Pokémon Perfect

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Pokémon Perfect
Site logo
Language	English
Status	Active
Run	2011 - Present
Date opened	2011
Creator	Lutra
Current owner	{{{owner}}}
Forum	Pokémon Perfect
Mascot	Mew
Website	Main page

Pokémon Perfect is a forum centered around competitive play, especially for Generation I. The site currently caters to competitive play from Generation I to VI. The forums are run using XenForo, a type of forum software.

This site was founded by Lutra in 2011, as an answer to Smogon and Pokémon Online's lack of support for Generation I at the time. It was founded around the same time the Generation I-focused competitive site RBY 2k10 dipped in activity. In 2019, ownership was handed to CALLOUS, wherein the website was relaunched strictly for tournaments. After the transfer of ownership, all tiering projects were suspended due to dwindling activity and lack of invested staff, adopting Smogon tiers instead. As of 2023, it has accumulated over 3,000 members.

History

Pokémon Perfect was launched by Lutra in 2011 with a Pokémon Online server, accommodating Pokémon Stadium OverUsed, which was seen as neglected on the platform—at the time, this format did not ban evasion-boosting moves.

Pokémon Perfect launched a tiering project for Pokémon Red and Blue, continuing the tiering used by RBY 2k10, aiming to produce a metagame that is diverse instead of centralized. They saw the most development from around 2013 until 2018. At the time, many in the community argued that Smogon's Generation I tiers were antiquated—they had not been updated since 2006; additionally, RBY 2k10's re-tiering project was unfinished, so Pokémon Perfect was able to continue that process. For its tiering, instead of the usual Smogon nomenclature, it used its own naming conventions, those being 1U, 2U, 3U, and so on, aiming to be more neutral and straightforward. It utilized viability-based, democratic tiering, with qualified voters sending Pokemon up and down tiers after tournaments concluded until they were properly established, wherein the community would move down to the next one. The aim was to tier every fully-evolved Pokémon, which led to tiers being created down to 7U. While these were designed for Generation I, the same system was used for Generation II to VI tiers on the site, but not to the same success.

Pokémon Perfect has run a variety of tournament series, including seasonal tournaments with a variety of systems employed, such as peaking on the Pokémon Showdown ladder, a battle royale where one picks their opponents, and Round Robin. These tournaments were categorised under a hierarchy, and players would earn points to participate in larger tournaments later. Tournaments on Pokémon Perfect would also earn points to be seeded higher in "Master Tournaments," which used a Best of 5 Single Elimination format. While this system has declined to regular "Open" tournaments in modern times, Pokémon Perfect's competitive tournament system fostered numerous notable Generation I players, such as marcoasd, Heroic Troller, and Peasounay, all of whom ended up becoming notable competitors on Smogon. It has since become notable in competitive Generation III battling for the CALLOUS Invitational, a tournament series inviting the premier players of the advanced generation, old and new, to compete for a cash prize. This tournament has since become a qualification standard for Generation III OverUsed suspect tests on Smogon.

Years after they were decommissioned, Pokémon Perfect's Generation I tiers inspired the development of a new lowest tier in 7U, which has seen coverage by popular YouTube content creators. This tier has seen some competitive experimentation on Smogon and has developed a small cult following.

Relationship with Smogon

Pokémon Perfect has frequently been associated with Smogon, mainly for its tournament prestige and large playerbase overlap. During a suspect test regarding Counter in Generation I OverUsed, numerous frequent Pokémon Perfect competitors were not permitted to vote due to lacking qualifications on Smogon, disqualifying off-site tournament results. This resulted in controversy due to a lack of tournaments on Smogon limiting the ability to adequately conduct the suspect test, with Generation I competitors arguing that the vote was, ergo, not adequately representative. Regardless, the vote went forward, leading to Counter's ban and the instating of "Desync Clause Mod," which changes instances that would lead to Link Battles desynchronising on a real cartridge to the move failing on Pokémon Showdown.

Since the incident with Counter, tournament results from Pokémon Perfect have been factored into suspect tests sporadically, particularly those involving the CALLOUS Invitational, citing the lack of Generation III tournament support on Smogon making them a required feature.