For the people who don't know, Smogon is a community that created the most popular metagame among Pokemon games. Whenever you hear 'uber', 'OU' and 'UU', it's most likely about Smogon.
Part of this will be informative about what happened lately, while my opinion will be added as well. There's a tl;dr at the end of all the stuff Smogon did if you don't feel like hearing my opinion. I also want to add that I'm aware of that these aren't official rules and I don't have to listen to them, but the problem is that it's so popular, you might just get flamed at and shunned for not playing by their rules.
Now, before I start summing up what Smogon did, or is about to do, I want to say that I don't like Smogon. At all. To me, Smogon, as a metagame, is awful and egoistical. First I just didn't like it because people listened to their tiers, which prevented diversity and motivation to use the pokemon you love, because they put Garchomp in the uber tier for, what I found out, were ridiculous reasons and because the community tend to use their movesets and only theirs, so they won't learn but only do what the descriptions tell them to do.
Now let's take a look at what's currently banned:
Blaziken is banned because Blaziken can speed boost + protect for extra speed boosts, can take out most of the meta game, can get off a free swords dance when people switch in their counter and blaziken gets a mega evolution on top of it. I can get behind that Blaziken is very strong, but I don't really see why it needs to be banned, I've seen it being countered easily with ease.
Mega gengar is banned because it prevents you from switching out, is very fast and strong and can destiny bond you on top of it. You can't switch in your counter until you lose one, and you will lose your counter to a destiny bond eventually anyway. It also has a lot of annoying moves like hypnosis, taunt and will-o-wisp. I've fought a mega gengar, and honestly, it is strong, but I did take it out and won the match.
Mega kangaskhan is banned because you have the ability to attack twice in a row, get double stat boosts from powerup punch for example, has great attacks, etc. I honestly think from here on, it starts going more and more downhill. I feel like it kills the diversity of using Pokemon. The fun thing about megas, in comparison to legends, is that you are restricted to using one in a battle. Mega kangaskhan is a strong pokemon, but it's not OP. If you keep banning more and more megas, there isn't a lot to choose from. It destroys the diversity, and not only that, you will just eventually end up banning the next strongest mega in line.
Mega lucario... Why IS mega lucario banned? I guess he is the strongest mega in line? Mega Lucario gets a big boost in his attack stats and gets an ability that increases STAB attacks. Sure, it's strong, but I don't get why it's banned.
My point is, most of these Megas are indeed very strong, but also VERY frail. A good play can easily take out these Megas. People might argue that diversity is destroyed because people feel like you need to run a counter all the time in case you encounter one of these pokemon. Honestly though, you need to run a counter for EVERYTHING. There is a counter for EVERYTHING. Protect? Feint. Gale wings? Quick guard. Sucker punch? Status move. Double team? Aerial ace. Stealth rock? Rapid spin. There is no move that's impossible to stop, and there's no strategy that's flawless. Why not ban Shedinja? If you don't run a status move or a move that doesn't hit it, you're going to lose. But that's the point of the game! You pretty much have a few options in these situations. You find a way around the strategy and beat it, you lose because you didn't run specific pokemon that could beat it, or you could prevent people from using it. Now here's some more on that subject, that I slightly implied earlier;
Evasion. You're not allowed to use evasion moves. No double team, no sand veil or snow cloak, nothing of that. Why? Because Smogon wants their metagame to be based on strategy, not luck. Garchomp having Sand veil was the whole reason why he was banned in the first place. I really don't understand why they are doing that. I can completely understand double team being annoying, but if you're REALLY THAT annoyed by it, run at least one pokemon that can counter it! Give your technician scizor aerial ace, take them right out. Run aerial ace, run shock wave, run feint attack, run shadow punch, run magnet bomb, run magical leaf, run swift... I just summed them all up. I know some people run aerial ace on Weavile for coverage, or on Scizor for coverage+technician, but if you don't run that, you're gonna have a hard time, sure, but the reason why no one runs it is because no one feels allowed to run double team. Then of course you're going to get pissed off when people run it, if you don't even think to bring at least one pokemon that knows a move that ignores evasion. I don't understand how not wanting to base anything on luck is relevant anyway. You can't stop luck being relevant. You can't stop crits from landing. You can't stop certain moves from always hitting. Will-o-wisp can miss. Highjump kick is even worse when it misses. Are they going to ban slash too because it has higher crit ratio?
Next to that they have also banned some things like not running leppa berry in combination with healing moves (making battles endless), having the ability moody (luck based), OHKO attacks (luck based, very, very luck based (can be countered by sturdy, so theres a way to stop it, many pokemon have sturdy)), not being allowed to put more than 1 pokemon of the opponent to sleep (they must be really butthurt at this) and not being allowed to use the same pokemon in one team (diversity, now I do like this rule). In conclusion I just feel like Smogon just tries to ban and ban more stuff because they don't want to deal with it, which makes me feel like they went from creating a system to destroying everything that they are scared of to encounter, and people just go with it.
Recently they are considering a new ban. I'm really drawing the line here. They want to ban swagger and prankster, or the combination of it, also called "SwagPlay", because it also empowers your foul play a lot. But wait. Mega Banette's ability is prankster... Oh, I guess that's the next one in line. Good job. Other pokemon such as male meowstic, klefki, etc are banned too (if they have this ability that is). So now you're taking away even MORE pokemon people like to use STRATEGICALLY. Funny thing is, they want to ban Swagger because it's chance based. Seriously? Swagger is based on luck? It increases attack and makes them confused. Handy for double battles when your partner has a lum berry or something. But how is it luck based? Oh wait, you must be talking about the confusion. Are you serious now? You're banning Swagger for causing a status? All statuses, except for poison and burn are chance based. It's so stupid that you're just going to ban it for just that reason.
Now there's one thing I want to add, where I really, REALLY draw the line. So, Smogon wants to have their community involved on this one, they want to gather opinions on if people think it should be banned. Let me just screenshot the message at the bottom.
TL;DR
Smogon banned Blaziken from OU.
Smogon banned Mega Gengar, Kangaskhan and Lucario from OU.
Smogon banned evasion, the ability moody, OHKO attacks, putting more than 1 opposing pokemon to sleep at the same time as long as you educed it, using 2 of the same pokemon and to use a leppa berry in combination with a health move.
Smogon is considering to ban Swagger, the ability Prankster, or the combination of it, asks the community for their opinion, but when it's against theirs, your post gets deleted.
Also, I don't like Smogon.