"How has Eevee Community Day changed what we thought we knew about Community Days?"

#PokemonGO: Before Eevee Community Day was announced, the general consensus regarding CDs are as follows:After Pikachu CD, Community Days alternate between starters and a random rare Pokemon. Some think Pikachu, by not matching the trend, suggests this trend is wrong. But others simply explain it as a "universal game mascot" exception to the ruleSaid rare Pokemon is presumably a 3-stager from the 10km hatch list and/or is highly valued in the meta (or could be made to be so via the CD-exclusive move)Has a shiny form not yet released in PoGoThe likelihood of an Eevee Community Day was heavily debated.Those arguing that an Eevee CD wouldn't happen claimed that Eevee isn't a starter nor a three-stager, and would break the prevailing trend, thus deeming it unlikely to happen.Those arguing that an Eevee CD would happen claimed that Eevee is technically a starter - it was Pikachu's counterpart in Yellow and the anime, and is a legitimately playable starter in some spin-off games.An Eevee CD was also argued to be in good timing for promoting the upcoming Let's Go Eevee release, as well as a rumoured new Eeveelution for the upcoming Gen VIIIEevee CD was predicted for Sep, as the next starter CD month, or Nov, coinciding with Let's Go Eevee's releaseIn any case, there's no consensus on what the CD-exclusive move would be. Either possibilities mooted - all Eeveelutions get their own unique move vs only the base form gets it - made sense, so it became another reason to believe an Eevee CD won't happen.There may be more that I can't recall off-hand. In any case, now that Eevee CD has come and gone, we can see just how much of the aforementioned has been disproven (a lot). Not just the Eevee CD speculations, but also a few prior-held beliefs about the overall CD concept.Eevee is the second Pokemon to buck the trend, if you choose to include Pikachu. It's not a three-stager, and as a starter it's not in the correct month. Either the trend is not what we think it is, or this is a demonstration of Niantic willingness to go "to hell with the trend yolo"As to the Eevee CD-specific speculations: The CD did happen, it wasn't timed to promote Let's Go, and it definitely had nothing to do with any future Eeveelutions whatsoever (other than the opportunity implicitly provided to collect shinies in advance). Plus a unique way of answering the CD-exclusive move question.Questions to be answered:What do we now know about Community Days, in light of Eevee CD?How has the predicted list of future CDs changed?My personal opinion:An observation is that even though Eevee has a debatable starter status and isn't a three-stager, it was a 10km hatchling in the very first iteration of eggs, when the game was first released in Jul 2016. In Nov 2016, Eevee was moved down to 5km and remained there ever since.So what if the post-Pikachu trend is actually an alternation between starters and anyone that is or was in the 10km egg chart throughout recorded history, with no shinies released prior to their CD? Evolution stages would have nothing to do with the CD trend. That would address all questions we had over the possibility of an Eevee CD prior to its announcement.If that hypothesis is true, then the list of Pokemon likely to be featured in a CD would be as follows:All starters (defined as a player-available starter in the core games), 100% guaranteed to occurCurrent 10km hatchlings: Chansey, Porygon, Snorlax, Slakoth, Trapinch, Feebas, Chimecho, Bagon, BeldumHistorical 10km hatchlings: Lapras, Sudowoodo, Skarmory, Miltank, Ralts, Chinchou, Pineco, Gligar, Mantine, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Smoochum, Elekid, Onix, Scyther, PinsirCurrent and former 10km Pokemon with already-introduced shiny forms are removed. These, namely, are Omanyte, Kabuto, Aerodactyl, Sableye, Magby.Regionals and event-specific temporary egg charts are excluded.With Eevee's CD, the three-stager assumption no longer holds, and that really opens the door for two or even one-stage evolutions. We also have a precedent to support the plausibility of a Tyrogue-Hitmon CD - in this case a CD-exclusive Fighting-type move could be useful to all evolutions compared to Last Resort lol.But what about meta-relevant Pokemon? That imo is the greatest counter-argument to this newly proposed trend. Machop CD is one of the most widely believed to happen but it was never in a 10km egg. And a Sudowoodo or Chinchou CD? Who would want those? Perhaps some candidates would be used for other events instead of CD: Lapras, for example. Maybe Snorlax too.The only other possibilities, if you ask me, would be that the alternating Pokemon are meta-relevant Pokemon or simply popularity. The former is slightly subjective in nature, potentially changes over time, and limited in number. The latter is extremely subjective - does Niantic really know who we like?Or worst of all, for those of us who like to analyse and seek order in the universe around us, Niantic simply picks at random and chooses Pokemon at a whim.References: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3Edit: An additional observation is that Eevee CD introduced the new mechanic of persisting moves across evolutions, possibly raising more questions. What does this portend for the future of movesets and metas? Could this also mean possible new mechanics could be introduced via CDs (megas anyone)?Edit 2: An observation brought up by a comment below notes that to collect all 5 Eeveelutions during the CD, you'll need to spend 125 candies, equal to what was needed in all previous CDs excl. Pikachu. Something to think about?Edit 3: Well, after reading the comments below, I think we can pretty much make this conclusion, which should have been obvious from the very beginning:Community Day Pokemon are selected by which would make the most money. lolThe Pokemon that would get people to play (and pay), in my opinion, would incidentally be the ones which are most popular, meta-relevant, and/or are hard-to-get. I guess a possible answer is that they don't select Pokemon because they are 3-stagers, 10km, meta-relevant or whatever, but rather it just so happen such Pokemon are the ones that meet the profile they are looking for - what people would want the chance to catch a lot of. Of course there's also the matter of promoting other upcoming Pokemon games too. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2MqrHSI