Why is it that people who criticize the way Smogon goes about things never actually know what they're talking about or consider the other side of the argument they're making? Here's an example about one detractors love to mention: Baton Pass. Say you assert that Baton Pass is not broken and the metagame should simply adapt. Okay, fair enough. Interestingly, Baton Pass teams adapt in kind and use techs that beat both Taunt or Phasing (Magic Bounce/fast Taunt or Encore + Ingrain or Suction Cups). So what now? You adapt to this by packing, uh... Unaware? Ah, but Stored Power still deals damage that beats Unaware mons if you don't get in within 2 turns. "But simply get in within 2 turns," you say. Okay, now consider that the one using Baton Pass is at least as competent as you and isn't going to just let you hit them, so they now Encore you... and set up again. No one wants to admit that the biggest issue with the things that are deemed broken has nothing to do with the fact that the best players don't like using them. A better player with more broken tools is going to beat the fuck out of worse players on average. Banning the broken shit may steal some free wins and fast losses from everyone, but it overall is going to trend toward giving players who suck a chance. This is a great transition to the next point.
How the fuck can you dislike tiers? This makes no sense to me. Some mons are terrible and outclassed at a particular niche. You can use your favorites, but if you concede that your opponent is as good as you, winning is fun, and you are thus playing to win, you should not be using outclassed Pokémon. Tiers give everything a chance to work, all the way down to fucking ZU where some mons are so terrible it turns our you really can't use them for reasons other than personal attachment or disrespecting your opponent. Literally every single metagame that regularly adds components can benefit from tiered play. They offer a different dimension to the experience.
