>>21517353I'm of the opinion that most of what Smogon does is pretty good for battling in general. However, they have a giant stick up their ass about Simple Bans vs. Complex Bans, and it leads to a lot dispute - example being Blaze Blaziken being banned, although it's clearly nothing like Speed Boost Blaziken.
The other big boner people have with Smogon is that some pokemon who fit the description of other, banned pokemon (i.e. this pokemon has a priority move that ruins enemy sweepers, is/was used on many, MANY teams, has huge BSTs, is very oppressive to the variety of pokemon that can be used due to it's unresisted coverage, and very, very few pokemon can counter all the numerous sets this pokemon runs, since it can go physcial or special: Am I talking about Thundurus, or Aegislash?
Finally, they also have a bit of a stick in their ass about Mega vs. nonMega rankings. Somehow, they have it in their head that regular, nonMega Pinsir is OverUsed - it forces pokemon that can Mega to be played with their Mega, or die.
All in all, I think Smogon rules help the fun of the game, but I think their bans are far too broad, and should instead focus on banning the core of the problem (i.e. Ban Prankster Swagger, not Swagger. Ban Speed Boost & Mega Blaziken, not Blaze Blaziken. Ban Baton Passing after already receiving a Baton Pass, don't force players to use 1 Baton Passer. etc etc.)
