Rate My Team - Guidelines

You've probably seen these guidelines if you lurk the Smogon forums, but I'll cut right to the chase.

Please read every single one of the rules below. Not following just one of them could get your thread
deleted by a moderator. If you keep on breaking the rules, expect an infraction. Note that some of these rules also applies to every poster in this forum and not following them could lead to your post being deleted and / or infracted.

Here are the tiers accepted in this forum:
ORAS OU Teams: OU (this includes ORAS OU).
ORAS Other Teams: Any ORAS team that is not OU (this includes Battle Maison, but excludes any other team designed for battling the AI).

Please tag your posts with the tier of the team you are posting. Example: RMT [ORAS OU] - M-Gallade DragMag

If your team's tier isn't mentioned in the above, then you must PM a Moderator to get approval.

Here are the rules for Team Posters:

1) Do not post incomplete teams:

Every team must have 6 Pokémon, no more no less. Furthermore, you must list the following element for each Pokémon:
A) Species
B) Held Item
C) Nature
D) EVs
E) 4 Moves

Here is an example of how the format should look:

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Healing Wish


note: using Showdown's Exportable format is recommended.

2) Describe your Pokémon

Each Pokémon on your team should have a small paragraph describing these 3 things: 1) A reason why you chose that Pokémon, 2) the Pokémon's role on the team, and 3) A short description of its set. Don't forget to mention any usefulness your Pokémon has to your team. Here are example of what to do, and what not to do:

Good:
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Healing Wish

I decided to use Jirachi because I needed a Steel type and a Revenge Killer for my team. [1] Because it's my only Fairy resist, I need it to switch into stuff like Gardevoir. It also handles fast threats that my team would otherwise have issues with. [2] I needed Ice Punch because DD Dragonite is such a threat to my team. Healing Wish also works well with Landorus, and I needed the Scarf so Jirachi could revenge kill. [3]

Bad:
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Healing Wish

Jirachi is my favourite Pokemon.[1] It can sweep a lot of unprepared teams.[2] Iron Head for STAB, Ice Punch for coverage, U-turn for scouting, Healing Wish for support.[3]


We recommend at least three (3) lines of description for each Pokemon. Having three lines is not absolutely mandatory anymore, but it's a good guideline to gauge if you have written enough.

3) Limit the number of RMTs you post

You may only post 1 RMT every 2 weeks. If your thread gets locked because of that rule, send a PM to a moderator two weeks after to get it unlocked.

Note: this counts for all subforums. You may not post both an OU team and an UU team at the same time, for example.

4) Bumping

You may only bump your RMT once. Replying to raters is acceptable, but simply posting for the purpose of bumping should only be done once. If you break that rule, your post will be deleted and you could receive an infraction.

5) About Custom Rules

If your team's metagame is not an official Smogon or Nintendo metagame, then you should add those rules somewhere in your thread. This will greatly help raters and failure to do that will only cause confusion.

6) Make your post readable

Try to stay away from annoying fonts, colors, and excessive formatting. You should also space your paragraphs to make it less of a chore to read. As I said earlier, using Showdown's Exportable format also greatly helps the reader.

Furthermore, adding pictures above each Pokémon's set makes the thread a lot more appealing to the eye. You can find sprites of every Pokémon on this website: http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/xyani/

7) Make sure your team is competitive

This forum is dedicated to competitive battling. You may not post teams that are to be used against the AI (with the exception of Battle Maison and similar facilities). You may also not post teams that have obvious flaws (for example, Adamant Latios with 4 Special Attacks) simply because you can't access better Pokémon in your game. Threads about obviously non-competitive teams will be locked.

Test your team before posting it

Before you post a team on this forum, you should acquire experience with it. That way you can fix the obvious flaws and make sure the team itself work. If you post a team that hasn't been tested, your thread will be deleted.

9) Team Archives

Threads containing more than one team belong in their respective tier's subforum and should be approved by one of their moderators before posting.


Here are the rules for any other poster:

1) Make your post have some kind of content

Your post should make the thread progress in some way. Compliments and similar belong in Visitor Messages. If you're not posting a full rate, try at least to ask a question about certain choices you don't understand, or how the team deals with a certain threat. "Where is my shoutout ;(" and "nice team" are not acceptable. CONTENTLESS POSTS WILL BE DELETED

2) Be knowledgeable before you rate

If you don't understand the tier of the team you're rating, don't bother. Any rate that shows a lack of knowledge in the tier will be deleted. Simply put: don't talk out of your ass.

3) Mini-modding

Telling someone else they're breaking a rule is fine, but not going around bossing other people. If the only thing you're gonna post is "add descriptions", then use VMs. Including it to a rate is fine though.

Remember that moderators can choose to delete a post or infract a user at any time for the any reason. Every global rule applies to this forum. Happy posting!