Lurker > stafoc

THOUSAND ARROWS
+3 Wattrel
+2 Nincada
+1 Abra
-1 Stunfisk
-2 Karrablast
-3 Dubwool

WEATHER BALL
+3 Machamp
+2 Sableye
+1 Rapidash
-1 Relicanth
-2 Diancie
-3 Amaura

WHIRLPOOL
+3 Kabutops
+2 Palossand
+1 Axew
-1 Elekid
-2 Castform
-3 Gorebyss

STRING SHOT
+3 Hakamo-o
+2 Electrike
+1 Goomy
-1 Vanillite
-2 Skorupi
-3 Jellicent

X-SCISSOR
+3 Kyogre
+2 Minior
+1 Forretress
-1 Manaphy
-2 Phione
-3 Nidorina

SUCKER PUNCH
+3 Grovyle
+2 Great Tusk
+1 Monferno
-1 Jumpluff
-2 Alomomola
-3 Brionne

SNARL
+3 Typhlosion
+2 Dugtrio
+1 Mismagius
-1 Nymble
-2 Raticate
-3 Kirlia

EXPLOSION
+3 Staryu
+2 Genesect
+1 Breloom
-1 Lombre
-2 Gothitelle
-3 Calyrex

NO RETREAT
+3 Dewott
+2 Ivysaur
+1 Krabby
-1 Turtonator
-2 Delphox
-3 Loudred

LIGHT SCREEN
+3 Archeops
+2 Tapu Koko
+1 Electabuzz
-1 Chimecho
-2 Wiglett
-3 Gloom

SUPERSONIC
+3 Blaziken
+2 Umbreon
+1 Zeraora
-1 Vanillish
-2 Drednaw
-3 Shellos

SILK TRAP
+3 Stufful
+2 Coalossal
+1 Grookey
-1 Dunsparce
-2 Naganadel
-3 Vullaby

EARTHQUAKE
+3 Rowlet
+2 Zorua
+1 Cramorant
-1 Pelipper
-2 Skrelp
-3 Gothita

INSTRUCT
+3 Zapdos
+2 Dusknoir
+1 Golisopod
-1 Drizzile
-2 Happiny
-3 Skitty

AQUA TAIL
+3 Ho-oh
+2 Lillipup
+1 Vikavolt
-1 Oddish
-2 Jynx
-3 Primarina

POWER TRIP
+3 Pangoro
+2 Revavroom
+1 Keldeo
-1 Gumshoos
-2 Delcatty
-3 Starmie

ICE BURN
+3 Octillery
+2 Pawmi
+1 Lechonk
-1 Cresselia
-2 Munna
-3 Jigglypuff

ATTRACT
+3 Crobat
+2 Grafaiai
+1 Psyduck
-1 Cherubi
-2 Wugtrio
-3 Arctovish

WONDER ROOM
+3 Yanmega
+2 Smeargle
+1 Mew
-1 Jangmo-o
-2 Finneon
-3 Thwackey

G-MAX RAPID FLOW
+3 Salamence
+2 Manectric
+1 Dreepy
-1 Sunflora
-2 Pidove
-3 Regigigas

SUBSTITUTE
+3 Alakazam
+2 Golett
+1 Clauncher
-1 Grubbin
-2 Budew
-3 Whismur

G-MAX CANNONADE
+3 Latias
+2 Torterra
+1 Poliwhirl
-1 Panpour
-2 Zarude
-3 Cinccino

HYDRO CANNON
+3 Luxray
+2 Raging Bolt
+1 Zigzagoon
-1 Swinub
-2 Steenee
-3 Hippopotas

LEAF TORNADO
+3 Excadrill
+2 Terrakion
+1 Zoroark
-1 Starly
-2 Metang
-3 Aromatisse

HURRICANE
+3 Torchic
+2 Buzzwole
+1 Aron
-1 Shelmet
-2 Eelektrik
-3 Solosis

CLOSE COMBAT
+3 Shaymin
+2 Chi-Yu
+1 Guzzlord
-1 Wurmple
-2 Sliggoo
-3 Tapu Lele

SOUL-STEALING 7-STAR STRIKE
+3 Camerupt
+2 Kangaskhan
+1Ting-Lu
-1 Wailmer
-2 Swoobat
-3 Lopunny

SHADOW BONE
+3 Bisharp
+2 Archaludon
+1 Okidogi
-1 Leafeon
-2 Graveler
-3 Spewpa

TORMENT
+3 Empoleon
+2 Cyndaquil
+1 Krokorok
-1 Nosepass
-2 Quaxwell
-3 Venomoth

PSYCHO CUT
+3 Golurk
+2 Togekiss
+1 Spectrier
-1 Sawk
-2 Meltan
-3 Palpitoad

Oh to be clear I absolutely agree that randomizing the divisions was the best way to do this, and the fact that some divisions end up heavily unbalanced is unavoidable. I'm not trying to criticize on that point and apologize if it came off that way.

Mostly just wanted to comment on the juxtaposition of with arguably the worst division in the whole round with one of the strongest the next day.

Seeing how colossally terrible today's divisions are is all the more frustrating when you look at tomorrow's divisions, specifically Torment. I feel like 5 or 6 of the mons in there would win Kinesis straight up, and we're pretty much guaranteed to lose something decent-to-good.

KINESIS
+3 Torracat
+2 Spheal
+1 Drampa
-1 Klinklang
-2 Illumise
-3 Gastrodon

HEAL BELL
+3 Swampert
+2 Tornadus
+1 Oranguru
-1 Tynamo
-2 Slurpuff
-3 Binacle

I want to minus like 18 out of the 20, Jesus.

COURT CHANGE
+3 Solgaleo
+2 Electivire
+1 Glaceon
-1 Toedscruel
-2 Doduo
-3 Boldore

TECTONIC RAGE
+3 Raichu
+2 Gallade
+1 Muk
-1 Magcargo
-2 Flabb
-3 Monkidori

G-MAX VOLCALITH
+3 Mamoswine
+2 Wishiwashi
+1 Greedent
-1 Vespiquen
-2 Combusken
-3 Mesprit

G-MAX SWEETNESS
+3 Houndour
+2 Teddiursa
+1 Stoutland
-1 Ledyba
-2 Fomantis
-3 Dartrix

SIMPLE BEAM
+3 Suicune
+2 Corviknight
+1 Galvantula
-1 Bellsprout
-2 Togetic
-3 Remoraid

STEEL BEAM
+3 Pancham
+2 Ursaluna
+1 Slowking
-1 Shroodle
-2 Servine
-3 Shelgon

TECHNO BLAST
+3 Toxtricity
+2 Arboliva
+1 Noibat
-1 Skiploom
-2 Wormadam
-3 Diggersby

BESTOW
+3 Carracosta
+2 Haxorus
+1 Obstagoon
-1 Dolliv
-2 Roggenrola
-3 Arctozolt

POWER-UP PUNCH
+3 Sawsbuck
+2 Cubchoo
+1 Vibrava
-1 Bouffalant
-2 Tapu Fini
-3 Espurr

ACUPRESSURE
+3 Tyrantrum
+2 Cobalion
+1 Thievul
-1 Helioptile
-2 Quilladin
-3 Darmanitan

PSYBEAM
+3 Flapple
+2 Duskull
+1 Zebstrika
-1 Glastrier
-2 Pineco
-3 Reuniclus

COMEUPPANCE
+3 Zamazenta
+2 Gouging Fire
+1 Poochyena
-1 Lotad
-2 Dudunsparce
-3 Cosmoem

SNORE
+3 Chesnaught
+2 Porygon-Z
+1 Dachsbun
-1 Sunkern
-2 Pichu
-3 Musharna

G-Max Tartness
+3 Lugia
+2 Skeledirge
+1 Abomasnow
-1 Bonsly
-2 Mienshao
-3 Toxel

STUN SPORE
+3 Kilowattrel
+2 Corphish
+1 Nidorino
-1 Cufant
-2 Nidoran
-3 Gurdurr

CORE ENFORCER
+3 Mr. Rime
+2 Swadloon
+1 Cacnea
-1 Kricketot
-2 Moltres
-3 Snom

DIAMOND STORM
+3 Ursaring
+2 Applin
+1 Pawmo
-1 Meowth
-2 Glameow
-3 Dracozolt

TACHYON CUTTER
+3 Latios
+2 Tapu Bulu
+1 Capsakid
-1 Staravia
-2 Arctibax
-3 Cherrim

FOCUS ENERGY
+3 Krookodile
+2 Pikipek
+1 Cryogonal
-1 Chimchar
-2 Marill
-3 Smoochum

ASTRAL BARRAGE
+3 Mewtwo
+2 Chien-Pao
+1 Grumpig
-1 Murkrow
-2 Aipom
-3 Conkeldurr

In Focus Energy it was difficult to give out more than one positive score while in Astral Barrage it was difficult to give out more than one negative. Really strong group for me.

FFDragon posted...

Yeah I knew we had a concrete expert (dante), but didn't know we had actual bridge expert until now!

Feels kinda weird being called an expert in anything when I'm not some renowned engineer, not gonna lie lol. Though I guess compared to the average person, this is true.

Might be something of a sidebar, but I've also been in the center of this type of thing before - I work for the Georgia DOT and was on the team that designed the fix for the interstate bridge that collapsed in Atlanta when a homeless person started a fire under the bridge that had a ton of PVC conduit stored underneath it. Obviously not the same situation or the same cause, but I've experienced what it's like when all the fingers turn around and start pointing at you lol. So I'd just advise that once the emotions wear off and people begin to look for someone to take responsibility, make sure that you take news stories and things you hear from people with a grain of salt and try to react proportionately to the news that comes out and is verified. Because it can get rough out there lol.

The conspiracy theories are honestly the easy ones to deal with, they ranged from GDOT doing it on purpose to funnel money to a contractor (which is wrong, but at least plausible) to GDOT doing it to kill poor people and cut them off from each other as a first step in the rich forming a new world order. It's ridiculous that they gained traction at all, but they were easier to combat.

Local media was honestly the biggest issue and created misinformation (probably unknowingly) due to just not knowing enough about the topic and racing to be the first one to get the story out. There was one channel that was really interested in painting us as grossly negligent (more than we already were for storing the damn PVC under the bridge) and tried to use stuff from inspection reports of the bridge to simultaneously say that we were negligent in maintaining the bridge, and that we aren't inspecting well enough because we said it was in good condition yet it collapsed. When the reality is they didn't understand how to interpret inspection reports (and that no bridge is going to survive an hours-long chemical fire), but the people that heard their reporting didn't know that so people constantly went after us over what they heard on the news. Another channel claimed that we were just taking the rubble from the bridge, wrapping it in reinforced fiber material, and just putting the bridge back up like that with no other remediation. Which to this day I do not understand how they could have in good faith thought that's what we were doing, but we had to do a ton of PR just to convince people we weren't idiots after that. My personal favorite was when we got the bridge opened faster than we said we would, then everyone pivoted from "DOT's going to take years to fix this it'll take forever they're so dumb" to "No, no, no, that was too fast, this bridge can't be safe."

All that to say that I hope everyone's able to be careful with what's reported and advise people they know to do the same. These high profile collapses always follow the same pattern, and this one appears to be no different.

I'm a bridge engineer, so I might be able to shed... Hopefully a little bit of light on the bridge questions. No background in forensic-type investigations, but I at least know enough to be dangerous. Also don't know a ton about this specific bridge so I'll have to make some guesses/assumptions.

I couldn't tell from the one video I saw what gave way first, but it looked like the column. Once the column went down, the whole pier went down, and obviously the truss followed. These bridge spans are designed to be continuous across all of the piers, which is pretty typical. You pretty much have to do that in order to reduce the magnitude of your bending forces by distributing where in the truss they occur, otherwise your bending forces would be too large for the structure to resist. So in order to span over the navigable part of the river, they HAD to design it with multiple continuous spans connected to each other. So you can see when it starts to collapse, the two spans resting on that pier begin to fall, and the span resting on the pier that wasn't hit starts to get pulled up, causing a lot of additional stress in the members that they were never designed for. Once those break, the bending forces redistribute to the span that stayed up. But since you no longer have the rest of the bridge connected to it, it puts a lot more force in the structure than it's supposed to have towards midspan (plus the fact that it's horribly unbalanced with part of the structure cantilevering off the pier). So once those forces exceed what that portion of the bridge was designed for, cue the domino effect. There may have also been hinges put into the spans to force a point where the bending forces were released in the structure, but those are less common on trusses than other long continuous spans, so I'm not sure. I don't know enough about the bridge. But if one was there, that would also have contributed to the rest of the truss spans collapsing sure to becoming unstable. There should be a joint separating the truss spans from the rest of the bridge, hence why those approach spans were left entirely intact despite the entire truss going down.

As for whether or not the columns should have been able to take the hit, that's a complicated question. Current code requires you to consider vessel collision when spanning over navigable channels, but the actual load you have to design for isn't well defined. Some states institute their own requirements, and for some states it's up to the engineer's discretion, and I don't know MD's rules there. This is further complicated by the fact that:

a) Vessel collision wasn't a code requirement until around 15-20 years ago, so it wouldn't have been part of the code at the time the bridge was built.
b) If they did attempt to design for it, information on collision at that time would have been very lacking in terms of its magnitude and how to apply it, plus the analysis tools are nowhere near as sophisticated as what we have now.
c) Even if they did design for it and did everything correctly, the size of ships have increased dramatically since the bridge was built. So even if it was properly designed for vessels of the time, that load is simply no longer valid.

One thing I'm curious about, because I couldn't tell, is if there was any kind of fender system. Those are typically required for bridges over navigable channels and are relatively easy retrofits. They both serve as a way to guide the ships along a defined path and redirect the ship. There are a lot of arguments about their efficacy and if they actually redirect the ship enough (not a whole ton of data on that), and you have to offset it from the columns a huge distance because of how much they deflect. Plus since they don't go the full length of the channel it's still possible to get behind them and hit the pier. But if there isn't any kind of fender system, I imagine that's what the feds are going to hone in on.

FLAME WHEEL
+3 Blastoise
+2 Natu
+1 Riolu
-1 Ekans
-2 Misdreavus
-3 Shroomish

BELCH
+3 Charmeleon
+2 Dhelmise
+1 Inkay
-1 Chikorita
-2 Amoonguss
-3 Magby

OCTAZOOKA
+3 Beartic
+2 Cyclizar
+1 Fidough
-1 Stantler
-2 Serperior
-3 Woobat

PAIN SPLIT
+3 Marowak
+2 Kingambit
+1 Braviary
-1 Crabominable
-2 Glimmet
-3 Mr. Mime

PIKA PAPOW
+3 Girarina
+2 Iron Valiant
+1 Sigilyph
-1 Zweilous
-2 Trubbish
-3 Mantyke

AMNESIA
+3 Boltund
+2 Quilava
+1 Lucario
-1 Spinda
-2 Trumbeak
-3 Azelf

TRIPLE DIVE
+3 Crocalor
+2 Cetoddle
+1 Buneary
-1 Carbink
-2 Duosion
-3 Enamorus

HYPER BEAM
+3 Rhydon
+2 Falinks
+1 Sirfetch'd
-1 Chewtle
-2 Oinkologne
-3 Chingling

WATER SPORT DIVISION
+3 Zangoose
+2 Gligar
+1 Runerigus
-1 Crustle
-2 Bastiodon
-3 Bruxish

ELECTROWEB DIVISION
+3 Mabosstiff
+2 Dewgong
+1 Drilbur
-1 Koffing
-2 Pincurchin
-3 Purugly

SAND TOMB
+3 Houndoom
+2 Herdier
+1 Eelektross
-1 Frillish
-2 Flaaffy
-3 Trapinch

MAX DARKNESS
+3 Aggron
+2 Banette
+1 Wailord
-1 Nidoqueen
-2 Ambipom
-3 Bounsweet

Floaty Fall
+3 Entei
+2 Litten
+1 Meloetta
-1 Klink
-2 Vileplume
-3 Shiinotic

Dark Void
+3 Gyarados
+2 Lanturn
+1 Seviper
-1 Machop
-2 Igglybuff
-3 Wooper

DEFOG
+3 Groudon
+2 Incineroar
+1 Snorlax
-1 Exeggcute
-2 Magmar
-3 Milcery

MALICIOUS MOONSAULT
+3 Sandile
+2 Yamper
+1 Hoopa
-1 Flygon
-2 Doublade
-3 Clamperl

G-MAX STONESURGE
+3 Maschiff
+2 Gengar
+1 Escavalier
-1 Purrloin
-2 Medicham
-3 Simisear

RAZOR WIND
+3 Palafin
+2 Rotom
+1 Orthworm
-1 Xurkitree
-2 Horsea
-3 Morelull

Overheat
+3 Charmander
+2 Cacturne
+1 Shinx
-1 Inteleon
-2 Spidops
-3 Magearna

Ice Hammer
+3 Jolteon
+2 Electrode
+1 Emolga
-1 Luvdisc
-2 Larvesta
-3 Ribombee

SKETCH
+3 Donphan
+2 Joltik
+1 Miraidon
-1 Prinplup
-2 Silcoon
-3 Frigibax

HARDEN
+3 Scizor
+2 Baxcalibur
+1 Aegislash
-1 Emboar
-2 Cascoon
-3 Gothorita

PSYCHIC TERRAIN
+3 Zekrom
+2 Rhyperior
+1 Hariyama
-1 Ogerpon
-2 Scraggy
-3 Clefairy

AGILITY
+3 Dragapult
+2 Phantump
+1 Iron Thorns
-1 Quagsire
-2 Mandibuzz
-3 Snubbull

I know that I'm going to be an outlier on this one, but JFC I dislike so much of the Agility group. I had to give a positive score to a Pokemon I would have minused in most other groups. Though I guess I'll take a group that I have pretty negative feelings about 8/10 mons over a group where I can't bring myself to feel anything for 8/10 of them.

Liquidation
+3 Charizard
+2 Hitmontop
+1 Cursola
-1 Eldegoss
-2 Dewpider
-3 Meditite

Bone Club
+3 Jirachi
+2 Ditto
+1 Kadabra
-1 Maushold
-2 Volbeat
-3 Seismitoad

Iron Head Division
+3 Zacian
+2 Absol
+1 Ledian
-1 Pecharunt
-2 Maractus
-3 Wigglytuff

Storm Throw Division
+3 Pidgeot
+2 Appletun
+1 Hoothoot
-1 Varoom
-2 Kyurem
-3 Mareanie

MYSTICAL POWER DIVISION
+3 Tyranitar
+2 Corvisquire
+1 Yveltal
-1 Froakie
-2 Polteageist
-3 Darumaka

MIRROR SHOT DIVISION
+3 Cloyster
+2 Volcanion
+1 Shieldon
-1 Uxie
-2 Lickilicky
-3 Clefable

Geez, Mirror Shot is such a weak group for me

Power Trick
+3 Arcanine
+2 Basculegion
+1 Darkrai
-1 Necrozma
-2 Drifloon
-3 Drowzee

Morning Sun
+3 Haunter
+2 Shedinja
+1 Scovillain
-1 Gastly
-2 Seadra
-3 Iron Crown

Searing Shot
+3 Raikou
+2 Fraxure
+1 Ponyta
-1 Grimer
-2 Clodsire
-3 Florges

Rain Dance
+3 Hawlucha
+2 Xatu
+1 Annihilape
-1 Dwebble
-2 Barbaracle
-3 Azurill

Poison Jab
+3 Scyther
+2 Gliscor
+1 Hypno
-1 Overqwil
-2 Cutiefly
-3 Whimsicott

Dragon Rage
+3 Cubone
+2 Espathra
+1 Noivern
-1 Whiscash
-2 Regice
-3 Dedenne

Wooper

Persian