I'd like to preface this post by saying that I'm not giving my thoughts on any of the pokemon recently suspected in old gens here. That belongs in the respective suspect threads, this is solely an issue of policy.
Now, when the old gen councils were first formed, I was led to believe that they were to be a minimalist existence that would intervene only when a pressing issue existed in their metagame. Perhaps I was mistaken about this, but regardless to me this is what the old gen councils should be.
I think most would agree with me when I say that the requirements to conduct an old gen suspect should be far stricter than those to conduct a current gen one. Taking the recent DPP Latias test as an example, how exactly was it decided that there was, even potentially, a pressing issue that would be solved by dropping it to DPP OU? Furthermore, how was interest in this suspect measured? For the current gen OU council, it's fine for them to decide on suspects by themselves as otherwise the entire process would take way too long, but when it comes to making changes to an 8 year old metagame, some sort of feedback from the playerbase should be taken into account first, especially in this case where it's a mon dropping from ubers rather than an unhealthy existence currently within the meta being banned.
All we've seen so far in that respect was the initial discussion thread about retesting lati, which was met with mixed responses. There's many things that could have been done to get a grasp of the interest of the playerbase, such as making a poll with people who have actively played the tier in recent tournaments. No such thing was done, and right now it appears that the only interest measured has been the agreement within their own echo chamber, and maybe some hearsay from 'friends' who totally believe that a suspect is required to shake up the oh so stale meta. Just who gave them the power to announce a suspect test with little to no community input? Whoever approved this, I think it needs to be seriously reviewed.
I am also aware that many have taken issue with how the BW tiering has been handled, but I'll leave the commentary on that to those who are more knowledgeable on the matter. All in all, I think that the the power given to these councils need to be severely limited, with some proper procedures in place to determine whether changes to an old gen metagame are needed or even wanted. I'm not saying not to hold suspect tests, but if a suspect test is indeed going to be held, it should be done the right way, not just hastily pushed upon the community with an obvious agenda to implement the change before the start of SPL.
Now, when the old gen councils were first formed, I was led to believe that they were to be a minimalist existence that would intervene only when a pressing issue existed in their metagame. Perhaps I was mistaken about this, but regardless to me this is what the old gen councils should be.
I think most would agree with me when I say that the requirements to conduct an old gen suspect should be far stricter than those to conduct a current gen one. Taking the recent DPP Latias test as an example, how exactly was it decided that there was, even potentially, a pressing issue that would be solved by dropping it to DPP OU? Furthermore, how was interest in this suspect measured? For the current gen OU council, it's fine for them to decide on suspects by themselves as otherwise the entire process would take way too long, but when it comes to making changes to an 8 year old metagame, some sort of feedback from the playerbase should be taken into account first, especially in this case where it's a mon dropping from ubers rather than an unhealthy existence currently within the meta being banned.
All we've seen so far in that respect was the initial discussion thread about retesting lati, which was met with mixed responses. There's many things that could have been done to get a grasp of the interest of the playerbase, such as making a poll with people who have actively played the tier in recent tournaments. No such thing was done, and right now it appears that the only interest measured has been the agreement within their own echo chamber, and maybe some hearsay from 'friends' who totally believe that a suspect is required to shake up the oh so stale meta. Just who gave them the power to announce a suspect test with little to no community input? Whoever approved this, I think it needs to be seriously reviewed.
I am also aware that many have taken issue with how the BW tiering has been handled, but I'll leave the commentary on that to those who are more knowledgeable on the matter. All in all, I think that the the power given to these councils need to be severely limited, with some proper procedures in place to determine whether changes to an old gen metagame are needed or even wanted. I'm not saying not to hold suspect tests, but if a suspect test is indeed going to be held, it should be done the right way, not just hastily pushed upon the community with an obvious agenda to implement the change before the start of SPL.