If Something like Smogon was in the Anime...

[Kallyle]

Basically, what if there was a Smogon-like place/school/corporation/facility/whatever? We all know that Smogon has different tiers and rules on what abilities and moves are allowed, so I wonder how the main characters of the series would do in a place with rules similar to Smogon. Of course, it wouldn't really BE Smogon, but something similar.

What would be the plot of such an episode? Would there be a moral on not limiting what your Pokémon can do or something? Discuss!

 

[Almonds]

While not exactly about Smogon, Wally from ORAS has shown the side of competitive battling in the postgame story at the Battle Maison. NPCs at the battle resort say how he talks about type-advantages and abilities and stuff, and they also say he's running around with eggs for breeding. He's also replaced his team members for better pokemon - including the notorious Talonflame and Garchomp. I won't be surprised if he actually has been reading Smogon.

My guess is that if competitive battling in general (Smogon included) was shown in the anime, the characters won't be too different from how Wally was depicted. However, the breeding part will probably raise moral issues: discarding pokemon after they just hatched because they don't have the right nature or enough IVs. I really can't imagine Ash shoving two pokemon at a Day-Care to repeatedly hatch and discard pokemon that doesn't satisfy him, or keep replacing one of the parent pokemon with their offspring who has better IVs. Heck, even mentioning those kind of things would raise an uproar since pokemon is about 'hard-work and accomplishing', not 'being superior because of superior birth'. That's why there are battles where the type-disadvantaged pokemon wins despite the odds when in the games it would be logically impossible to win.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

They would be treated as villains or bad trainers.

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Wasn't there already some kind of school with battle tests and simulators way back in the early show? I forget what exactly that was.

 

[Ampharos King]

It's difficult to tell. The anime has gone away from game conventions such as natures, IVs, EVs, and held items (except for Mega Stones). But I definitely could see Ash and some anime "Smogonites" getting into a conflict at some point for many reasons:

1) Ash doesn't care whether his Pokémon's moves have good type coverage; in fact, most of his Pokémon have moves with the same type (i.e. Pikachu has Thunderbolt and Electro Ball, both Electric-type moves). The anime "Smogonites" might actually criticize Ash for having Electro Ball on Pikachu, for example.

2) Most of the Pokémon used on Smogon are trained to the highest quality standards (i.e. "perfect" IVs), while Ash doesn't care too much about that. Ash trains any Pokemon that wants to be raised by him, regardless of their stats. Most of the time, competitive players "ditch" less than ideal Pokémon (in anime terms, release or even trade away) until they obtain the one they need. Well, Ash criticized Paul in DP for releasing (i.e. after he released 3 Starly, Paul said "there were a million other Starly as strong as [those]") or trading/giving away (i.e. the Azumarill Paul gave away to a trainer because it lost to Roark's Geodude) "weak" Pokémon. The same could happen here if Ash saw the "Smogonites" breed for the best competitive mons.

3) Ash doesn't force his Pokémon to evolve; he allows the Pokémon themselves to decide that. Meanwhile, Smogon has (mostly) separate tiers for evolved and non-evolved Pokémon. Although there are Smogon users who do use unevolved Pokémon in the main tiers, the vast majority use primarily fully evolved Pokémon and only the most competitive NFE ones (i.e. Chansey in OU, Gligar in UU). Ash may be criticized for using those unevolved mons by the "Smogonites."

I doubt Ash's words about "friendship" or "trust" will influence the anime "Smogonites" in any way, or vice versa.

 

[CynthiaLover]

To put it in simple terms... it'll be Ash and Paul all over again. I feel that Paul may have been the anime's version of a Smogon player, or at least close enough to how the anime and Smogon would "interact", so to speak. Though unlike Paul, who eventually realized that any Pokemon can have great strength, as evident by Infernape, any, what's everyone calling them, "Smogonites"(?) that debuted in the anime would never see the same thing. The anime is obviously trying to steer away from allowing Smogon to "fuse" with the main series (or at least I assume it's trying to), if any "Smogonites" and Ash crossed paths, it would start the same "Strength VS Friendship" war that Ash and Paul fought over throughout DP.

 

[Steel_Justice]

Wasn't there already some kind of school with battle tests and simulators way back in the early show? I forget what exactly that was.

Episode 9: School of Hard Knocks. Pokemon Tech was the dub name if I'm not mistaken. It's been over a decade since I've seen that one. It probably predates Smogon if anything.

A smogon player in the anime would be like Paul without the subtleties. They would likely be portrayed in the wrong with Ash and co disliking them but will still probably curb stomp them if they were to battle.

 

[Osprey]

Like everyone else said: it'd be Paul all over again. I have a feeling that Ash would eventually win with "the power of friendship" or whatever (that seems to usually mean yelling at Pikachu until it does something outrageous...), and the Anime-Smogon would probably be written to have very dislikable personalities. Basically, take all negative stereotypes of Smogon (soulless competitors, no love for Pokemon, obnoxious elitists, obsessive over statistics and numbers, etc) shoved into one place and given a name.

Heck, if done right, it could create some juicy conflict. The core of competitive battling is in direct opposition to everything the anime wants the franchise to stand for. This conflict could also be resolved with a cop-out "power of friendship" deus-ex-machina, but if the guys in charge were feeling bold, they could use opposition like this as a grindstone for Ash, making him skilled and strong while staying his friendly self, keeping bonds with the Pokemon he likes, and not becoming a Smogon stereotype. Sure, friendship does stuff, but I'd like to see him pull off what's built up to be an impossible fight with battle prowess as well; rather than a sub-par trainer that he is now, he could be a trainer kind of like Red from the Adventures manga (strong camaraderie with his team but also very powerful). Character development potential is everywhere!

 

[Mythicalzoe12]

The Kanto Battle Frontier is Smogon lite actually since you needed actual strategy to beat it.It would be interesting to see the base stats of anime pokemon and putting them into tiers though.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

If anything, they'll depict a smogonite as someone like Wally in the Battle Resort. You were so precious! Why did you have to turn to the dark side of competitive battling? But yeah that's how it would seem. Ash would clearly not approve of trainers continually breeding Pokemon for the right nature/IV and tossing them if they don't get the ones they want. It would be pretty much like Paul all over again.

 

[Muur]

The strongest trainers in the show probably do it tbf, which is why Ash will never win one as he'll go for whatever Pokemon whilst they all go for good strong ones ;o

Cameron is a good example, tbh. He has some strong Pokemon that were probably made to be competitive.

 

[Kallyle]

Like everyone else said: it'd be Paul all over again. I have a feeling that Ash would eventually win with "the power of friendship" or whatever (that seems to usually mean yelling at Pikachu until it does something outrageous...), and the Anime-Smogon would probably be written to have very dislikable personalities. Basically, take all negative stereotypes of Smogon (soulless competitors, no love for Pokemon, obnoxious elitists, obsessive over statistics and numbers, etc) shoved into one place and given a name.

Heck, if done right, it could create some juicy conflict. The core of competitive battling is in direct opposition to everything the anime wants the franchise to stand for. This conflict could also be resolved with a cop-out "power of friendship" deus-ex-machina, but if the guys in charge were feeling bold, they could use opposition like this as a grindstone for Ash, making him skilled and strong while staying his friendly self, keeping bonds with the Pokemon he likes, and not becoming a Smogon stereotype. Sure, friendship does stuff, but I'd like to see him pull off what's built up to be an impossible fight with battle prowess as well; rather than a sub-par trainer that he is now, he could be a trainer kind of like Red from the Adventures manga (strong camaraderie with his team but also very powerful). Character development potential is everywhere!

That sounds like a great idea for a plot! I kind of had a similar idea to that myself, but you put it much better than I would have. I didn't even think of how it could give Ash some much-needed character development, so kudos to you for adding that in!

 

[Steel_Justice]

The strongest trainers in the show probably do it tbf, which is why Ash will never win one as he'll go for whatever Pokemon whilst they all go for good strong ones ;o

Cameron is a good example, tbh. He has some strong Pokemon that were probably made to be competitive.

Except Cameron is too dumb to represent a smogonite or any other trainer for that matter.

I can see champions and elite four being smogon lite though.

 

[BlisseyandtheAquaJets]

Ash would never force Pokémon to mate for hours on end w/o them loving each other emotionally...

And Smogon would be portrayed as a Team Rocket-type organization, with its goal being to undermine the Goodshow-run league with a harder, less ten-year old friendly version that incorporates forced breeding, rampant overpopulation of nonnative species via released rejects, narrowing battles into a caste system, and shaming, bullying, doxxing, DDoSing, abusing and spewing negative propaganda about those who don't adhere to their standards.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

Paul is pretty much a Smogonite, like many others have said. Other potential Smogonesque people in the anime would get the same treatment as he had. Rival/villain. Ash would hate them. Especially since they could tell him to evolve or discard Pikachu, at least before they battled him.

 

[BlackButterfree]

Well, taking Smogon as strictly its tier system and disregarding the EV's, IV's and held item strategies (which are all irrelevant in the anime to begin with), I think Ash would welcome the tiers, because it would give an area to all of his Pokémon to shine, especially the underused ones like Kingler and such.

 

[keni_ler]

Smogon = sad life losers idiots morons

 

[Extroth]

Smogon = sad life losers idiots morons

I think we should be a little more mature then throwing casual insults around. You might not agree with them but that's no reason to be mean.

Honestly I feel that with Pokemon the way it is now Ash meeting a Smogonite would just end with both of them accepting that the other person just had a different style then them. I feel that this was how things ended up with Paul. He could not work well with some pokemon but with the right Pokemon he was amazing. I feel Pauls pokemon had a connection with him and they agreed with his style. Not all of them mind you. But at the same time I feel that this depends on the Smogonite some of them are a little different then the stereotypes suggest.