General What brought you to Smogon?

I was active at PO for a long time. When I saw Smogon, I thought it's pretty much the same as PO tier based and metagame based... until I saw Other Metagames. I started playing Inverse then trying out OMotMs. I find the OMotMs very fun and offers much more possibilities than regular tiers. Since then, I always play and contribute to at least one of the OMotMs every month.
 
I was first introduced to Smogon indirectly by my friend known as "TheStanford" (not sure if he has account here). He introduced me to Pokémon Showdown, and when I got frustrated at his ridiculously well built teams, I did some researching on Pokémon movesets a few months later, and Smogon held the movesets that I was lusting for. That's how I came to use the site, and I continued to do so for many months, before eventually sprouting here on the forums at least an hour ago! I don't plan on staying long because I'm just very prone to forgetting things like this site's forums. ._."
 
I found out this thing even existed by the likes of Bulbapedia. FYI there is an entire page about Pokemon Showdown there, then I learned about Smogon.
What appeals to me here is Showdown. I love chatting in the WiFi room, and random battles are also fun, although I always lose at regular battles.
I even tried to recommend it to my younger brother, and he barely used it. XD
 
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I live in Barcelona and there's like a place where a lot of people reunites every Sunday to do trading such a as TCG, games, consoles etcetera and I heard someone said SMOGON out of nowhere and I thought it's a good nickname for my Pokemon but then I Google'd it was like 4 years ago.
 
I first heard about Smogon from a friend I used to battle with. I'd look up sets for various Pokemon and found it fun to raise them to be competitively viable(even if I've only ever done Battle Spot this gen.) I also like to read threads about the viability of certain Pokemon and such, and figure it might be fun to add my own opinions, which can be quite unorthodox(for example, I used a Relicanth in the Battle Spot for a while a year or so ago, and I think it did quite well.)
 
ah i love threads like this, i wish some more senior users posted in this cause i'd be interested to hear the stories of how they got into it when smogon was still really small.

my story starts pretty similarly to everyone else, I had seen poketubers like haydunn, pyrotoz, and shofu play their NU and OU wifi battles when I was like 11 or 12 and I thought it was pretty incredible. I had always thought it would be super cool to play competitive pokemon, but i didn't know anything about EV training or PokeSav and I really didn't have the time to put into it. Fast forward to around December of 2013, a couple of new friends I had made knew i liked pokemon and asked if I wanted to do rand bats. ofc i had no idea what they were talking about so they introduced me to showdown and I was thrilled at the fact that there was an online pokemon simulator. From there I found smogon while I was looking for teams that I could steal to beat my friends outside of rand bats. After seeing Pyrotoz's videos, NU really looked fun, so I dabbled in BW2 NU and lurked a bunch before making an account to post an RMT in March.

I would go on showdown the odd time over the summer, but it was kind of a side thing. After I moved across the country in September, I really threw myself into the NU community and got myself completely enthralled in the Neverused room on PS!. Once I had gotten mod there, I decided i wanted to become active on the forums and ended up investing way too much time into this site, frankly because I had nothing else to do and it ended up leading me to getting badged. It was only within the past couple months that i've really thrown myself into the tournaments aspect of Smogon, where my competitive side has really taken over.

Anyways that's my Smogon life story, I hope it at least entertained you guys, if not inspired someone to start contributing here. One of the best aspects about Smogon is how broad and diverse the forums are, and if you new guys keep poking around and lurking, you'll find somewhere that you truly enjoy contributing.
 
I guess im a senior user :o

Back in 2007 is when I first found Smogon, I was searching for good movesets for ingame stuff and I wanted to learn which Pokemon were good and which ones sucked, through my googling I found Smogon, and read every analysis to learn about Pokemon and what they did. From there I eventually started playing on Shoddy Battle in early D/P, abusing Garchomp and generally being a typical ladder scrub, with my Focu Blast Weavile.

After that I got involved in DPP LC a little bit, playing on the small ladder on the CAP Server, and making some cool teams that fared decently well. I was still a no name in the community cause I was to afraid to talk to anyone, but I still had a lot of fun.

I got more involved Smogon during BW, I was being tutored by San_Pellegrino, and I told him that I wanted to get more involved with the community and stuff, because I didn't have very many friends here at all, because all I did was lurk and occasionally join tournaments. At first I wanted to be a part of the RU community, but I felt kind of out of place, so once BW NU was started, I joined the IRC channel and just played it a lot, with people like marilli, Zebraiken, ice-eyes, natgeo, DTC, and a lot more :o, and I was selected to take part in the first BW NU vote on Gorebyss, which made me very happy cause I felt like I found a place where I fit in. After that I got more involved with NU, eventually being a part of the permanent council, and then a moderator, and then tier leader! So now I've been tier leader in NU for 2 years, and really enjoy it, it took a lot of work to get here, but when I first got involved with NU I was still new to smogon in everything except join date :o
 

Empress

33% coffee / 33% alcohol / 34% estrogen
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Fuck RMTs; I'll use my 1.5k here.

After losing my 3DS in 2012, the drive to play Pokemon once again came back to me in January 2013. That's when I found Pokemon Showdown and started playing the BW metagame. I started as your typical ladder scrub, trolling the Ubers ladder with my in-game BW team of Samurott/Excadrill/Archeops/Volcarona/Hydreigon/Haxorus. I also made a Smogon account because I knew the two were affiliated, but I didn't touch the Smogon account for over a year after that. Eventually I got sick of typical BW metagames and scrolled to the bottom of the teambuilder. That's when I saw the CAP Pokemon and thought they were cool, so I migrated to the CAP metagame.

Then CAP 18 rolls around and I decide to participate. I realize my Smogon account had been sitting for a year, so I was like, "now's the perfect time to start!" Obviously, though, it's very difficult to get respect here by just doing CAP, and although I had knowledge of the game of Pokemon, I was never a good battler. So that's when I started writing analyses, though my lack of battling experience showed. C&C was still a very welcoming, inclusive environment, however, so I knew I couldn't leave it completely, which is why I took up GP. I never looked back, and while it hasn't always been easy here on Smogon, I've grown to love this community and have made friendships here that'll last for a long time.

Now for shoutouts to my favorite people.
Dr Ciel: Fine you can be first.
Ununhexium: You're my best friend on the forums for a reason. We both had rough starts but we grew together every step of the way as well. Everyone deserves a right hand man like you.
boltsandbombers: When I first started putting in the effort to improve, you were the very first person to offer to help. I appreciate you always being there for me. Proud to say that I'm your apprentice.
Minus: See above. Only you were the second one ;)
Recreant: I'm still your personal fangirl; don't worry. It's been amazing to watch you grow over the past year, and I'm glad that I gave you the encouragement to stay and improve.
HeaLnDeaL: Man, I remember the days when we were just randoms who played on the CAP ladder. My, have times changed since then!
Mysteria: #BadgeTwins4Life. In all seriousness, though, just like Hex, we were awful together and then we were successful together. The Shellder Smuggler and wh0sy0urpapa are no more, and I'm glad!
Rhythms: Proud to be your mentor. Go out there and give 'em hell!
anto: I still can't thank you enough for teaching me how to HTML.
Jukain and Vacate: Before I had anto, I had you guys. Thanks for giving me a start on my coding journey.
dodmen, Hikari, King UU, NV, and IronBullet: Remember when I used to dabble in UU? Yeah, didn't think so. Even so, it's a fun tier backed up with an even better community, and I'd love to start playing it again. Cya during the SPL 7 midseason (ok, not really).
Little Hulk: Teach me how to Firebot. Actually, don't bother.
Trickster, nizzyd18, f(x), and MARCU5theBAW5: The lobby might be a dangerous place, but you guys are nonetheless fun to talk to amidst the shitstorm.
Albacore: We always interacted in CAP and on PS when we were noobs. And now we see each other every day again in AW! It's been fun working alongside you all this time.
JigglykongisFUM16, Kingriolu, QueenOfLuvdiscs, Animus Majulous, sparktrain, GiantWhirlpool, BreloomMyHomie, Sunfished, Tadasuke, viperfang4, Elite Lord Sigma, heartofgold, Da Pizza Man, hendrix96, and cbrevan: How could I forget my buddies from the CAP room?
GatoDelFuego, SuperJOCKE, and Calm Pokemaster: I'll never forget when I read those fateful words: "We've decided to add you to the team." Thank you for allowing me to pursue my new passion on the forums.
Misaka Mikoto: Another one of my biggest cheerleaders. I owe it to you for not retiring in July.
Yagura: Thanks again for teaching me everything there is to know about LC. You are an amazing tutor. Wish I coulda done better in the Open though.
Merritt: Never thought I'd ever meet another Smogonite irl. Glad it's you though. Re-introduce me to LC sometime y/n
P Squared: I still remember when I first met you after you amchecked my Krilowatt analysis in January. I must say that I'm not surprised to see how far you've come after that! Moreover, ever since I've been on the team, you've always been there to give me advice, so I owe it to you for making me a better checker. And regardless of what's happened recently, you've always been fun to talk to and still are.
The Dutch Plumberjack: Same as above pretty much.
cant say: I still use the GP stamp that you made me every single day. Did you get to the new one yet though?
Bughouse: I owe it to our one-on-one pep talk back last November as the day when I set my sights on shaping up.
Laurel: Wait... ok. Sorry Bughouse, but it was actually Laurel's thread back in January where I REALLY started putting in work on Smogon. The immediate results were mixed, but I'm happy with where I am now. Couldn't have done it without you.
McMeghan: Funk Jr. at your service.
The Goomy: Thanks again for trying to teach me NU and letting me use your SPL team on the ladder. I wouldn't have these 256 gray pixels in my postbit without you.
DetroitLolcat: You were the very first person that I ever looked up to on this site. Thanks for giving me someone to admire and emulate throughout my work.

Other people who I haven't talked to in awhile/haven't known very long/couldn't come up with a personal paragraph for (but are still pretty damn awesome in any case):
-Clone- Aragorn the King SpyQuoteCS Lemonade. hollywood antemortem Queez Kingler12345 THE_IRON_...KENYAN? Integer Mova Cretacerus Tokyo Tom Kurona FookMi? galbia unfixable rubsomebacononit fleggumfl Karxrida Hootie xzern Nova Talenheim Tressed astroboy Water Drone Arifeen Soulblaster Meteordash Magnemite Exeggutor Sweep QueBien Celticpride Cheek Pouch Enki Fluke Hulavuta Luka~ Typhlito Viridi Magistrum Arkian scorpdestroyer Lunistrius CanadianWifier Kasumi♥ InfernapeTropius11 Raiza. alexwolf Mew2 brightobject Eminegg Ransei Mr.378 SM979 Trinitrotoluene Psywaves Expulso Winry Adamant Zoroark -Grim Always! -kal- GoodMorningEspeon Analytic Level 56 Joshz Tricking Leftiez ZANBAKUResh MegaTias haxiom Magcargo WreckDra (I would tag Stratos and Sparkl3y but they're banned)
If you want a personal paragraph, remind me why you're awesome so that I can make one.


Thanks again to all of you people! Love you guys so much!
 
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McMeghan

Dreamcatcher
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 5th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 14 Championis a defending SPL Championis a Past SPL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
When I was active on Netbattle with the French Community from back then, I (along the other franch) used to think Smogon was bad at tiering and even playing. Not in the way you'd think tho. We used to think they didn't ban enough and they would also keep using scrub Pokemons like Flygon. That's when I first heard of Smogon.

Shortly after DP came out, I stopped playing. However, during the summer holidays of 2010, I was browsing a Pokemon website and read about Shoddy Battle. I wanted to give it a try and see if some of my NB friends were still around (which was the case!). At the time, the Smogon Tour was going on and a lot of french people were active in it. The concept sounded very appealing so I made an account to play. I stopped playing again soon afterwards tho, as school kicked in.

I became active on Smogon during BW. After finishing Black/White in-game, I checked out a Pokemon website. After reading the competitive section, I wanted to play some Gen 5 online. I started using my Smogon account to participate in the Smogon Tour again and the Suspect Test (OU Round 4) as I found the idea of influencing the development of OU exciting.
 

HeaLnDeaL

Let's Keep Fighting
is an Artistis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnus
Why I joined smogon?

Because I was being a nerd and looking at all the DPP RNG guides. I remember the forum's search function was being a pain in the butt, either never spitting out the info I wanted or saying I didn't have permissions to search by usernames. So I made an account. And then I stalked the big RNGers well into BW. And sat and did nothing else with my account for years.
 
I'm somewhat bored at the moment, so let's go.

I simply started on Smogon after a year I got voiced on PS! (yes, it took me a year to find out smogon and ps were related). I didn't do a shit in the beginning, but eventually when I got driver I needed to use it more for private reasons (i suppose). I also played more Pokemon competitively and wanted to get more into the scene - I started writing analyses. And uh, I wouldn't like to talk about that, because I was awfully bad at it. Not only that, my behaviour was shit. I lost driver for stupid things I did (don't want to talk about that either) and enjoyed less writing analyses - eventually I quit that and smogon. I think it's been over 6 months now (in which I have changed in a positive way). I still dont play competitive pokemon and I'm not planning to either. I don't check in a lot, but once / twice a week yeah, to see if there's something going on, or just to see the friends I have on here.

I want to thank some of you for bringing good times though, and I wish Smogon the best!
 
I don't know.
I didn't start playing Pokemon until shortly after HGSS came out. I didn't really know much, but my in game team was lookin' a bit like this:
(I ended up resetting cause I couldn't get out of Ice Path)

I started competitive Pokemon by watching people play 5th Gen UU, even though I've never actually played a single game of it myself. (and I don't actually plan on doing it either)

So we fast forward a bit, and I join Showdown on this exact date: February 22, 2014.

My first Showdown battle was a random battle, and a Swoobat sweep.
[replay]randombattle-91088639[/replay]

Eventually, I built a team, which looked like this:

Raichu @ Choice Band
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Volt Tackle
- Fake Out
- Brick Break
- ThunderPunch

Exploud @ Leftovers
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Hammer Arm
- Rock Slide
- Outrage

Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake

Claydol @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rock Polish
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Earth Power

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Curse
- Zen Headbutt

Cloyster @ King's Rock
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Explosion

I only got one game with the team though, but it was a relatively close game where I still lost.

Things and stuff happen, I join Smogon Forums and just check most of the stuff out without doing much. I mainly just lingered around and read some of the older Smogon analyses. I tried to make some RMTs, they weren't great, but they were better than that first team I showed y'all.
Stuff happens and I forget the Showdown password for MARCU5theBAW5, so I make a showdown alt- marcu5baw5. If i remember correctly i got outrageously salty at hax on the alt, literally going 0 to 100 from rage. Most of the salt, like about 95% of it, came from getting hella haxed on the NU ladder. Most of the battles were ones I could have easily won, but one tiny thing ends up killing every single last bit of my momentum and forcing me to lose in the longrun. I wanted to not be extremely salty, but I just couldn't for some reason. I resorted to Timer Stalling whenever something like that happened, because I didn't feel it was fair that I lost a battle to the RNG despite being on a roll the whole time. Sometimes I would even have multiple battles open where I was just timer stalling due to being haxed in all the battles.

Eventually I found the password to MARCU5theBAW5 on showdown again. I hoped that the salty nature of the marcu5baw5 alt didn't stick with this one, and luckily, it didn't. Most peeps didn't know me when i was marcu5baw5, they either didn't acknowledge my existence, or remembered that I get salty and time stall a lot. Thankfully, I wasn't known for that as I hopped back to this alt after remembering the password.

More stuff happened, and then I changed my forum name from MARCU5tehBAW5 to MARCU5theBAW5. And now, the only thing I ever do is NU RMTs every 3-4 weeks (maybe more, maybe less), which by the way, check out my most recent one.
 
My friend brought me here. We talked in school and he told me this is an amazing game. I can't blame him. I try my best in ubers to beat him everyday, but he just is too good. I think I will stay in this game for as long as I can think, with multiple reasons guiding me through.
 
Guess it is time for this fairy freak to speak and reveal his origins. I've been a fan of pokemon since yellow playing basically every game up except gen 3 when I took a break because high school. Following high school I was suddenly flooded with money (Job) and interested in nerd stuff again so I took the plunge on platnium which became not only my favourite game (I still play the cart) it got me into competive battling. At first I sucked because I used trash like jumpluff but got better and finally commited to breed a decent team while harbouring a hatred of dragon spam. It is this point I stumbled onto to smogon and its wealth of infomation tho at that point I still used the cart.

I made this team that lead me 5 Major Tournament grand finals including a regional and a convention. Each one I lost of course but this teams holds a lot of sentimental value.



http://pastebin.com/VrvCL17M Sets I used and Aside from a move change here or there I more or less held the same team. Over-compensating for dragons, scizor and Hazards while having a shockingly large electric weakness and getting keeled by Rest talk-Gdos (Happened in 4 of my grand finals) but hey the team did well.


During the course of the long generation I used smogon regularly even creating an account back in 09 the year I reached my zenith with 3 grand final showings to post and contribute but never got around to it. I lost each tho the last 1 was the most heartbreaking coming back from a loss in swiss to make top 8, Lost again but survived thanks to double chance beating out my the player who was effectively my rival only to reach the grand final and lose it to. The girl I faced had only used 5 pokemon that day and most suspected her 6th was tyraniter. Turns out it was rest talk gyrados and after eliminating skarmory and genger revealed it and brought about my demise infront of a large crowd. By the time 2011 had rolled around I played in my final Gen 4 tournament and lost that to a raichu of all things. Burnt out Not allowed to port my team over to gen 5 and seeing as how BW had failed to address the dragon issue I took a break from competitive pokemon tho I still played vanilla

2 years went by and sometime in 2013 I stumbled onto this hilarious image http://img11.deviantart.net/1504/i/2013/178/0/7/fairy_friends_by_mearii_chi-d6axfu1.png Intrigued and yearning for competitive pokemon again I looked for smogon, discovered it still existed, learnt about my beloved fairies and like some megalamaniac plotted my return happy the days of outrage spam had ended. Even the account which I had only used to make 1 post still existed (Seriously smogon must never delete accounts) Finally I stumbled onto showdown in 2014 and found out I was rusty as hell, constantly raged at knock off which only further cemented use of fairies and was forced to get better. Eventually I started posting, Discovered T-wave clef was an awesome gren and hyper offence answer helping to popularise it and now here I am with like 4 double fairy teams on smogon and cart XD

Now I regurly lurk the Wifi room and make contributions to the smogon OU game progect. I'm knowwhere near as good as I was in gen 4 but I find I'm enjoying the game more now not trying to reach nationals or worlds and prefer the comfort of showdown
 
I came to smogon, because i was looking for ideal sets for my pokemon games, but then found pokemon showdown and used it for that instead. It was fun for awhile I was thinking about leaving until i found the cap project which has kept has kept me interested to present day. Most of the people in the cap room are just such good people, and thats the main reason I'm here still :)
 

jake

underdog of the year
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Top Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
hello,

i ended up coming to smogon with my pal karpman aka VN. aka living so zambian aka ether aka honus. i actually got interested in battling competitively thanks to PokeCommunity, a completely different forum where i was a moderator of the emulation (rom hacking) section. i played tons of DPP UU way back in the day under alts like vrai and vraikou, and i didn't get truly involved in smogon until BW had gotten underway. i wrote analyses for BW RU before spending tons of time playing BW NU (early BW NU is my favorite metagame of all time), at which point i was promoted to moderator and kinda just kept rolling from there. =)
 
I follow Haydunn on YouTube and saw his tiered Wi-Fi matches. Since it wasn't pitting teams of legendaries or blatant hacks (Aeroblast Magikarp? Really?) against each other, as was my prior experiences with playing Pokemon, I thought it'd be worth a look.

Thus far, I'm far from disappointed. :D
 
Pretty much as the title says, what attracted you to the community? What made it most appealing to you? New and old users are definitely welcome to share their thoughts. Do you think you'll stay here long (if you're new)? Why or why not?

Thanks! :)

Please don't reply to other people's posts here, leave discussion to intro thread, this would be good left as an archive (or else discussion will keep happening).

For me personally, it was the NeverUsed community. I came here because I wanted to learn more about NU, I wanted to become involved with the community, and I wanted to have a chance to make a difference. I didn't really make a difference to the tier itself, but I did to the community, so I think that made it pretty worthwhile.

I joined because I SUCK at battles I think with Smogon I'll be able to work on it.
 
I came across Smogon via BW, where I wanted the best movesets for my pokemon. Didn't know what an EV or an IV was at the time, which was back in 2012(-ish).

I actually became interested in competitive Pokemon in XY, and I truly discovered Smogon via Verlisify. Yeah, guess how I felt about it at the time.
Months after watching his rants against Smogon, I got curious as to what the other side's argument was. The only youtuber whose name I can remember atm is pokeaim (among others of course). Needless to say, they helped to show me how Smogon was not a dictatorship.

Been "Pro-gon" ever since.

get it? it's a combination of pro and smogon. yeah, i'll just go now.
 

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