So take children just playing the game out of the equation. When I say playerbase, I mean those who are actively seeking to battle people competitively regardless of format or league. That said, just how intelligent is the average player of competitively? All the Smogon players, VGC players, homebrew Facebook league players, etc. With access to the internet is it more difficult than every to be bad at Pokemon? Because despite there being no excuse, I just happen across the most poor, unfortunate of souls from time to time that really make me question if I'm in the wrong place.