Now, I have to beat them all
I’ve never really had much interest in Pokémon as a competitive esport. Something about it has never really clicked with me – actually, the same can be said of most esports. I just don’t find them interesting; it all feels a bit too… boring and samey. So when Pokémon Champions was released, I didn’t expect much. I figured I’d put an hour or two in before dropping it entirely, and I was partially right – I did drop it, for a time. But in recent weeks I’ve found myself picking it up again, and I’d like to issue an apology to competitive Pokémon players for doubting them. I get the appeal now.
Pokémon Champions is a free-to-play Pokémon game that serves as a battle simulator. More than that, it is where current and future competitive Pokémon tournaments take place, and that means people have had to adjust. The gimmick has also changed – no more Tera shards, only Mega Stones, so people who have been used to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet have had the rug pulled from under them and have the same chances of winning as everybody else does.
It also means that anybody can try their hand at Pokémon battles now. You don’t need to be able to devote hours and hours to get to a level where it’s actually any fun to play – you can just jump right in. Sure, there are only select Pokémon available, and the items are slowly being added to the game, but if you’re fine with that, then you can just download it on your Switch or even your phone and play.
Jumping into the game, what I was immediately met with was the fact that literally anybody could play this game. Even if it does have microtransactions, they’re not necessary to actually play, and since you can import Pokémon from your Pokémon Home, you can really put together a nice team without too much hassle if you’ve been playing for a while. Grab the Mega Stones you want by using the points you earn by playing matches, and you’re already ready to go. My team ended up being an interesting one: a Delphox with a Delphoxite, a Greninja with a Choice Scarf, a Floette with a Floettite, a Kingambit with a Focus Sash, a Dragonite with a Lum Berry and a Garchomp with a Dragon Fang. To the naked eye, this might look like a fairly unbalanced team – there are two Dragon types to start with. But all of these Pokémon were necessary to really prepare for any given scenario – I play singles, which means I have to choose three Pokémon to take into a battle. My opponent can still see my entire team until I choose the three Pokémon, so they’re reacting to every possible scenario. It’s all about mind games, really.
What I’ve realised through my hours in Champions so far is that competitive Pokémon is just a puzzle game in disguise. It’s essentially poker in video game form – you have to guess what your opponent is going to do, if they’re bluffing, if they know what you’re going to do. If there wasn’t a strict time limit on how long you have to actually choose your moves, then people would spend a long time just trying to fake each other out (not the Pokémon move, the actual psychological tactic). The best part is that I’ve often come across players using the same teams as each other, but using completely different moves and strategies, and it’s made me lose matches extremely quickly – but I’ve never felt particularly bad about it because I’ve got to see how another player approaches strategy.
Falling into the abyss of Pokémon Champions happened at exactly the right time, too. The North American International Championships (also known as NAIC) were happening at the start of June, and I decided to tune in to several matches, just to see how competitively Pokémon is played at a high level. I’m extremely glad I did, because I was presented with people using moves for what they weren’t really designed for (one that stuck out to me was Roar, used on a Pokémon on the same team that could not leave the battle otherwise due to being afflicted with a condition), and I was shown exactly how people approach mirror matches, which are pretty common in high-level Pokémon. It’s all about making your opponent think that you’re doing one thing while preparing to do a completely different thing; it’s about knowing when to sacrifice a Pokémon so that you can gain momentum and an advantage. I’ll absolutely be watching upcoming competitive events, just so I can learn more about how to be the very best there ever was.
As I write this, a new season has begun, and I am determined to hit Master Ball tier, the highest possible tier in the game. Now that I really know the ins and outs of the competitive scene and I know pretty much what to expect at the higher tiers of play, I want to prove my worth – prove how I can master Pokémon battles. So I’ll be back here later this year to give an update on how I did.
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