A few questions about competitive tiers?

Question

I notice that there are tiers called BL, BL2, BL3 and yet you cannot have a battle with Pokemon in these tiers and below; instead, these Pokemon can only play in the tier above them like OU. So;

• What are all the tiers in order? (all of them - including those in which you can not have a battle in, like NFE or BL3)
• What are the full titles of the tiers? (e.g. OU is OverUsed or NFE is Not Fully Evolved etc.)
• Which tiers can you battle in? (i.e. you can battle in the NU tier but not BL)
• Why have tiers, like BL, when you cannot have a battle in those tiers and there are usually only a few Pokemon in those tiers anyway?

You might want to write the first 3 in a list with brackets and dashes to add whether you can battle in those tiers and also write their names out in full like Not Fully Evolved.

Thanks.

Comments

I know the 1,2,3 but not the 4.

---

This is why BL's exist: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tiering-policy-framework.3628026/

Answer 1

1.It goes
Ubers
OU
BL
UU
BL2
RU
BL3
NU
NFE
LC

2.
OU = over used
BL = border line
UU = under used
RU = rarely used
NU = never used
NFE = not fully evolved
LC = little cup

3.
Ubers
OU
UU
RU
NU
LC

4.BL is for Pokemon deemed too strong for UU but they are out-classed in OU same goes for the other BL's

Answer 2

BL stands for "Borderline", if a Pokémon is ranked in these tiers it means that they are not used enough to be placed in a higher tier, but brings imbalance to the tier below. For example a Pokémon ranked in the BL tier is considered not to be used enough in the OU tier but brings imbalance to the UU tier.

>A BL Pokemon isn't necessarily weaker than an OU Pokemon. BL Pokemon, however, are used less for reasons such as requiring additional team support or simply being outclassed by another Pokemon in a specific role. It usually takes only one such inadequacy to explain why a given Pokemon is BL and not OU.

Pokémon who are listed in the BL tier can only be used in Ubers or OU matches.

Pokémon who are listed in the BL 2 tier can only be used in Ubers, OU, and UU matches.

Pokémon who are listed in the BL 3 tier can only be used in Ubers, OU, UU, and RU matches.

---

List of tiers (not battle formats):

Main tiers:

Ubers
OU - (Overused)
BL - (Borderline)
UU - (Underused)
BL 2 - (Borderline 2)
RU - (Rarelyused)
BL 3 - (Borderline 3)
NU - (Neverused)

Additional tiers:

NFE - (Not Fully Evolved)
Little Cup
VGC - (Video Game Championships)

(Borderline tiers aren't tier in which you can battle, as stated above their only purpose it to separate Pokémon who are considered not to be used enough to be in one tier, but brings imbalance to the tier below for reasons which may include:

• The Pokémon being too powerful;
• The Typing of a Pokémon etc.)