I know, but i'm not so sure if this tiering method is really for me. I could try playing in lower tiers, but I would then be further more be limited from the mons I want to use competitivly. I still want to try playing Smogon, but in the meantime, I'm not so sure if I want to. Also, I have a bunch of friends who play VGC, and I might join once Megas and post-bank mons are allowed in VGC 18.
ok
the thing about vgc is that if anything, it's less hospitable to your favorite mons than standard play. like sometimes random mons can be good (see: crobat in vgc 16) but in general stuff that isn't good in ou won't be too good in vgc either. stats are everything.
if you made a team out of your six favorite mons, there wouldn't really be a format where that team would be viable. can you use it? sure. spend a fun afternoon fighting against your friend's equally unviable team. enhance their characteristics in some om and get a ladder ranking that surprises even yourself. but keep in mind that no one started out with favorites that correspond exactly with what happens to be viable.
this npc in oras says that in order to win, sometimes you have to use mons you don't like. this is dumb and it shouldn't be true, but it is. after using the mons you feel neutrally towards, you might find that you've taken a shine to them as well, which is pretty cool when it happens.
i'm assuming that you don't like smogon's tiering because it doesn't allow you to use all your favorite mons in one tier (because there's no other logical choices i can think of). but that can't stop you from starting with a mon you like and figuring out how to make it work. what partners pair well with ampharos? which ampharos set is the one you want to use?
will mega ampharos ever be released?
so yeah. if you don't like smogon's tiering system, feel free to leave it behind or something. the reason i enjoy it is because it allows every mon to shine in their tier (except for some lc stuff but i mean just evolve it then). you can check out an spl replay and watch a top-level player using one of your favorite mons, and if you really get into the community here, you can become that top-level player.
i can see why you said that "joining smogon might have been the wrong idea" because the people here are pretty serious. it's honestly pretty intimidating. however, there's plenty of better places to start-- our discord channel is a more friendly place, for example-- so i think you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this site as a whole.
it's cool that you're willing to contribute, too! annoyingly nothing is available for reservation right now, but writing up analyses for mons is a great way to get involved. if you're patient, spots will eventually open up.
if you have any questions, you can pm me.
idk why this post is so long but yeah welcome to smogon! we hope you enjoy your time here.