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View Full Version : Guidelines on how to Rate A Team



Kuja20
01-20-2009, 11:31 AM
I noticed we don't actually have one of these threads here, and when I look though some of the members who rate other member's teams, I see one sentence rates. To be honest that is not what I classify as "Rating a Team", I see that as one brief comment about it.

This thread will hopefully give you raters a helping hand (if you don't know already of course), on how to rate a team properly.


1. Do not post one liners, the Team Builder can at best improve one thing from their team, or may not find it particularly informative, so please give more than one line when rating a team.

2. Following on from point number 1, go through each pokemon in turn within that team, give a decent length description on how that pokemon can be improved. This may include individual use of that pokemon, or ways it can aid and benefit the entire team more.

3. Look at the team as a whole rather than how each pokemon benifits itself, then give a description on what the team does well, and what the team lacks; basically the pros and cons of the team.

4. Please ensure you have sufficient knowledge on the current Metagame, as well as other aspects of gameplay; this is required to help the Team Builder improve their team according to the current playing environment.

5. Do not flame, insult, mock or offend the Team Builder about their team, they do not need to feel uncomfortable about their own team building skills. Critisism is helpful, but not anthing beyond Constructive Critisism.

6. It is also helpful, if the user has not posted it already, to identify the greatest threats to the team. As well as this, it is usually a good idea to tell the Team Builder what pokemon the team counters well.

7. Last but not least, don't forget to give praise to the Team Builder about what they have done well with the team.


These are only guidelines of course, you do not need to go by these, but it is strongly recommended that you do.

Happy Rating!

DaPlayaFlow
01-20-2009, 11:40 AM
Good job. I think this was needed.

i am cool
01-20-2009, 02:46 PM
Great guide kuj, now we wno't see people saying "i like your team!"...

lolzz
01-20-2009, 04:43 PM
yup i understand the team building guidlines!!!! also for post count

Dimes
01-21-2009, 11:36 PM
Thank You Kuja, I've been bugging Eternal for months on this. It has been getting annoying, with comments as bad as "NI5 433M D00D!!!!! 2/10"

Not that I'll say any names *cough Beaconjames cough*

Galileo
07-09-2009, 06:50 PM
Great guide kuj, now we wno't see people saying "i like your team!"...

Don't worry they will post things like that when I'll post my team.

Thanks god for this thread, maybe post a link to the Marriland's Team Builder?

Stathakis
07-14-2009, 05:47 PM
this is a great guide!



if you want a bunch of half assed, unhelpful rates. basically, what this guide tells Joe the Teamrater to do is "tell the person a bunch of **** about their team." assuming we have (at least somewhat) intelligent people posting their teams, they already know **** about their teams. what's the point of telling a person the pros and cons of their team? they already know all that ****. what they want to know is how to improve it. I dont give a crap that you can tell me what pokemon are threats, I want to know how to deal with them. that's what a good rate entails. improving the team, not assessing it. and when I say "improving the team," I mean giving concrete logical reasoning, or better yet, testing results (if you're willing to go that far) backing up your suggestions. "your team is full of physical sweepers use rotom instead of salamence" is not backing up your suggestions. the real pros and cons you should be weighing are the pros and cons of your suggestion. what do they gain by switching salamence for rotom? what do they lose? how do these pros outweigh these cons? THAT's the stuff that you see in quality rates. not "your team is walled by blissey but it does well against physical walls."

I'll leave you guys with an old geezer's opinion of what should be changed and why


2. Following on from point number 1, go through each pokemon in turn within that team, give a decent length description on how that pokemon can be improved. This may include individual use of that pokemon, or ways it can aid and benefit the entire team more.

"if it aint broke dont fix it." there is no reason to tell the person "your salamence set is good, you should leave it as is" unless another rater has suggested to change it. and of course, you should back up your opinion when doing so. if there's a pokemon set that needs changing, address it, but you don't have to go through each pokemon and tell the poster your opinion about it. that's just a waste of his time. he doesnt want to read your opinion on his pokemon unless you suggest somewhere something that might improve his team. just address what needs to be changed and move on with life. a revised rule two would probably look like "Address any changes that need to be made to individual pokemon (i.e. movesets, ev spreads, etc). Be sure to explain why you feel these changes to be made."


3. Look at the team as a whole rather than how each pokemon benifits itself, then give a description on what the team does well, and what the team lacks; basically the pros and cons of the team.

this is good but on its own is not enough. I weigh the pros and cons of a team generally in the beginning of a rate. but this alone does nothing for the poster. the only reason to post a rate is if you have something to suggest. so when you suggest something, weigh the pros and cons of the team with your suggestion as well. after that, weigh the pros and cons of the two teams against each other. basically, the importance of weighing the pros and cons of a team before suggestions is so they can get an idea of what they miss out on by using your suggestions over what they've currently got. if you're a more proficient teamrater you'll probably eventually just skip out on this step because you'll just describe what they miss out on as you weigh the pros and cons of your suggestion. A revised rule 3 that grasps the bigger idea of what a teamrate needs would probably look like "Look at the whole team and how it functions. When you suggest something, weigh the pros and cons of your suggestion. Tell the poster what they miss out on by taking your suggestion and how what they gain outweighs it."



6. It is also helpful, if the user has not posted it already, to identify the greatest threats to the team. As well as this, it is usually a good idea to tell the Team Builder what pokemon the team counters well.

there's no point in identifying a threat if you dont talk about how to deal with it. "your team is weak to salamence. kthxbai" does not help someone who has posted an rmt. "your team is weak to salamence. replacing specs latias with scarf latias helps patch up this weak without significantly changing the team. you still manage to cripple walls that try to switch in on you. the significant drop in power is negligible as you've got things like cbtar and cbscizor to hit hard already. it benefits you much more to have a fast mon that can take on guys who set up on all the free turns you give up" or something like that might help a poster. and when you try to adjust a team to take on a threat, change as little of it as possible. it's the rate my team forum, not the build me a new team forum! also, remove the nonsense about what the pokemon counters. the only reason to note stuff like that is if you are using it in the reasoning you put behind a suggestion. and of course then, you only note the relevant stuff. the less fluff there is, the better. long rates =/= good rates! in fact, I'm inclined to believe the opposite holds true. the rate that helps the user the most without wasting his time is the best rate. concise > fluffy. that's not to say long rates are bad, just long rates without relevant info are bad. a revised rule 6 would be "Try to identify threats to the poster's team. In addition to that, suggest a way for them to deal with the threats you identify."



7. Last but not least, don't forget to give praise to the Team Builder about what they have done well with the team.

as for this rule, I personally would just do away with it completely. there is no reason to have to praise a team. I'll praise a team when I feel it deserves praise. of course, I'm a hardcore angry smogonite, so if you guys are trying to go for that "friendly environment" then go ahead and leave it.


obviously I followed my own guideline and left out the rules that can be left alone, the ones regarding flaming and being dumb. those are fine as is.

Galileo
07-15-2009, 08:15 AM
rofl.

supertrunks8
07-15-2009, 09:21 AM
lmao.

Safe_Kid
07-15-2009, 10:35 AM
Galileo and Trunks, why are you spamming laughter?

Ty Stathakis for your feedback, i hope kuja changes it.

Stathakis
07-16-2009, 06:48 PM
im very glad my feedback provides the userbase of tu with some comic relief

Milos
07-16-2009, 10:35 PM
im very glad my feedback provides the userbase of tu with some comic relief

dont worry. those two are relatively new members. dont mind them