Get in here, we’re headed to Champion Tier.
The new Pokémon game, Pokémon Champions, is out now, and man, oh man, did The Pokémon Company and The Pokémon Works cook with this one.
Pokémon Champions is a free-to-play game available now on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Confirmed in March, the game will be the official platform for all future official sanctioned Pokémon competitive tournaments and online matches.
For the uninitiated, Pokémon has had a significant competitive scene since the 2000s that has been growing in popularity as new Pokémon games release and new generations drop with unique abilities and moves.
But herein lies the rub: more Pokémon, more abilities, and more moves means a huge knowledge base is needed to effectively craft teams and play out matches. For example, you might think Orthworm, as a pure Steel-type Pokémon, would get OHKO'd by an Earthquake from a Ground-type Pokémon. However, because of Orthworm’s unique ability called Earth Eater, it receives no damage from the move and it instead heals HP.
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Some of you out there likely are thinking, “Duh. Who doesn’t know Orthworm has Earth Eater?” Others are thinking, “What the hell is an ‘Orthworm’???”
While game knowledge is still key and necessary to be successful playing Pokémon Champions, the knowledge barrier is lower because Champions launched with only ~187 Pokémon for the foreseeable competitive future unless an official change shifts the roster. For the majority of matches, the opposing teams you face are composed of a few meta Pokémon, are structured similarly, or have similar playstyles. While this could make the ranked ladder tedious to climb due to stale matches, it reduces surprises from unfamiliar Pokémon or unusual abilities.
The second amazing thing about Pokémon Champions is how the game handles building teams. Before Champions, players needed to catch nearly every Pokémon to have options for competitive events, which was a huge barrier to entry. Additionally, because optimal stats is paramount for success in competitive Pokémon, exact values were necessary and took enormous time to breed and train.
Champions removes this almost entirely by setting the individual values at a max of 31 for every Pokémon and by allowing for “training” through the use of in-game currency and tickets. This allows players to set effort values, moves, abilities, and natures for each Pokémon permanently recruited to their rosters with change allowed at any time. With a few hours of gameplay, a player should be able to optimally craft and train a few teams through Victory Points earned after matches and through in-game challenges.
How to get started
For anyone who hasn’t jumped in yet and needs a push: find a creator that you enjoy that is playing this game and use their content to be able to learn everything even more quickly. My go to so far has been Wolfey, but here are a few Black creators that you should consider as well:
Shofu
Shofu is a Twitch streamer, YouTuber, and music artist with over 650,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 260,000 Twitch followers. He has been creating Pokémon content since 2009.
PokeMaineEvent is another fantastic creator producing content for competitive Pokémon and Pokémon generally. He covers results from competitive Pokémon tournaments and where Pokémon rank on meta tier lists.
GlitchxCity
GlitchxCity is a music producer, video game music remixer, YouTuber, and Twitch streamer with over 360,000 YouTube subscribers, best known for her Pokémon soundtrack remixes and lo-fi arrangements. She's been creating Pokémon music content since 2011. While her content isn’t strictly for the competitive world, it’s great ambience to keep you in the zone while grinding ranks.
A personal competitive journey
Although I’ve played my fair share of Pokémon Showdown matches, I was fairly new to competitive Pokémon before Champions. Within a few hours of playing matches and watching YouTube videos from competitive Pokémon players, I was able to craft multiple teams that fit the playstyle I like. As someone who enjoys creating new strategies in games, I’ve been sucked into building unique teams to surprise and counter every strategy using only meta Pokémon.
For instance, I spent days trying to perfect a Perish Trap team using Mega Gengar’s Shadow Tag, which prevents non-Ghost-type opposing Pokémon from switching out. Mega Gengar is demonstrably less bulky than the previous go-to Shadow Tag Pokémon, Gothitelle. Currently, I’m attempting to create a team called “Heat Trap” that takes advantage of Mega Scovillain’s Spicy Spray, which applies Burn to any Pokémon that lands an attack on it while using a duo partner to bind that Pokémon to prevent it from switching. Domain expansion: The Hot Ones Challenge.
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