Personally, I've never really liked Blaziken, but it's not banned, so I don't see any reason as to why it's wrong to use it. Sure, it's a pain to get rid of once it's going, but like all Pokemon, it has its weak points. In my match, it wrecked me for the most part, but in hindsight, there were definitely a few ways I could have gotten around it.

So yeah, I don't feel that there's a need to ban it.

Using Blaziken does not go against any of the rules stipulated in the first post at the start of the tournament.

My call is that using Blaziken is perfectly fine.

I didn't start competitive battling until X/Y came out, so I wasn't aware of the previous hatred towards Blaziken when I first designed my team. However, I quickly learned how much people hate it, so I bred another Pokemon to replace it. I love Blaziken because I love its type coverage and it balanced out my team wonderfully. I think the hatred aimed at it is unnecessary because there are many ways to defeat it: priority moves due to it being fragile and anything that resists Fire/Fighting, etc. I guess my response is a little unnecessary, but I don't see a problem in using it.

Before you just go ahead and take the nonsense he spits out at face value, let me explain why him using Blaziken is unfair to the competitive balance of the game (and this tournament in general) and shouldn't be allowed. Blaziken literally only has three counters in the entire current metagame. They are Gale Wings Talonflame, Azumarill and either switching in a ghost on HJK or hoping it misses. That's literally it. So you have to have either Talonflame, Azumarill or a ghost on your team to even have a prayer against a Blaziken once it gets a speed boost up (very easy with protect). If it gets an SD up (which is very easy) you might as well quit. I, of course, was unprepared for Blaziken, as I wasn't expecting it due to it being banned by every reputable battling site for over a year now. I prepared my team that I am using in the tournament without a Blaziken check assuming I wouldn't need one. Unfortunately for me, Chill Bill decided to use an Uber against my team of OU and UU pokemon. All I could do was either a.) pray I got a golden opportunity to set up with one of my own boosting pokemon or b. hope he switched it into a powerful hit. As soon as Blaziken came in cleanly it was game over, as there was nothing I could do to stop it since I carry none of the 3 counters in the metagame. Think about it, do you really want to allow something that stifles creativity in team building and can completely dismantle entire teams by simply using protect once? With Blaziken you either have to bring one of those three pokemon, or hope you get lucky. It literally 6-0's entire teams by itself. This isn't even including its mega evo which would make it even more ridiculous.

Let me end by saying there is a reason why nearly every site bans it. It is OP and kills the competitive balance. If he wants to use Blaze Blaziken, go ahead, by all means. Speed Boost is a game breaking OP ability on Blaziken though and is the reason why it went from UU in gen 4 to Uber in Gen 5.

What priority move(s) exactly? It resists bullet punch, sucker punch, shadow sneak and mach punch. Literally all there is is Aqua Jet from Azumarill and Aerialate Quick Attack from Mega Pinsir and Gale Wings Talonflame.

Shadow Sneak and Mach punch hit Blaziken neutrally.

Also keep in mind that this tourney was started before Smogon/PO quickbanned it. As well as this rule


Irregardless, Don't expect Smogon/PO to have a balanced OU meta until next summer.

>_> lets not fight about it until pokebank is out. also the reason it is not banned from smogen or anywhere else is that most everyone has talonflame and talonflame can take any hit and ohko with brave bird or you encourage an HJK and switch to your ghost type. i understand where nastynati is coming from. i hate the bird too. it just needs some time and i think it will get the ben like gangar/(inite) did. this turny is to judge whether some things are to op or not right? gangar has counters blaziken has counters but ou is supose to be fun for everyone and some people want to use "their pokemon" and not some pokes that they need to not get sweeped by mega gangar and blaziken but then their are the people that want to use gangar and blaziken so ban the item ban the pokes or not do any of that and some pokemon just have to be on everyones team. :/
byw this goes for any pokemon ever.
ps: my head hurts now..............

It is banned on Smogon and everywhere else. Because it is overpowered and unfair. I guess my main problem with it was that I built my team around the assumption that it wouldn't be used. I don't play VGC, never looked up the ban list for it. Blaziken is almost universally banned, so I figured it would be safe to assume the banlist was the same as smogon's. For something as threatening as Blaziken, I feel as though Chill Bill should have noted in the original post that it would be fair game to use. Then players inexperienced with VGC could have actually been prepared with a counter.

ChillBill noted what was banned; Blaziken was not mentioned. Blaziken is "fair game to use."

I literally crafted my team around using Blaziken on my team to only find out that I cannot really use it. I haven't had the time to IV breed, EV train, and level up a recrafted team, so my team is rather crippled. Having had Blaziken on my team would have made my loss to Mason something a bit more even than 6-0 and that's not due to its "OP ability."

Are you trying to imply that Speed Boost isn't overpowered on Blaziken? Because about 99% of the competitive community would beg to differ. Also you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I haven't played in a tournament in over a year in which Blaziken was legal, so it being the lone Uber in this predominantly OU tournament was a unwelcome surprise for my team and provided Chill Bill with an unfair advantage.

Before this tournament is derailed, I'm going to ask everybody to stop this discussion about whether Blaziken should be banned from this tournament.

Yes, it is currently banned in Smogon OU. However, this tournament has its own rules and Blaziken is legal.

In the future I ask that everybody signing up for a tournament read the tournament's rules before starting. This way you will be aware of every Pokemon that you may or may not use on your own team and also what Pokemon your opponents will potentially be using. Don't make assumptions.

I hope we can all get by this and continue the tournament business as usual. If anyone feels the need to discuss the matter further, send me a PM.

Confirming victory against twistedturtwig: 4-0.

I'm sorry that I haxed your para-hax, man. That was odd.

Yeah, that was pretty strange. Your Pokemon just refused to be paralyzed! Good game, nonetheless!

Well I'm busy today so some time this week.

I won the match against Uber, 3-0. Good game =)

I lost 0-3. That was a good game, Kiga. You caught me off guard in a big and meaningful way.

Beat NastyNati311 3-0.

--

Well this goes to show that I need a new team and that is why I will skip masons turny. Also I am to busy.

I've had some technical difficulties on my end, so we haven't been able to battle. The delay is my fault.

I've resolved the issues but TT hasn't gotten my pms yet.

So TT won't be able to battle until the weekend. We're both willing to forfeit as we are both partially to blame. I don't know if you want to call it a draw, flip a coin, or we can get it done on the weekend. We can always come back to it as well if you want to release the next round.