Alex R. 2024 | BASIS Independent Brooklyn
- Project Title: The Very Best Beast: Analyzing Use-Based Tier Placement Trends in Competitive Doubles Pokémon
- BASIS Independent Advisor: Mr. Mark Opirhory
- Internship Location: Smogon University (online community)
- Onsite Mentor: Ricardo Lopes
If a person were to imagine a fight between a gorilla and a caterpillar, there would be a clear victor. Now, change the caterpillar to a fire-wielding phoenix, and the roles would reverse. How about changing that caterpillar to mountain lion instead? It would be closer to a 50-50 toss-up. This is the idea behind competing in competitive Pokémon- training these magical namesake creatures and teaching them special skills to ready them for combat against each other. Some Pokémon, like Caterpie (caterpillars), are relegated to low usage tiers, unfit for the competitive scene. Threats like Ho-oh (fire phoenix) make matches unfair and unfun, so they're banned. But fighters like Rillaboom (ape) and Incineroar (lion) are powerful without being decisive, characterizing the typical usage. And unlike in the real world, Pokémon battles run on cold hard data- data that can be used to create statistical models to understand how people could best utilize their Pokémon. Everything from the attacks they use to the items they hold and their discretely enumerated physical attributes, through advanced statistical calculations and enough data processing, can be parsed through to analyze patterns, connections, and trends. My research splits data into groups of the typical usage tiers based on the different official rosters of Pokémon, each with distinct rules, mechanics, and threats. This illustrates factors typically leading to success under different battle conditions and the fluctuation of these factors' prevalence over time. My quantitative analyses aim to project the exact strategies that would prove successful in Pokémon game competitions, and why they would work.