"It's not a bug, it's a feature"
I was scrolling around on Pokemon.com, looking for images of the latest Falinks trading cards, and saw possibly the most disturbing post I have ever seen the official Pokemon company make. It was part of an announcement of the first tournament that Falinks was legal in. Here is what it read:
"Falinks has the potential to be the most powerful damage dealer in any match. However, it comes with its own unique weaknesses. Each of Falinks’ troopers take damage, meaning that any Pokémon that wants to hit multiple enemies (for example, Venusaur with Petal Dance or Lucario with Extreme Speed) becomes a natural counter to Falinks. That does not mean this Pokémon will see no play; teams will just have to consider their lineups carefully and save Falinks for later in the draft pick phase."
So what they're saying is they're happy seeing Falinks autolose against 10% of the roster. They say it doesn't mean Falinks will see no play, but that is wrong. In my entire half a year of playing the game, I have come across 1 Falinks. It sits with the lowest pickrate of all the roster, as anyone who doesn't love Falinks would never pick a Pokemon that loses automatically to lots of common Pokemon. CrisHeroes stated in one of his videos that Falinks is the most failed Pokemon in UNITE ever. Competitive wouldn't care if they removed it from the game, as it makes zero impact on the meta. Why would you add such a poorly designed Pokemon (balance-wise) to the game, and such a cute and widely liked one at that. The very Pokemon that made me commit to downloading this game was pointless. If Sirfetch'd was never added, I would have never played the game again. At least Sirfetch'd had the hope of being added, and being good at that, while the devs never payed attention to how Falinks sits at the bottom of everyone's tier lists, pleading for a buff. Falinks is a Pokemon that is at the top of my favorites list, a Pokemon that I bought every plush of, a Pokemon who I cherish everyday. My heart is wrenched at what they did. Look how they gutted my boi. :(