Hey Rey, thank you for bringing up some legitimate concerns that are obviously very important to our community. I agree with the underlying issue, but I also honestly think that some of the conclusions you draw / points you state are inaccurate, and I will try to address those as we go.



1) As per Council members, the suspect test is basically a formality / Suspect tests as they are right now are a false illusion of "democracy" and "community involvement"



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2) This means that for a test to happen, the Council has to basically be in agreement that this element is... well... broken



Even if some of my fellow councilmen have agreed to this to some extent in heated Discord discussions, I for one dont think false illusion or formality are the correct phrases. The way I understand it, is that the council needs to agree (majority is required, NOT full agreement) on a certain element being (no longer) unhealthy / over the top. Once that happens they need to ask the community for permission to change the metagame into what they believe to be better. This is a verifiable and important distinction to make, because suspect tests have been close, as well as negative in the past.

Quick reminder: a supermajority of 60% is needed for a ban to go through.

SM

[hide=Zygarde-50%]

Eligible voters: 346

Votes: 271



Zygarde

Ban: 208

Do Not Ban: 63

Ban % = 76.7%



This is an example of opinion swaying a good amount during the suspect testing process, which is also something I agree with you on it being a real thing. At the start, community opinion was relatively split between the two options, but ultimately it turned out pretty one-sided due to the discussion in pr, as well as the focused testing of said element on the suspect ladder.

[/hide]

[hide= Metagrossite]

Eligible Voters: 172

Votes: 166



Ban: 104

Do Not Ban: 62

Ban % = 62.65%

[/hide]

[hide= Dugtrio]

Eligible Voters: 154

Votes: 150



Ban: 88

Do Not Ban: 62

Ban % = 58.67%

[/hide]



ORAS

[hide= Sablenite]

Eligible Voters: 71

Votes: 67



Ban: 44

Do Not Ban: 23

Ban % = 65.67%

[/hide]

[hide= Hoopa-U]

Eligible Voters: 216

Votes: 209



Ban: 128

Do Not Ban: 81

Ban % = 61.24%

[/hide]

[hide=Aegislash (vote to unban)]

Number of votes: 206

Unban: 56

Do Not Unban: 150



72,8% of the voter pool decided that Aegislash should remain in Uber, and therefore won't be reintroduced in OU.

[/hide]

[hide=Metagrossite]

Number of eligible voters: 335

Number of votes: 314

Ban: 180 (57,3%)

Do Not Ban: 134 (42,7%)

[/hide]



While this does refute your initial assumptions I stated above, it does not address the fact that a lack of majority in the council can deny worthwhile suspects taking place. The severity of this is slightly lower than you stated (majority vs. 'basically full agreement'), but I believe that this is still the single biggest flaw that could potentially come up under our current system. During the late SM OU arguments I was one of the most active pro-suspect (keep in mind, not even necessarily pro-ban) people, if not the the most active person period. The metagame was (or is, nothing has changed lol) very much playable, but I do believe that an issue with this much support, both quantitative as well as qualitative, deserves a public test. So how do we solve this problem? Well, I'd be lying if I said that I have the perfect solution ready, but the simplest idea would be that the council needs to do a better job representing the larger community in their decisions. I for one am still in support of a Mega-Mawile / Kartana test in OU, which is something we are still very much able to conduct. I also believe that Sword & Shield OU has had a very good tiering flow so far, but before I dive further into that I'd like to address two more specific points.



3) To put an example, the idea that to Quickban a ridiculous element such as Moody in SS we need full agreement from the council, and whatever weeks they might need to make up their mind, when the community is basically BEGGING for this shit to be gone is really confusing.



I've already responded to the Moody issue on Discord with this, but I also want to address the timeline, which is apparently something that displeased you. First of all, quickbans should be conducted with a significant amount of care, because it skips the permission process I talked about earlier. They also require full council agreement to further this cause, which is something I'm happy about.



TL; DR;

- Suspect tests are a confirmation process that the community feels the same way, not a formality

- The council needs to do a better job representing the community in instances such as the Mega-Mawile / Kartana fiasco

- Quickbans need to get conducted with utmost care, no tournaments taking place during their discussion process makes this an even more realistic and worthy goal to achieve.

- As an aspiring Sword & Shield OU tournament player & council member I'm very pleased with the tiering timeline so far

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