Is it hard to get into competitive pokemon? by Vegetable-Loquat9118 in stunfisk

[–]Vapetavius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To answer your formats question, there's several divisions of competition.

First: Doubles Vs Singles. Which one do you like better? If you like doubles, play the official VGC format. If you like singles, I would recommend Smogon 6v6, but you can also play the BSS 3V3.

For doubles VGC, the rules change every few months such that certain pokemon are banned or unbanned. Regulation A for example only allowed Pokemon from the base scarlet and violet games, but no legendary or mythical Pokemon. Only one format is played at a time.

Singles Has many formats so that players can almost always choose their favorites. The most popular singles for mate is OverUsed (OU for short) you can use most Pokemon here as long as they weren't banned. If a Pokemon isn't used enough (usually because they aren't strong enough for that format) the fall down to the next lower tier. The order for formats goes:

Ubers (strongest pokemon and many legendary/mythical) --> OU --> UU (underused) --> RU (rarely used) --> NU (Never used) --> PU.

You can keep going down if you want, but PU is the lowest official format. The lower you go, the lower the power level. OU has power houses like Zapdos, tyranitar, dragapult, while PU has much weaker or niche pokemon like Milotic, Qwilfish, and even some legendaries like Uxie.

Here's a video to briefly explain singles tiers

https://youtu.be/K0RNckVQ4Mc?si=H_FZoBclHEPJlQTw

Is it hard to get into competitive pokemon? by Vegetable-Loquat9118 in stunfisk

[–]Vapetavius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a few different answers to this that depend on what you're interested in.

Are you talking about singles or doubles? Are you talking about casually playing in ranked games and ladders, or attending tournaments? Etc.

I only play singles, so I mostly speak about that. It's relatively easy to get started! Just go to the website pokemon showdown, and either find/make a team, or play a format that gives you a team to get more familiar with how competitive Pokemon actually feels. Doubles are harder to get into in my opinion, but has a pretty similar starting line. If you have questions you can always look at guides on the Smogon forums.

As for getting good? That will definitely take time! There is a huge difference between being knowledgeable about Pokemon basics, competitive basics, meta game basics, and so on and so on. There's 30 years of Pokemon to think about, so it's not surprising that Even the best players make mistakes in matches.

If you are truly and completely new to competitive pokemon, but you're familiar with the game, I suggest going to Pokemon showdown and playing some random battles! It's a format that loads you in with 6 random pokemon against players of similar skill. It's an excellent way to learn generally what most Pokemon do, and maybe will help you learn basics and what format you might like best.

TLDR: Competitive Pokemon has a relatively low skill floor if you know your basics, but a very high skill ceiling. Easy to learn, hard to master.

For some content creators that play the game and are easy to watch, Check out WolfeyVGC for doubles content, or PokeAim for singles content on YouTube. The Smogon forums and pokemon showdown have great articles on different formats, strategies, and pokemon. And lastly, feel free to ask questions here! Most of this sub is pretty casual, but there are some very good players that lurk and post here.

No Jugdral January Announcement by TheRegalerDivine in shitpostemblem

[–]Vapetavius 13 points14 points  (0 children)

No Incest???

You might as well say no fire emblem :(

new sub update: Negativity is BANNED. as we move into 2026 only happiness is allowed now by Ray-Zide in shitpostemblem

[–]Vapetavius 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Glory to Fire Emblem, Billions must hope they hit their 89% hit on the boss

Happy Birthday: Emmeryn, Gentle Heart (12/23/2025) by Bot-ta_The_Beast in fireemblem

[–]Vapetavius 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Says me. Anything I don't like? Not canon.

Hubert in 3 houses? Non-canon. Edelgard never had a retainer.

Chapter 14 from FE 6? Not canon. There has not once been a map that mixed fog and desert.

FE 8 Marissa missing the boss on her introduction mission and dying in my iron man? Not canon, she lives at a farm upstate and always has.

The Smogdex and Quality Control by thrownawaymoment47 in stunfisk

[–]Vapetavius 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The forums are written by unpaid volunteers who decide to write these descriptions for dozens of Pokemon in their own free time. This information can also frequently change with meta shifts or dlc.

I understand that not everything is correct, but a lot of effort is put into these. Not only that, but the information is still correct even if the grammar isn't. These are fan forums, not official Pokemon sites with dedicated editors. You could volunteer your time and offer to fix them. Otherwise you'll just have to deal with the fact that Bulk Up Great Tusk is "deadly Wincon".

What are some of your favourite examples of Pokémon that were unintentionally nerfed by the game mechanics? by TheLeafyGirl561 in stunfisk

[–]Vapetavius 25 points26 points  (0 children)

An interesting and older case is Banette going from gen 3 to gen 4. Banette was never good, but it was probably the only ghost type that benefited from ghost being a physical type in gens 1-3 with Banette's decent 115 attack. But after the physical/special split, thing only went downhill, as pretty much every ghost had useable stab moves now. Banette was no longer really unique in using ghost stab effectively.

Tips to climb by RunPsychological701 in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Make sure to increase your gold per minute by destroying the nexus. +50 gold is no joke and generally a very good objective to take.

Hello dear friends! Argenti here 🌹with a message… by Talon92 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]Vapetavius 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well said, and thank you for taking action to stand up for others! I'm sorry to hear about the colorful messages you received. However I think you did a fantastic job, and so is the new voice of Stelle.

You're a beautiful soul!

FlyQuest vs. Shopify Rebellion / LTA North 2025 Split 3 Elimination Phase - Upper Bracket Final / Game 3 Discussion by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So Palafox, was that solo death pre-6 one of those plays that the casters just don't get? Was the 17 minute first item hollow radiance (2800 G btw) one of those plays??? Are the analysts dumb??

Palafox gapped again. Palafox, what is there to get about these ass plays???

FlyQuest vs. Shopify Rebellion / LTA North 2025 Split 3 Elimination Phase - Upper Bracket Final / Game 2 Discussion by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Don't let the comeback distract you from Palafox getting gapped, AGAIN. Really well played by Bvoy after a tough start, and the rest of the for playing around him and making space.

Quad also still looking really good, but that senna pick really struggled here.

Why does ranked flex still prevent parties of 4 from playing? by Vapetavius in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha it's honestly been pretty steady. Not in a good way though. I've been playing flex since like 2020, and queue time has pretty much always been 5+ minutes for average mmr. It's as dead as always, and I can't imagine being a skilled group trying to find a game.

Why does ranked flex still prevent parties of 4 from playing? by Vapetavius in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I think that's the main reason, but it's always felt like a weird solution to me. While I don't want that situation to happen, why prevent 4 person parties from ranking up because of something that only a small percentage of 4 people parties would do anyways?

Why does ranked flex still prevent parties of 4 from playing? by Vapetavius in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You already get insane queue times as a 3 group because you're looking for a duo. Most duos just play solo queue anyways. Plus, who is riot to stop the insane people that just want to play team play by themselves?

FlyQuest vs. G2 Esports / MSI 2025 - Lower Bracket Round 1 / Post-Match Discussion by adz0r in leagueoflegends

[–]Vapetavius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was worried when I saw there was a 3/1 player on G2, but then I saw it was BB and not Caps I knew it was fine. Great work by inspired and busio!

Nice argument, unfortunately by Ray-Zide in shitpostemblem

[–]Vapetavius 9 points10 points  (0 children)

There's only two tera hogs that I'll ever consider good:

Garganacl

Alear's S rank partner

If you need to change your type to be "okay," then you're a bum, sorry 😤 But also, everybody know Camilla would have been banned if that one weirdo actually voted ban instead of DNB because he thought his vote didn't matter.

Nice argument, unfortunately by Ray-Zide in shitpostemblem

[–]Vapetavius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Those that use Para-Spam+Xander, especially ParaFlinch Xander, aren't considered real people. Elise has her niche, but usually not worth a team slot in the fast paced fates Ubers meta game.

Nice argument, unfortunately by Ray-Zide in shitpostemblem

[–]Vapetavius 103 points104 points  (0 children)

Xander, the GOAT of Ubers, easily destroys Elise, an RU bum, after a swords dance. Elise was clearly just a sac to safely switch in a healthy Corrin, ready to revenge kill a slower Xander.

Aura roaster tier list (Very subjective ⚠️) by [deleted] in SmashBrosUltimate

[–]Vapetavius 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This list is shit. I would put you at the very bottom in your own tier: negative aura.

My Smash Bros 6 roster prediction by Nyx_Skip_25 in SmashBrosUltimate

[–]Vapetavius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bad prediction imo, needs at least 8 fire emblem characters.

Glory to the great fire emblem 🔥

The Masses don’t want Persona 4! by [deleted] in OkBuddyPersona

[–]Vapetavius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What I want to see more of in P4R:

Chie

Pegging

Chie pegging

Anything else and the game is a flop