They appear like regular ads that show up on sites, within small boxes of the page. However, from time to time, those ads will have a virus, trojan, or some other program attached to them.
Hm ... that's pretty good. But then again, I was never much for national competitions, so I wouldn't know the total amount of challengers. xD
I was never much of a competitive person. I was more of a causal battler ... which some good amount of luck.
I've pretty much retired from everything pokemon related.
Once 5th gen was introduced, I knew it would be really hard for me to get back into the feel. I was right.