>>50103716Was playing Emerald Battle Factory just now, and something occurred to me.
You know that it's separated into Lv. 50 and Open Level (Lv. 100), and Lv. 50's early rounds is where they give you a bunch of nfes and bad movesets. When you think about it, you realize, they are offering you intentionally bad options at that point---not just moves, but Pokemon. Which reveals they were already aware of the powerscaling that would translate into competitive.
Do you find Tropius, a fully evolved Pokemon, in the Open Level offerings? No, you find it Round 2 of Lv. 50, alongside the likes of Sealeo, Golbat, Sudowoodo---essentially, gen3nu mons.
And when you put two and two together, seeing what, like Kecleon and Raticate, should be fit for Open Level, given they are FEs, being put in the early rounds of Lv. 50, you realize these Pokemon were made weak on purpose. They knew Tropius would be a shitmon; they designed it to be a shitmon.
You know what Tropius's HP is? 99. You know the significance of that number? It's 1 stat point less than the minimum required to make substitutes that aren't one-shotted by level 100 Seismic Toss's. They didn't even let it have that, despite being a bulky-looking Pokemon by design.
