goodbye

Never before have I wrote such a long essay, so bear with me.

Ok, how do I start? I think the first thing I need to do is admit that I lied to you all. I know that saying this now won't fix anything, but I feel like I need you all to know this.

The "Silver_Lucario42" name was just a facade for me. My true identity is p2, and I hoped to become an esteemed Smogon user under a new name. Although I already had a good reputation on the site, I wanted to improve it even more by creating a "fellow memer", if you will.

Quite a blast it was to discover that not only did the account fail to receive any badges after nearly 700 posts, but it also had an analysis rejected by Colonel M, who was once one of my best friends. I later learned that this rejection had nothing to do with Xurkitree's viability-- it was just another example of the little-known phenomenon of numerophobia on Smogon. The underscore was the nail in the coffin for poor Silver_Lucario42, who had almost no chance of getting a badge on Smogon despite his numerous contributions.

Under this alt, I tried to make myself known in a smaller community: Other Metagames. I purposefully disassociated myself from the Balanced Hackmons metagame that Silver_Lucario42 would later come to main. All the while, I studied the BH viability rankings searching for holes. And I found them. Xurkitree, Kyurem-B, Endeavor Diancie. "This should be enough to get me a badge," I thought.

I was shocked to discover that although my posts seemed to get some likes, I still lacked a badge. "This is no good!" I said to myself. Was there no benefit to performing well in OMs? Why weren't my callouts well received? Desperate, I tried to post in the OU forum. But still, not a single badge came my way.

This is where I come to my main point in this post: my mission to end numerophobia on Smogon. It's kind of funny how a number based game can cause this kind of horrible discrimination, isn't it? But these are the facts: the badges I earned as p2 were merely because I'd proven my trustworthiness under a prior name: fleggumfl. Notice a pattern here?

The biggest struggle I faced in my endeavors was to act like only a semiskilled OU player. I knew that the downfall of other great banned users, like Bloo, Tele and Shaka Brah, was the way they just seemed to be good out of nowhere. I signed up for Battling 101 and got a tutor who taught me nothing I didn't already know. But for Silver_Lucario42, this information had to suddenly improve my playing in a big way.

I know what you're thonkang. "If SL42 wasn't a "good" player, then why give him a badge?" People don't get badges for being good-- they get them for contributing. And user Colonel M prevented me from doing even that.

Now, let me ask you: Is this fair? Is it a good thing that Silver_Lucario42 will never get to see Inside Scoop? A numerophobe would say "ues", but I believe that you, the reader, know more than that.

Guess how many numbers "chaos" has in it. That's right-- zero. Which, by the way, is a number in itself. Really makes you think.

Like, I don't see why we have to act like this. I'm sure that the Silver_Lucario42 account will get banned, and I don't really care if it does. But let his legacy serve as a warning to the rest of you-- an innocent user denied recognition simply because of their name. Stand with me now, brave users of Smogon! FREE THE NUMBER! DOWN WITH COLONEL M!

One more thing. I guess I have to give shoutouts to the great people I met at Smogon. These people do not include Colonel M. Shoutouts to all you guys

Lastly, let me link to a thread I'm particularly fond of. I'm sure you will appreciate it. Here is the link: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-battle-spot-singles-suspect-process-round-1-mama-said-knock-you-out.3568819/ Observe that all users, including those with numbers in their names, are allowed to post in the suspect. This is the kind of Smogon that I wish to create. Thank you.