Rate of the Week V3: Week 29

[IronBullet]

Rate of the Week
​

Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but unbadged raters will have priority since that is the main focus of this project.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and will earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges. Also, after gaining three places in the Hall of Fame, a rater will be eligible to earn voice status in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all!

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Toon Linked (OU)
Week #2 - Nedor (OU), Arifeen (UU)
Week #3 - Fireburn (Ubers), Do A Bibarel (UU)
Week #4 - AM (OU), Raiza (PU), Kiyo (NU)
Week #5 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #6 - Cyndequil. (UU)
Week #7 - BreloomMyHomie (OU)
Week #8 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #9 - oml it's too ez (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), MrAldo (RU)
Week #10 - Nedor (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), Cranham (Ubers), Lax (Monotype)
Week #11 - AM (OU)
Week #12 - Lange (OU), Amaroq (UU)
Week #13 - all falls down (UU)
Week #14 - Manipulative (UU)
Week #15 - mil (OU)
Week #16 - Tricking (OU)
Week #17 - Hector Hard Mode (OU), Christo. (UU)
Week #18 - p2 (OU), all falls down (UU)
Week #19 - ez (OU), Chakra (RU), S0LID G0LD (LC), Memoric (Doubles)
Week #20 - nv (UU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), Joshz (Anything Goes)
Week #21 - King Sun (OU), PrinceLucian (NU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), NOVED (Battle Spot)
Week #22 - ez (OU), fran17 (LC), TONE114 (PU)
Week #23 - Sken (LC)
Week #24 - Nedor (OU), RebornFX (VGC)
Week #25 - Adaam. (UU), Level 51 (Doubles), all falls down (Monotype)
Week #26 - bludz (OU)
Week #27 - celes (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), Chakra (RU)
Week #28 - Hector Hard Mode (OU), nv (UU)
Week #29 -

 

[dream light]

This week, we don’t have a winner for OU, but the staff thought that there were two particularly exceptional rates from past winners that are also official Team Raters! The first is by Nedor, and the second is by celes.

In Nedor's rate, he begins by outlining the basic type framework of the team and its goal of using wallbreakers to soften checks for a late game win condition. He then dives into the user's threatlist and notes that although Thundurus, Mega Venusaur, and Mega Lopunny can become annoying, they should be sufficiently managed by the team's existing counterplay such as Stealth Rock, trading one for one at high health, and a combination of combined checks. Nedor changed Heatran's EV spread to max speed with a Timid Nature, in order to outspeed Offensive Mega Scizor, Mega Heracross, Adamant Excadrill outside of Sand, and Mew, all of which can pose a significant threat in late game. Then, he added more Defense EVs to Mega Scizor's EV spread, which lets it take on Mega Lopunny's High Jump Kick and other physical threats more reliably. Nedor also changed Keldeo's Icy Wind to Hydro Pump, noting that the power was necessary in practical scenarios. He retained Hidden Power Grass as the last move to hit Gastrodon, which can be a nuisance late game. Finally, he offered Surf on Latios to put pressure on Mega Diancie, Heatran, and Tyranitar.

In celes' rate, celes begins by describing the resistances that every team in ORAS OU is required to have, those being Dragon-type, Fairy-type, and Dark-type, and notes that the poster's team was lacking in all of them. He pointed out that Latios, Bisharp, and Mega Gardevoir are massive threats to the build which can get KOs every time that they come in, and notes a further danger in Mega Gardevoir potentially tracing Swift Swim to sweep under rain. celes changed Politoed's set to a defensive variant, increasing its survivability so that it can set rain for its teammates more often. Encore was part of the set, minimizing opponents' set up opportunities. Then, he replaced Rain Dance with Focus Blast on Ludicolo, giving the team another means to hit Ferrothorn and preventing it from causing problems to the team's rain sweepers. However, the team was still struggling with Dragon-types like Dragonite and Latios, so he gave Mega Swampert Ice Punch and replaced Celebi with Ferrothorn, shifting Stealth Rock in the process. He also suggested Power-Up Punch over Superpower for Mega Swampert so that the team had a boosting win condition. celes then replaced Rotom-W with Swords Dance Toxicroak to handle Bisharp, Keldeo, and offer priority in the form of Sucker Punch. Finally, celes replaced Tornadus-T with Thundurus-I, which can wallbreak with Nasty Plot and lure in Mega Venusaur with Hidden Power Flying, while still functioning as a Flying-resist.

Aspiring raters can learn a lot from their exceptional work. We hope that it shines as an example of how to rate effectively and exceptionally in the ORAS OU metagame!