How were EVs discovered? By this I mean how early was information

>>29540535
I don't know, that's a damned good question.

>>29540535
DVs (precursor to EVs) were known about since people noticed discrepancies in the same pokemons stats at the same levels in gen one, EVs were a given at that point.

>>29540597
this. there was a pretty glaring difference between the stats of your pokemon and higher leveled pokemon owned by NPCs.

then they added raters to hint at IVs.

Official guidebooks talked about them in vague terms.

>>29540643
Characters also literally say this at some point fairly early in the franchise, don't they? That trained are stronger than wild? Been too long, might be remembering wrong

>>29540535
What about egg groups?

>>29540674
Yeah, they say that in every game.

>>29540662
Guidebooks were pretty dumb half the time. The Nintendo Power Emerald guide tells you to catch higher level pokemon, as if that doesn't defeat the purpose of EV training. The example screenshot they used were of the Victory Road Whismur, so it really seemed bizarre, I never took it seriously. Obviously Emerald was where players should have started paying attention to EVs if they wanted to succeed, you need good EVs just to get by in the Battle Frontier.

>>29540535
As a 10 year old kid i could tell DVs were going on.

When I put my level 100 Pokémon onto Stadium, their stats would increase a little bit.

And my sister's rare candied Pokémon sucked. So we mostly figured it out.