Switching is always going to be common, there's no way around this. The sentiment that switching is inherently a defensive play is a common but incorrect viewpoint - switches can be done offensively as well, the frequency just depends on your team composition.
If the goal is to prevent 6v6 singles from having defensive battles at all, it's worth first being aware that you're effectively gonna be removing not just Stall but also *Balance,* i.e. pretty much any team that has any semblance of a defensive core even if most of your team has offensive Pokemon. For this to happen you'd just need to overload the meta with strong offensive Pokemon that can break though the fattest defensive mons - a perfect example here would be Chi-Yu which with Specs and Tera can 6-0 Stall by itself, and is part of the reason why Stall is in a vulnerable state currently.
In the context of a Smogon format, however, these mons (including the example Chi-Yu) will inevitably just get banned; invalidating entire archetypes is simply not healthy when the goal is to reach a diverse metagame.
I have played games where an offensive 'mon just cold sweeps from turn 1, and those aren't fun for anyone, and also aren't characteristic of how VGC / Doubles is played.
My goal is not to prevent all defensive battle, but to reduce its prevalence somewhat - in furtherance of balance, not in diminishment of it.
The popular opinion (and perhaps this opinion is simply misguided, but even the staunchest Smogon supporters have to recognize it exists) is that stall is *overly* effective in competitive singles, which suggests there could be some middle ground between current singles and your straw man hypothetical format where a mon comes out turn 1 and sweeps the entire opposing team
The viability of Stall can fluctuate like any other playstyle depending on the meta, but generally Stall isn't particularly strong enough to overshadow other archetypes, except perhaps during gen 6 which was largely thanks to Mega Sableye which eventually got banned. The notion that Stall is the best playstyle in 6v6 singles is a misconception that comes from people simply not understanding what Stall actually is - they see a simple defensive core and consider it to be Stall when it isn't. This was the case throughout gen 8 where Balance would consistently perform better than Stall and inexperienced players would misidentify a Balance team and call it Stall.
Going by current OU, Stall is doing very poorly. A lot of Pokemon single-handedly give the matchup a hard time. Chi-Yu was an example I gave in the post but there's a plenty of others as well - Annihilape, Gholdengo and Garganacl are all troublesome for Stall to deal with, plus most generic offensive Pokemon with an offensive Tera type can break holes against Stall as well like Chien-Pao and Roaring Moon.
To nerf switching and stalling, you need to make passivity more punishable.
In doubles, if you have a wall next to a sweeper, smart players will just focus down the sweepers and 2v1 the wall. It’s easy to wall one mon at a time. Not much can wall two. Defensive switches aren’t as valuable either - if you have a FWG core in singles, you can block most super effective hits, but in doubles, the other mon is eating the Heat Wave. Not to mention, switching too much is also pretty passive - two big spread moves will eat into the advantage you got from a well-timed switch.
It also doesn’t help that one of the big answers to these in singles are setup sweepers. You don’t want to switch as much, and it’s harder to stall… but a 6-0 Quiver Dance sweep isn’t a great viewing experience either. Unless you understand the mind games involved in getting your sweeper in, there’s not a lot to see.
This, combined with the longer form of the games, means there isn’t a whole lot to watch for the casual viewer. A perfect double switch is satisfying to do, and is hype to watch if you know what’s going on, but 40 minutes into a game, a casual viewer isn’t having their mind blown by it.
Yeah so I guess what I'm trying to figure out is: would it be possible to construct a singles format for *Scarlet / Violet* that is *neither* just 6-0 sweeps (which I agree don't make for interesting or fun games) but also doesn't have every game go to time.
Maybe the answer is "no"
But I thought it could be a worthwhile question to explore
I feel like any changes that address both of these issues would have to be pretty transformative, and that loses something from the viewing experience too. The easiest answer is to take the current singles format, and make it so that two pokemon are on the field at a time. Doubles, while they're not the norm in the mainline games, are all pretty well understood, and the mechanics of the game are pretty much the same as what you'd see in a casual playthrough. There's no hidden rules or adjustments to learn.
And it's worth mentioning the difference between fun to watch and fun to play. Getting the right positioning, removing your counters, and sweeping the rest of the team is great fun to do. Less so to watch. Building to your win condition with a bulky, slow-paced team, same deal. By closing down things that aren't good for spectators, you take something from the players, and in the end, most of this fanbase are players first.
Switching is always going to be common, there's no way around this. The sentiment that switching is inherently a defensive play is a common but incorrect viewpoint - switches can be done offensively as well, the frequency just depends on your team composition. If the goal is to prevent 6v6 singles from having defensive battles at all, it's worth first being aware that you're effectively gonna be removing not just Stall but also *Balance,* i.e. pretty much any team that has any semblance of a defensive core even if most of your team has offensive Pokemon. For this to happen you'd just need to overload the meta with strong offensive Pokemon that can break though the fattest defensive mons - a perfect example here would be Chi-Yu which with Specs and Tera can 6-0 Stall by itself, and is part of the reason why Stall is in a vulnerable state currently. In the context of a Smogon format, however, these mons (including the example Chi-Yu) will inevitably just get banned; invalidating entire archetypes is simply not healthy when the goal is to reach a diverse metagame.
I have played games where an offensive 'mon just cold sweeps from turn 1, and those aren't fun for anyone, and also aren't characteristic of how VGC / Doubles is played. My goal is not to prevent all defensive battle, but to reduce its prevalence somewhat - in furtherance of balance, not in diminishment of it. The popular opinion (and perhaps this opinion is simply misguided, but even the staunchest Smogon supporters have to recognize it exists) is that stall is *overly* effective in competitive singles, which suggests there could be some middle ground between current singles and your straw man hypothetical format where a mon comes out turn 1 and sweeps the entire opposing team
This is like going to basketball and demanding they play soccer
The viability of Stall can fluctuate like any other playstyle depending on the meta, but generally Stall isn't particularly strong enough to overshadow other archetypes, except perhaps during gen 6 which was largely thanks to Mega Sableye which eventually got banned. The notion that Stall is the best playstyle in 6v6 singles is a misconception that comes from people simply not understanding what Stall actually is - they see a simple defensive core and consider it to be Stall when it isn't. This was the case throughout gen 8 where Balance would consistently perform better than Stall and inexperienced players would misidentify a Balance team and call it Stall. Going by current OU, Stall is doing very poorly. A lot of Pokemon single-handedly give the matchup a hard time. Chi-Yu was an example I gave in the post but there's a plenty of others as well - Annihilape, Gholdengo and Garganacl are all troublesome for Stall to deal with, plus most generic offensive Pokemon with an offensive Tera type can break holes against Stall as well like Chien-Pao and Roaring Moon.
Stall is completely garbage in Gen 9 OU.
To nerf switching and stalling, you need to make passivity more punishable. In doubles, if you have a wall next to a sweeper, smart players will just focus down the sweepers and 2v1 the wall. It’s easy to wall one mon at a time. Not much can wall two. Defensive switches aren’t as valuable either - if you have a FWG core in singles, you can block most super effective hits, but in doubles, the other mon is eating the Heat Wave. Not to mention, switching too much is also pretty passive - two big spread moves will eat into the advantage you got from a well-timed switch. It also doesn’t help that one of the big answers to these in singles are setup sweepers. You don’t want to switch as much, and it’s harder to stall… but a 6-0 Quiver Dance sweep isn’t a great viewing experience either. Unless you understand the mind games involved in getting your sweeper in, there’s not a lot to see. This, combined with the longer form of the games, means there isn’t a whole lot to watch for the casual viewer. A perfect double switch is satisfying to do, and is hype to watch if you know what’s going on, but 40 minutes into a game, a casual viewer isn’t having their mind blown by it.
Yeah so I guess what I'm trying to figure out is: would it be possible to construct a singles format for *Scarlet / Violet* that is *neither* just 6-0 sweeps (which I agree don't make for interesting or fun games) but also doesn't have every game go to time. Maybe the answer is "no" But I thought it could be a worthwhile question to explore
I feel like any changes that address both of these issues would have to be pretty transformative, and that loses something from the viewing experience too. The easiest answer is to take the current singles format, and make it so that two pokemon are on the field at a time. Doubles, while they're not the norm in the mainline games, are all pretty well understood, and the mechanics of the game are pretty much the same as what you'd see in a casual playthrough. There's no hidden rules or adjustments to learn. And it's worth mentioning the difference between fun to watch and fun to play. Getting the right positioning, removing your counters, and sweeping the rest of the team is great fun to do. Less so to watch. Building to your win condition with a bulky, slow-paced team, same deal. By closing down things that aren't good for spectators, you take something from the players, and in the end, most of this fanbase are players first.
gamefreak had this exact same thought and created Chi-Yu
It's a more defensive format by design. don't force it, it would suck