Feedback: PC's Competitive Battling Community

I suppose I could make a separate thread with a simple goal: ask people brand new to competitive battling if they would be interested in a tutor program. Then put it in the Lobby's intro message on the battle server. However, I think it would be unnecessary for the tutor program. New battlers are constantly visiting PC, so there will always be people to tutor. On the other hand, tutor clans would probably require a great deal of interest, so it may help to receive some confirmation before going through with it. Personally I'm not too keen for tutor clans, because a) there would be the constant concern of thread activity, and b) the combination of this forum (e.g. team help threads) and the tutor program would accomplish similar goals.

PC League & Clans: I've been brainstorming ideas lately. Here's what I've come up with:

• The PC League would be a basic organized league. However, there would be clan divisions.
• Anyone would be able to make their own clan within the league. If the clan founder can't find at least 4 other people within a certain time period, their clan would be removed.
• 5 members would be the requirement for each clan. Could increase depending on the amount of sign-ups.
• Each clan would have their own official chat room on the battle server. These would be more for advertisement than for practical use, like to grab the interest of random visitors. Challenges could be held out there as well.
• 2 or 4 clans would be designated as "chief clans" (pending name). Challengers who would be interested in putting their name in the Hall of Fame, as well as other goodies, would have to defeat these clans. Defeating the other clans would be optional. To decide which clans would be chief clans, I'm guessing we would hold a clan war amongst all of the clans.
• Clans could have their own themes, but it wouldn't be required. OU would still be the standard format for most league activities and challenges. e.g. A clan could have a monotype theme for challengers, but stick with regular OU teams for other stuff.
• Lastly, it goes without saying that there would be league activities such as clan wars and free-for-all tournaments.

Also, I had this idea pertaining to the battle server's ladder. There are always problems with searching for battles, because it can be inconvenient getting two people to search at the same time. I could possibly code a message that is sent into the Lobby whenever someone searches for a battle. Unfortunately I don't think there's a way for the message to include what format the battle is for. However, I could remove all formats on the ladder except for a "Battle Week/Fortnight" format, so it would be obvious which format it is.

I'm fine with run-of-the-mill tutoring as it's likely going to feel less contrived. If that's the case, what will the program look like? I truthfully don't have a hugely clear vision of this, mostly because of the aforementioned shortage of tutors which we'd have to work around. I would a tutoring infrastructure more than a tutoring "event" though if that makes sense, for the sake of giving it more longevity, allowing students become tutors over time, etc. (I don't know how that looks in practical terms though.)

I do think though that new battlers visiting PC isn't the entire demographic here. As long as the server is majority non-battling casual, I think the problems that have been described earlier in the thread (especially about the chat) will persist. Maybe you don't agree with this, but part of the appeal of tutoring to me is giving these people an avenue to learn the game and play it decently well, so that even if they only play competitive Pokemon in a casual manner, they can at least be members of the competitive community in earnest. That's more why I want to gauge interest, as otherwise we're still operating as two different communities which I don't think is ideal.

I really like your idea for PC League and fully support its implementation as soon as possible. Maybe we'd want to wait for tutoring to get up and running first--you can decide that--but whenever the optimal time is to post it you can do so and I think it would be an awesome and probably necessary addition to our competitive scene.

(Just a footnote, but I did want to push the team-building workshop thread again and gauge opinions on that since team-building tends to be a major barrier of entry, and it is perhaps a superior alternative to "here's a list of teams to use" that is more interactive and engaging.)

I really don't have the time to read through everyhing posted above but I would like to say that anti you are awesome \o/
Anyway I wrote something that I thought about.

I agree with a lot that has been said above and in my opinion I would love a more battle centered battle center. Also I disagree with people saying off topic discussions is what brings the laid back-ness, when I joined yesterday on the bc, I think anti and karp were there? Idr lol, but it was actually fun, people were talking about competitive strategies for a while and then we all started to talk about what he future mega mons will bring to the game/if non-factual pokemons etc. it was fun and laid back back but also informative. Especially I wasn't really caught up on the new news.
While I don't want to put the impression that off topic discussions like what some of you are discussing about is a complete no-no for me (since I used to be involved in them myself lol) I would prefer only topics that are good contribution wise be present in the main chat and things that are more suited for pm's be taken to pm's.

I actually thought of a way so we can merge tutoring as well as tournaments. It was inspired by football but I was thinking if we could have the league concept introduced (I saw a lot league written above but irdk what that's about, I will read it by Sunday). What I mean by that is we do a whole tutor recruitment thing or what ever, you guys can honk about he process. But once that is done we get teams in with max 5 people in each team. Every team gets atleast one of the above listed tutors. Now what this does is help overall growth in people while battling, something like on-field experience etc. not only does this become fun but also very interactive and let's people get involved into competitive Pokemon with guidance. Small tournaments in between is also a big yes since it promotes practice and overall competitiveness.
Furthermore we should definitely have clans, although I am not an expert on those, but I have seen so many clan guys come to our server only to be dissed by the community saying this is not a battling-ish server (no I did not have a hand in that).

Anyway These are my views and I need to go to class (full days be so ass) I might add/tidy up later on. Ty for reading, elf sux etc.

A lot has been said on this matter, I agree with a many things. Alright just want to introduce myself for those of you who dont know me, Im Ingo a regular on the PC showdown server. I joined this site and as soon as I became a member I was impressed the site itself has so many features and a solid member base. The structure of the site is great, although I feel the competitiveness can be improved further.

Ok for starters I feel that there should be a clan section around here where members can build small clans/groups and challenge each other. Perhaps form an official ranking list with the top 5 clans of Poke' Community, have this maintained by a certain member and have mods over look it to make sure its being run smoothly. Trust me its effective, this site has a lot of skilled battlers however its lacking a bit of the competitiveness. On the positive side I do like the tournaments being held such as the GT11 things like that raises activity and awareness and will definitely help retain members. Also Wolf I most definitely agree with you on the fact that having clans and small groups will help the site have teams battling more closely alongside each other. So if the site was to war another site players would feel more comfortable and would know how to work with each other as a team too.

Another thing, I'm not having a go at the moderators here. But how many posts you have on the forum shouldnt declare whether you should be a moderator on the server. Post count is important dont get me wrong it shows dedication, how long a member has been part of the community is also very important. But im a regular on the Poke' community server as is E x i l e and Dark Azelf. Ive noticed a lot of the moderators on the server dont do anything or barely get on there most of the time I message them saying host a tournament. These are things that will keep the server active and running.

My advice, maybe have a competitive forum for pokemon which can be merged with RMT ratings, clans/ leagues. This will definitely enhance the forum and encourage new members to join also.

wolf said:

Perhaps we could collaborate and make a beginner's guide on battling? Similar to Smogon's DPP one but with updated info and additional stuff like team synergy and cores.

Click to expand...

I could most definitely help with this. (Sorry to bump an older thread, I've been crazy busy the last few weeks and I'm trying to sort out some of my obligations by priority, so I haven't been able to check this until like now).

Ahoy! I'm not sure if anyone still cares about all this, but nonetheless... I'm more than willing to do what was discussed here, but I've been swamped with schoolwork lately. That and activity has been slow, especially on the battle server, which has been discouraging. Because of this, the tutor program has been put on hold until maybe the holidays. I've also been forced to delay the PC League due to the poor activity, since we don't really have enough active regulars to make it successful.

In the meantime that I have some goals to accomplish once my semester ends (or before that if I have time): a) write up a decent guide for beginners, b) host small tournaments (e.g. Battle Dojo and regular) to spark some interest in ORAS OU, c) be more active in general, and d) make it easier to find battles on the battle server.

I've tested out ladder messages on my private server (whenever someone clicks on the "Look for a battle" button a message like "<user> is searching for a <format> battle" appears), but it has one major glitch that deters me from implementing it in the Lobby. The server will post multiple messages for each member that has the same IP, regardless if it was just one of them who clicked on the button. So, if a crowd from school starts using the ladder, the Lobby will get flooded. To avoid this, I've considered making another room like the Lobby that everyone autojoins upon loading the server. Since the room wouldn't be intended for chatting like the default room, the ladder spam wouldn't be a big problem if it ever occurs. Plus, other stuff could be done with the room, like room-specific promotions as incentives for being an active or good battler. Then, more people would be able to start tournaments.