tbp posted:

hm, sort of. you are certainly correct in a turn-by-turn and number-of-usable-moves kinda way. but in practice that isn't as much the case.

take for example vgc 16. there was what, 5-6 teams to contend with (lumping together those with extraordinairily similar composition). vgc 15 i think was even worse, with all the japanese top cut guys using the same thing over and over. a metagame that allows super ultra centralizing pokemon tends to, well, centralize around them - so if you want to excel in VGC you need to be able to handle fewer teams with your own.

even if you take JUST oras ou, there's waaaay more you will need to contend with. take the concept that each tournament match in OST (the flagship "current gen OU" tournament) is bo3 and then later bo5, as well. in VGC, teamlock rules are in effect. so you may lose g1 of the bo3 but figure out some tech on the opposing team, and be able to apply that g2 and 3. in OST, you can play hard-stall focus around mega sableye g1, Diancie hyper offense g2 and baton pass g3. simply put the number of strategies usable in any given series increases in a singles tournament, the way that they are currently organized.

additionally when comparing the two as tournaments (so worlds vs smogon tournaments) you should also note that smogon tournaments get a bit more complex with tiers, as well. VGC is ALWAYS "current ruleset VGC". in Smogon tournaments, you may be playing in OST (bo3 current gen OU), Smogon Tour (bo3 ORAS, BW2, DPP), Classic (bo5 BW, DPP, ADV, GSC, RBY) or Grand Slam (bo5 Ubers, UU, RU, NU, PU, LC, Doubles drop 2 tiers).

basically what i'm trying to get across, while the complexity of a given turn might be higher in VGC compared to most smogon tournaments (you have to outright exclude anything including Smogon Doubles OU, which is by nature more complex turn by turn than VGC, and always will be), the complexity of a given series is pretty heavily in favor of the latter the way that they are currently organized.