5. The RBY Bo3 Fiasco
Unbelievably, in 2023, we have a new entry on this list. I honestly never thought this list would ever get updated, but here we are. The Wild West set a really high bar to clear, after all. It all started when johnnyg2 decided to open Pandora's box by making a thread about DPP possibly becoming Bo3. Many thinking gen players pointed to RBY being bo3 as an argument in their favor.
This then led to the hilarious conclusion of the TDs making RBY bo1 instead. At this point, many RBY mainers as well as those less versed in Smogon history clamored about how this was one of, if not the worst TD decision of all time. I scoffed at this laughable suggestion; at that point, the decision certainly was not crazy enough to land on this list. The decision did lead to an insane storm of drama, however, one that could rival any throughout Smogon's illustrious history. The RBY mainers and the BKC drones went to war for hours upon hours; many prominent RBYers threatened to boycott SPL in retaliation.
Former TD Amaranth even made a post that implied that this decision could threaten the very fabric of Smogon itself. The TDs attempted to stand strong in the face of the never-ending assault against them, including Finchinator, who, despite not being a TD, received an immense amount of backlash with regards to his supposed involvement in the decision. They did manage to hold the fort down for a couple of days....
However, the RBY community had one more trick up their sleeve. They contacted chaos himself in an effort to have him reverse this decision. For whatever reason, chaos seemed to be on board with their pleas.
However, the TDs were not willing to commit fully to reversing the decision, instead choosing to institute a "gentleman's agreement" clause into RBY for SPL 15. It was at this point that i became willing to put this decision on this list LOL The TDs decided that RBY would default into a bo1, but both players could agree to a bo3 beforehand if they wished. The main problem I and many others saw with this is that it genuinely just harms the better player. Logically, why would some random 3k RBYer want to play someone like Troller or Nails in a bo3 when they could play them in a bo1 and have a better chance of winning? It would probably have caused the prices of the better RBYers to come down, and flies in the face of one of the main arguments for bo3 RBY, which is that bo3 helps ensure the better player wins more often. Almost no one was happy with this decision; the RBY mainers were somehow even more upset and the people like me who were fine with bo1 found it to be a rather baffling decision as well.
The story is not over quite, yet, however. After the TDs were faced with an onslaught of harassment with regards to their most recent decision, they knew they had to get back to the drawing board. The RBY community would simply not stop until bo3 RBY was restored to SPL. One user in particular named Sabelette absolutely refused to succumb to the might of the TDs, creating thread after thread in an attempt to rally the community and combat the evil forces that were destroying her favorite tier.
With the help of chaos, Sabelette managed to
effortlessly destroy the TD team and
force them to reverse their decision.
I have been on this site for quite a long time, but I do genuinely mean it when I say that this could be the lowest point in the history of the TD team. Reversing this decision in this fashion really just destroys the legitimacy of the entire institution. The TDs were just soundly defeated by some random RBY player with a Sandshrew avatar.....I'm honestly in sheer disbelief that, in 2023, a decision has managed to crack the top 5 on this list....IT'S HIGHER THAN MIDSEASON RETAINS LOL THAT'S INSANE!
