Proposal: Little Cup Featurettes

[antemortem]

I'm not completely positive the direction the other thread is going to, but regardless I'm interested in writing a short analysis of Little Cup Pokemon on some sort of regular (or irregular if I'm feeling up to it) basis. PokeCommunity, and its competitive community in particular, is not very well acclimated to Little Cup so I'd like to slowly but surely bring some understanding by breaking down a few Little Cup mons.

I would do the most popular and metagame defining ones first, in no particular order:

• Pawniard
• Mienfoo
• Spritzee
• Fletchling
• Archen
• Gastly
• Abra
• Chinchou
• ... and so on.

I'd probably format it something like:

• Maybe a short history of x in LC
• How to play with x (what roles it performs, what it can check, what it can counter, include a set or two)
• How to play against x (what comes in to check it, what comes in to counter it)

 

[bobandbill]

I'm not completely positive the direction the other thread is going to, but regardless I'm interested in writing a short analysis of Little Cup Pokemon on some sort of regular (or irregular if I'm feeling up to it) basis.

What parts are you unsure about with the other thread (assuming you mean the species analysis series one)? May be best raising them there though, actually.

I think this is a good way to get BSS people involved and I like the idea of the article series. As for doing the popular/metagame ones first, if they were done in line with the other articles we can always choose these first. They do not have to be however - just one of the things that need to be discussed I suppose...

I think the format you suggested makes sense - a short history about it in LC seems particularly interesting on top of the usual 'it can do this, it is counter by that'.

(Side note, maybe a separate article on little cup and how it differs from other formats, what's key to it, etc would be neat to do?)

 

[antemortem]

What parts are you unsure about with the other thread (assuming you mean the species analysis series one)? May be best raising them there though, actually.

I think this is a good way to get BSS people involved and I like the idea of the article series. As for doing the popular/metagame ones first, if they were done in line with the other articles we can always choose these first. They do not have to be however - just one of the things that need to be discussed I suppose...

I think the format you suggested makes sense - a short history about it in LC seems particularly interesting on top of the usual 'it can do this, it is counter by that'.

(Side note, maybe a separate article on little cup and how it differs from other formats, what's key to it, etc would be neat to do?)

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner.

"Concerns" - I just don't know what you're going to want to do with Pokemon of the Week. It'd be nice to know first and foremost who's going to take interest in writing those, because they'll be able to offer the most as far as refining the idea is concerned. I suggest you outreach to someone involved in the competitive community (Dark Azelf, Syn, wolf, Anti, Dragon, Chase, etc.) to see if they'd be interested in developing the idea further.

Now, I don't think these have to be done alongside anything else. That might just inhibit how frequently we're able to publish content and what we're able to publish. What I mean by this is that if we go in evolutionary order, take Pawniard and Bisharp for instance, we would have to get Pawniard written, edited, and published before Bisharp could even think of going out. What if these are weekly, which is what I intended? Then we'd be pigeonholed into publishing Pawniard one week and Bisharp the following, when we could fill gaps in content coverage by publishing both in the same week. We can stretch our content, but that's pushing it a bit, especially when we have no clue yet what all other content we're going to get written... yet! It's a fluid process. We'll figure it out and conform.

Couuuld do a separate article on Little Cup, if you think it'd be worth it. It wouldn't be very comprehensive though. It might be best to link to a compendium elsewhere. Mambo from Smogon wrote a good introduction to Little Cup (here) that could be linked to... somewhere... in one of the Featurettes maybe? idk yet. but I don't think I want to try and write something here that has already been put together very well elsewhere. does that make sense? breaking down a Pokemon and putting personal experience behind what is suggested for use totally varies by writer (and sometimes that's a good thing!) but basics and essentials of a ruleset do not.

 

[bobandbill]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner.

"Concerns" - I just don't know what you're going to want to do with Pokemon of the Week. It'd be nice to know first and foremost who's going to take interest in writing those, because they'll be able to offer the most as far as refining the idea is concerned. I suggest you outreach to someone involved in the competitive community (Dark Azelf, Syn, wolf, Anti, Dragon, Chase, etc.) to see if they'd be interested in developing the idea further.

Ah, specifically the battling side of the article series? Yeah, it would be up to those in the battling community to help write those I imagine, and perhaps even approve them. I can try bugging those on mod, and later on those in BSS when it's announced (I don't feel this has to start with articles to go already).

Now, I don't think these have to be done alongside anything else. That might just inhibit how frequently we're able to publish content and what we're able to publish. What I mean by this is that if we go in evolutionary order, take Pawniard and Bisharp for instance, we would have to get Pawniard written, edited, and published before Bisharp could even think of going out. What if these are weekly, which is what I intended? Then we'd be pigeonholed into publishing Pawniard one week and Bisharp the following, when we could fill gaps in content coverage by publishing both in the same week. We can stretch our content, but that's pushing it a bit, especially when we have no clue yet what all other content we're going to get written... yet! It's a fluid process. We'll figure it out and conform.

So to be clear, you feel that these articles should be separate to the other Pokemon-related article series stuff? Fair enough there.

Couuuld do a separate article on Little Cup, if you think it'd be worth it. It wouldn't be very comprehensive though. It might be best to link to a compendium elsewhere. Mambo from Smogon wrote a good introduction to Little Cup (here) that could be linked to... somewhere... in one of the Featurettes maybe? idk yet. but I don't think I want to try and write something here that has already been put together very well elsewhere. does that make sense? breaking down a Pokemon and putting personal experience behind what is suggested for use totally varies by writer (and sometimes that's a good thing!) but basics and essentials of a ruleset do not.

Also fair enough; if a good resource already exists then we don't have to try and repeat it.

 

[wolf]

Maybe provide an introductory article that acts as a cross between a threat list and the viability rankings. Here's an example. Group together the top threats (and lesser known threats that still need to be prepared for) in categories if possible, and a write concise overview on those categories. Then follow up with featurettes on each of them. Could also edit this article later in the future by providing links to the featurettes, adding more threats, etc. So it could be like a table of contents.

 

[antemortem]

Maybe provide an introductory article that acts as a cross between a threat list and the viability rankings. Here's an example. Group together the top threats (and lesser known threats that still need to be prepared for) in categories if possible, and a write concise overview on those categories. Then follow up with featurettes on each of them. Could also edit this article later in the future by providing links to the featurettes, adding more threats, etc. So it could be like a table of contents.

That could work. I'd probably simplify it since there's more diversity in typing of the top-used mons, so something like "The Quick and Powerful" for threats such as Gastly, Abra, Fletchling, Mienfoo... anything 17+ Speed tier with decent offensive presence and then something else that applies to mid-tier (~15-16?) and then everything slower with either staying power or offensive presence of their own can be left for last. I can't think of other ways to split them. "Bulky Water-types" wouldn't be a fair category because there's really only one or two (Chinchou, you might count Frillish, Staryu?) Grass-types would be fair, Fighting-types would be fair, maybe Flying-types, maybe Steel-types. But aside from that, a lot of the rest of the tier is ostracized using so few categories.