In the world of competitive pokemon battling, pokemon are separated into tiers based on their stats, move pool, and usage.
Most legendaries go into the Uber tier, because putting them any where else would destroy the meta-game. Groudon and Kyogre for example. Though pokemon such as Garchomp and Wobuffet go into this category as well.
Pokemon with good stats and movepools usually go into the OU (over used) tier, such as gyarados, gengar, and jolteon. It changes periodically due to OU meta-game counters either kicking OU pokemon out or putting more in. For example Smeargle used to be NU/UU, but now has a spot as OU because of its ability to have a fantastic movepool (read: all of them).
There is a sub-category called BL (borderline) where some pokemon haven't yet been placed into OU or UU. BL pokemon
are allowed in this UU tourny, as pokemon like abomasnow and gallade aren't exactly breaking in a UU environment. However Cresselia and Porygon-Z used to be OU (And Cresslia was on the border of becoming Uber) and were dropped to UU due to them simply being under-used recently. This may have an adverse effect in the UU environment so I am cutting them out on the account of them being untested.
UU is the tier right below OU, where pokemon like Blaziken, Venasaur, and Blastoise reside. The pokemon usually sit there because they are super-ceded by pokemon who do the same thing but better.
Blaziken for example is super-ceded by Infernape, while Blastoise by Gyaradose/Vaporeon. This is our tournament tier, any pokemon from this tier and below can be used.
NU is never used because they either plain suck, or in cases like Slaking (who has amazing stats but a rather crippling ability), are easily countered or unpopular. Pokemon like Skiploom, Articuno (yes, even legendaries can be NU), Beedrill and others. Generally NU pokemon just get the snot kicked out of them when placed in an OU tier environment, but can become rather viable in a UU team, so don't discount them.
Smogon.com has a bunch more info so read up.
Also to note: EV training is highly recommended, as an EV trained pokemon will easily crush a non-trained pokemon. If you're unfamiliar there is a great site.
Pokemon EV Training Site Finder
Pokemon auto-level to 100 in a wifi match, so you only have to worry about EV's, move set, evolution, and natures (and IVs if you're into that).
If we can get a minimum of 8 people for this tournament that would be ace. PM me if you're interested and I can concoct a bracket these next few weeks. But get goin on training! I will try to offer a prize if I can.
School is out for me in a month, so I will most likely have lots of time then to start the tournament, sometime mid-may.
