Introduction to the Smogon Awards

Ladies, gentlemen, and bots, welcome to the Smogon Awards! For those who don't know, the Smogon Awards is a popular annual contest where users like you, yes you, vote for your favorites in a variety of categories.

If you want to check out past Smogon Awards, head on down to the Greatest Hits section of Smogon!

Before I get to the categories I'd like to go over how we're formatting the Awards this year. In this issue we'll be releasing the categories. Between now and November 13th, Smog readers can nominate people who should win an award by sending in nominees to the Smogon user SMOGON AWARDS (see the byline of this article). Then, in Issue #5 (which will be released late-November!), the nominees will be announced. After that, you can vote for your favorite and the winners will be released in Issue #6.

Without further ado, here are the categories for this year!

Battling

Best OU Battler
Best UU Battler
Best Ubers Battler: These battling awards recognize players who excel at the various tiers of competitive Pokémon. In the DPP era where everything is varied and quickly evolving, it take a lot of prowess to show that you're top dog.
Best Tournament Player: Many tournaments on Smogon come with their own set of rules and stipulations that players must follow, making the experience of competing in many tournaments a complicated one. Best Tournament Player is for the battler who can adapt well to the different tournaments.
Best Ladder Player: Best Ladder Player recognizes the player who is consistently high up on the ladder. Staying at #1 on any ladder takes a lot of battling prowess and dedication, often requiring several battles a day to maintain the high CRE.
Most Influential Player: Remember how when obi posted his Stall Team a few years back everyone started playing with it? Well that's how this award works. The trendsetter of Pokémon should be receiving this.
Most Gimmicky Player: This award could also be dubbed "Most Creative Player." When making your nominations for this award, try to think about someone who constantly beats you with his/her special Metagross or Roar/Whirlwind Aerodactyl. Alternatively, you can vote for someone who doesn't do well because all he/she uses is gimmicks!
Biggest Upset: When people make predictions in tournaments based on reputation and history, those predictions are usually right. However, sometimes a person can come out of nowhere to take a big tournament or speed up the ladder — launching him or herself from obscurity to internet fame.
Best Overall Battler: This award recognizes someone who encompasses traits from all of the above awards someone with style, knowledge, battling prowess, good sportsmanship and maybe a little luck! This is the pinnacle of battling awards.

Community

Nicest User: Sometimes it's hard to be constantly nice in the faces of dumb, ignorant, or oblivious comrades. This award recognizes the person who always handles themself politely. "Nicest User" should disspell that "Nice guys finish last" saying!
Meanest User: Just like it takes a lot of effort to be nice all the times, it takes a lot of oomph to keep your anger raging... ok not so much. But still, we're recognizing the Meanest User of Smogon because he or she might make an angry post if we don't, and we don't want that right?
Wittiest Poster: In a world where most posts fall by the wayside as dull and uninteresting, there are some users who liven up Smogon with their wit. Despite the fact that not everyone has charm and wit, there are enough witty posters to merit this award to recognize one.
Most Helpful User: In a forum as big as Smogon, there are tons of areas where people cannot accomplish goals on their own. Be it in Circus Maximus, Stark Mountain, Corrections & Contributions, or even The Smog, there are many users who lend their time and energy to help others.
Most Improved User: This award is somewhat similar to Coolest New Poster, except that this person wasn't always so cool. Some people start off on the wrong track, but everyone can turn their Smogon life around, right? This award recognizes a person who was once known as a troll or otherwise terrible user, but is now a great one.
Most Overlooked User: There are a good number of users who work their internet butts off to help out around the site but aren't fully appreciated. This award will put a stop to that by giving them the credit they deserve.
Most Approachable User: Being affable is one of the most important qualities on an internet forum. It takes a lot of patience to always help out and answer questions when asked; this quality deserves recognition.
Most Intimidating User: On the flipside, if you're always scared of someone, this category might be better suited for him or her.
Best Mafia Player
Best Mafia Game: Please don't vote in these categories if you've never played or watched a Mafia game! If someone comes up with a fantastic plan or a flawless fake role PM, they could very well be the Best Mafia Player of the year. And if there was a Mafia game filled with cool roles, good flavor, and/or interested twists, then that should the Best Mafia Game. It takes a lot of work, time, and energy to host and play (and do well!) in Mafia games, so much so that these awards become necessary.
Best Debater
Best Discussion Sparker
Most Influential User: These categories are for people who are active in Congregation of the Masses, Stark Mountain, and/or Policy Review; if a person is constantly keeping discussions going and making thought-provoking threads, then these awards are for him or her! Note that Most Influential User has nothing to do with battling!
Best Overall IRC User: Without good users to spice things up on IRC all channels would be like #stark in June. Good IRCers provide good topics for discussions, nifty scripts, and/or general coolness. This award recognizes the people who make Smogon IRC channels the best on the net!
Best Overall Smogoner: This award, like the user it recognizes, needs an introduction. It's for a person who, with their humor, contributions, intelligence, or mere presence make Smogon a better place.

Forums

Best Congregation Poster
Best Firebot Poster
Best Stark/Policy Review Poster
Best Wifi User
Best Thread of 2009
Best Trou Thread of 2009
Best Post of 2009
Best Overall Poster: These categories are for people who consistently make fantastic posts across Smogon. Clever and well-thought out posts take time and effort - they're also somewhat hard to come by! When nominating someone for one of these awards, feel free to provide a link to some of their great posts! Just remember not to nominate your own threads/posts.
Best Shoddy Mod
Best Forum Mod: Patrolling the Shoddy chat can be an arduous job as the chat is not always of the highest quality. The holders of the Boulder Badge who tirelessly watch the chat and promote good discussions deserve recognition. Likewise, there are several Smogon Moderators who go above and beyond infracting users who use chatspeak on the forums.

Contributions

Best Writer: Many of Smogon's contributions are in the written form, making prose one of the more important aspects of the site. The overwhelming number of talented writers made it necessary to recognize "Best Writer" as an awards category.
Most Promising New User: Smogon attracts tons of new users every year, but few immediately stand out from the crowd. This award recognizes a person who joined in 2009 and will likely evolve into a fantastic user in the future.
Best Warstory: Good warstories are extremely hard to come by. This award is necessary because good formatting and commentary take a lot of time to generate. Remember, please include a link to your nomination!
Best Non official Tournament: To make things clear, you cannot nominate a Smogon Tour, the Smogon Frontier, the official Smogon Tournament, or the World Cup of Pokémon (because really, those tournaments don't need an award to show how awesome they are, now do they?) Tournaments take a lot of time to maintain, especially ones with complicated rules. Nominate a tournament that had a good host, cool rules, and ran smoothly.
Best Researcher
Best Contributor
Best Artist
Best Team Rater
Best Editor: These awards should recognize those users on Smogon who put their talents for writing, drawing, team rating, or otherwise to good use. Researching game mechanics, writing articles and analyses, and making well thought out rates takes a lot of time, and users who do this deserve recognition. Best Editor is a new award for this year that should go towards one of the grammarians of Smogon who put their knowledge of the English language to good use by tirelessly editing the articles and analyses before they go onsite.

That about wraps things up! Remember, you don't have to make a nomination for every category! Happy voting.

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