What is the purpose of tiers in your opinion?

[Underboss]

I think it's important for everyone to say what they think the tiers should be about. Is the purpose of tiers to encompass fair and balanced metagames or is it to show usage in OU, kind of like a ranking system? Is it possible to have a tier system that does both? Do we possibly need two tier systems? Please say what you think the tier system is supposed to do.

[GGFan]

Deciding them based on usage alone is a very Smogon-esque viewpoint. I like to consider usability in each tier, seeing where the Pokemon isn't overpowered.

Usage alone creates some issues, such as with Persian. I don't think Persian, based on the usage ideology, is used enough to be considered OU, but obviously its usability is what makes it OU.

[Harrison]

From what I can see, tiers are just used to spark debate on this forum where everyone suggests changes to the tiers, but none of those suggestions ever become reality.

[Crystal_]

One day someone got tired of playing always OU (Uber?) and decided to create more tiers.

[Underboss]

Harrison, you might note that we have changed the tiers alot with respect to what with started with (pretty much Smogon's tiers). First off, we actually filled up an NU tier when in Smogon is was empty. We moved Charizard to UU and Articuno and Jolteon to OU. The thing we are debating about is what should be the guiding principle of how we make tiers. Should it be to show usage in the OU and UU metagames or should it be to create 4 balanced metagames in OU, BL, UU, and NU tiers.

If, for example, we found a pokemon was too good in NU, do we move him to UU even if we know he isn't used in UU? And if we found a pokemon that was too good for BL, do we move him to OU even though we know he isn't used in OU? And if a pokemon isn't broken in UU, but has someuses in OU and BL, do we put him in BL and thus ban him from the UU metagame or do we put him UU and not acknowledge his usage in OU?

That's why I recommended an 8 tier system, and why WW proposed the compromise of keeping the 5 tier system but acknowledging that BL no longer be a ban tier. All the tiers are competitive and need to be balanced by moving the over-centralizers of each tier to the tier above, even if he's not usage in the above tier.

I'm trying to convince people that the tiers need to be based on more than just usage. It's about placing the pokemon in the tier where they wouldn't over-dominate and acknowledge that BL and NU are competitive metagames.