>>43293067Firstly, we need to differentiate Smogon from Showdown.
Pokemon Showdown is a Pokemon battle simulator that has every single format imaginable playable, including Smogon formats and VGC.
Smogon, while true that is "a bunch of guys playing singles on a homebrew" ruleset, it is also probably the biggest format out there. Aside from Smogon and Battle Spot (official) singles, there is no other singles metagame even worth mentioning, but Smogon's got the national dex right now. Ontop of having the Nat dex, it's popular because it's been around for generations (4th or 5th gen? I honestly don't know how old it is.). While it's moderated by an oligarchy of guys who run the site, they typically open opinions and decisions such as rules and bans on votes based on elo/glick via Showdown, the purpose being so good, experienced players can only affect these votes. Despite this, there are many who feel differently about the community's decisions (such as banned abilities, species, or dynamaxing for example), and think they've patched an easy way out.
Meanwhile, VGC is the official sanctioned meta by tPCi, and offers and hosts live events (when Corona's not got the world in a pandemic at least). It uses a ruleset that typically changes every year (depending on the iteration of games and Pokemon available in them) and typically only allows Pokemon accessible in that game's generation (usually regional dex the first year of a gen, opening up to nat dex later, and can even allow restricted legends in the latter years of a gen). Unlike Smogon, this format typically does not ban individual things (Gmax HA Charizard at Jan-Feb 2020 was one of the only occasions, but instead GF just nerfs things in future gens, like King's Shield or Gale Wings), but the lack of national dex off the bat can turn some people off, ontop of those who prefer to Smogon's ban/ruleset decisions.
While I prefer VGC for the reasons stated above, I say try them both and see what you like.
