Supporters and Speedsters, Wherefore Art Thou?

Pokémon Unite has grown considerably since it started life one year ago, and it has included an amazing variety of playable Pokémon for its players (Trainers) to choose and battle with. In the progression up to today, however, there seems to be a great deal of Attackers and All-Rounders with a smattering of Defenders, but there's a dearth of Supporters and Speedsters. Even the latest Pokémon to be included (soon) are slated to be of the Attacker and All-Rounder roles. This apparent current lack of Pokémon in these roles becomes a wonderment for many, and I've opted to make a discussion of it in this post.

Because Pokémon Unite is a MOBA, naturally those who play would expect a balance of roles - or in other words, varieties of Pokémon that maintain the balance between the five roles. They'd expect that the diversity of selection for certain roles closely follow that of others. In this way, they might be able to expect others to (be flexible to) choose Pokémon of different roles to suit certain teams as well as their own preferences. With an overload of Pokémon for certain roles, this becomes somewhat constrained, and certain people might be tempted to double up on roles instead of choosing ones to suit a team.

The increased number of Pokémon in specific roles certainly has its effects. Some tournaments can now be held that restrict participants to choose only Pokémon of a single role, forcing an all-out brawl with the Pokémon. Meanwhile, others might feel discouraged to collect Pokémon of the lesser-focused roles and may start to shift to other roles, though this is still what is expected of most of those who play. The case of either may be less desirable for really focused players and/or the general competitive situation.

In order to rectify this issue, the natural thing is certainly to add Pokémon to the roles that lack focus. As of the present, of Pokémon that are yet to be included, Celebi and Jynx could be good Supporters, while Ninjask and Blaziken could be good Speedsters. Considering the overload of Pokémon on other roles, additions of these might deserve to have their own special event that highlights Pokémon of these roles, making them inviting once again for those who enjoy their usage.

Even so, it has to be admitted that not all Pokémon can be perfectly aligned for a balance of all roles since most of them exist prior to Unite and have therefore been dictated by base stats, moves, abilities, and so on to fulfill certain innate roles. As such, it may be that balancing roles is not important, so much as allowing them to fulfill their roles comfortably in Unite as they fulfill theirs in other Pokémon games.

So, on one hand, the imbalance of roles is a concern or annoyance for those who expect them to be more evenly spread, and can and should be fixed. On the other hand, the fix may not be as easy or curative, depending on what a species is dictated to do. And that is a rather key point of this game, which is to "do" and "make do" even with the unbalanced role conditions until new Pokémon give brighter hopes for these underutilized roles.

One year ago: It's... Bidoof Day?

Two years ago: The First of Us

Three years ago: Pokémon Go Custom Team Keychains

Four years ago: Cosplay: ENNICHISAI 2018 + CLAS:H/ICGP Nationals

Five years ago: My Offerings (or, What I Am Not)