The results for the pre-DPL BW DOU survey are in! The survey received a total of 35 responses, which would be pretty low for a current gen survey, but since BW is an older and less played format, it seems pretty good! Let's get into the details. Open response questions have had their responses provided to the BW council (with identifying information removed to the best of my ability).
A quick summary:
- The vast majority of respondents play BW. This much is to be expected. Over half stated they only rarely play BW; in hindsight, the survey should have included a way for respondents to elaborate here, as there could be a lot of different reasons players don't play as much BW.
- Slightly over half of respondents plan on signing up for BW in DPL. Godspeed to you all! However, only five plan to sign up as "mains."
- People seem to generally enjoy watching BW, with no responses at the lowest end of the scale. On the other hand, people seem to enjoy playing BW less. Only four respondents claim to really love playing BW, and one strongly dislikes it; an equal number of respondents somewhat enjoy it and somewhat dislike it. Of note: both respondents who do not play BW voted in the middle, and one other respondent abstained.
- Between the two tiering questions and the open responses, Thundurus is definitely the standout issue, with 21 respondents believing it could or should be tested. Jellicent and rain received mentions in the open responses as being potential problems if Thundurus were to be banned. A very small number of respondents believe Thunder Wave is "the problem" and not necessarily Thundurus. Excadrill was also mentioned.
- A small number of respondents brought up feeling-based issues with BW - some claimed it was hard to learn, others simply think it's boring.
- An overwhelming number of respondents believe BW now has enough representation in our circuit. Nice!
- While the idea of a suspect slot was met with generally positive reception, it's a close enough vote that
we will not be making any changes to BW in DPL.
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AIRedzone wants you all to know he loves Scrafty.
If you'd like to discuss these results or hear some more detailed opinions, check out the
BW DOU thread, or head on over to the Doubles OU Discord. Thank you all for participating!