champ and most of the viewers. If the opponent has the nerve to do one of these, it will be mocked for the next few minutes.
- Violation of Common Sense: Most champs could probably build a better set on their own than what Showderp gives them, but the rules must not be broken!
- We Win, Because You Didn't: As long as Champ didn’t get beaten 6-0 (that is, didn’t knock out a single opponent Pokémon), the viewers will claim “We did it, guys!”. Somewhat justified in that Champ’s team isn’t usually battle-ready to begin with.
- What the Hell, Hero?: It’s not a question of if the Champ will do something that makes the entire lobby angry at them, but when. The amount of anger exhibited at Champ for stupid mistakes very quickly delves into Disproportionate Retribution territory.
"God damn it, I'm sick of this bullshit. New champ."
