[Challenge] Galar Football Championship Challenge

Janp · Feb 28, 2019

GALAR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGE

New Pokémon games were just announced. It's already a small tradition to make a Challenge centered around the 1st trailer and informations, but let's twist things up this time around. It would be easy to make a Challenge where you would use a monkey, bunny and lizard Pokémon, alongside with either attacker or defender, but that'd be boring. And unoriginal. If you already watched the trailer, you might have noticed one small detail. That's right, it looks like we'll play Football!

Basic Rules
To make this Challenge as best as possible for everyone, here's few rules:

This Challenge can be completed on any main series Pokémon game. Additionally, any ROM hack or fan game completed through 8 Gym Badges and an Elite Four counts as well.
You may trade or hack Pokemon to evolve them. Trade-with-item evolutions must be completed only after said item is acquired. Trading to another game to allow a location based evolution to occur is also allowed after the Pokemon has reached level 29.
You may hack/trade in up to 2 evolution items, one each after the 4th and 6th gyms, provided the item being hacked in is unobtainable prior to that point in the game. Players of games occurring in the Alola region may hack/trade in up to 2 of any evolution item at any point after the Trial at Wela Volcano. This is because all evolution items are technically obtainable at this point, but farming Pelago is a pain in the arse.
All other trading is banned
The Challenge is complete once you beat the region's Elite Four and the credits fully roll. Yes that means beating AZ or Brendan or running from Koko if that's the type of thing your game makes you do.
You can do an Ultimate run - beat game from every Gen (remakes counts as Gen of their original) with this set of rules
(Optional)Pokémon Amie and Pokémon Refresh are banned.
(Optional)The New Experience Share is banned.

Football Rules

You are responsible for managing your Pokémon Football Club
You must capture at least 11 Pokémon by the end of your run.
Each Pokémon is given a position based on their Nature
- Striker (+Atk/SpAtk) - Lonely, Brave, Adamant, Naughty, Modest, Mild, Quiet, Rash
- Midfielder (+Speed) - Timid, Hasty, Jolly, Naive
- Defender (+Def/SpDef) - Bold, Relaxed, Impish, Lax, Calm, Gentle, Sassy, Careful
- Goalkeeper (Neutral) - Hardy, Docile, Serious, Bashful, Quirky
You may only lead each battle with a Striker or a Midfielder (Unless you have none, in which case you can use a Defender)
Strikers may not have non-damaging moves
Midfielders must carry at least one non-damaging move
Defenders must carry at least one move that boosts their DEF/SP.DEF. If no such move exists on the Pokémon's learnset, any non-damaging move will suffice.
You must have exactly one Goalkeeper in your party at all times (starting the moment you catch one), who may only enter the battle immediately after an ally has fallen
If a Pokémon faints, it's rewarded with a Yellow Card. If one of your Pokémon gets 2 Yellow Cards, it's disqualified from the Championship and must be boxed for the rest of the game
(Optional)You permanently lose one slot on your team for each Pokémon boxed by the rule above

Signup
Sign up using the following format!

What You Are Called:
What game are you playing:
Ultimate run:
Optional rules:

Challengers
SorveteQuente - Black (1/8)
ddrox13 - White (0/8)
Ash - Y (0/8)
BlissyMKW - Gold (0/8)

Champions
Janp - Black

Created by Janp and Spirit Shackle

Sorvete · Feb 28, 2019

Hey, this seems nice. I'll play Black for it too.

What I am called: SorveteQuente
Game: Black

CodeHelmet · Feb 28, 2019

Hmm interesting challenge. I might give this a run sometime soon but out of curiosity, what about RBY and GSC with respect to nature's? How exactly would players handle that on those platforms? Do we assign one on a whim to fill out a team or... yeah lol. 11 Pokémon is an interesting requirement though as I typically don't go beyond 6 or 7 if I box my starter.

ddrox13 · Feb 28, 2019

Everybody get up it's time to slam now
We got a real jam goin' down
Welcome to the Space Jam
Here's your chance, do your dance at the Space Jam
Alright....

Wait whoops wrong sport oh well.

This challenge is actually more unique than I thought it was when we made it. It takes the spooky element of Nuzlockes (death) and nerfs it significantly, and then removes the "first encounter" clause, but gives you some other rules to compensate. It's weird and cool and I like it.

Fun fact about this - This was originally going to be part of another more generic SS challenge as an optional ruleset, but it got so cool we made it it's own challenge.

With that said, I think it's high time I revisit a region I haven't touched in a long time - Unova. Gen 5 itself is a bit of an odd duck. It was a generation with no remake, and the only one to do a sequel rather than a Crystal-esque third game. The Unova region itself is not an exception to this oddness. It was the most linear region to date on release, and the initial release failed to include older Pokémon at all. The storyline was far more serious than in the past. Having two rivals spurred on the player even more than normal. Unova has big cities, small towns, rotation battles, triple battles, and a whole lot of other fun. To continue to be the counterpart to my colleague Janp, this time I'll be playing on White version. I haven't played the original Black and White in years, so this should be fun.

What You Are Called: ddrox13 (soon, anyway)
What game are you playing: White
Ultimate run: Nop
Optional rules: If I take a red card, I lose that team slot. Also Amie is banned. That's important.

I've some business to clean up in Sinnoh, then I'll start this trainwreck.

CodeHelmet said:
Hmm interesting challenge. I might give this a run sometime soon but out of curiosity, what about RBY and GSC with respect to nature's? How exactly would players handle that on those platforms? Do we assign one on a whim to fill out a team or... yeah lol. 11 Pokémon is an interesting requirement though as I typically don't go beyond 6 or 7 if I box my starter.

WHY MUST RBY/GSC RUIN EVERYTHING AAAAAAAAAAAAA
Roll a random Nature. do a d25 and go down the list above. random.com works fine.

Slight update to the OP - Defenders who cannot learn a Defense/SpDef boosting move now are simply required to run a non-damaging move like Middies.

alisaie · Feb 28, 2019

I'm never going to finish the current challenge I have on Y (it's been literal years) so I'll go ahead and sign up to play on that!

What are you called: Ash
Game: Y

question about goalkeeper: so they can only come out after a pokemon receives a yellow card? i just wanna make sure (and if that's the case training it is gonna be fairy difficult for them esp for people running without exp share aha).

Janp · Mar 1, 2019

Ash said:
question about goalkeeper: so they can only come out after a pokemon receives a yellow card? i just wanna make sure (and if that's the case training it is gonna be fairy difficult for them esp for people running without exp share aha).

Yep, Goalkeeper can only come out after another Pokémon gets Yellow Card, but I think it's okay to send them out normally during grinding.

Janp · Mar 3, 2019

Galar Football Championship in Pokémon Black

PART 1

Updating my Bingo Challenge will take a few more days as I need night for certain events to play right, so I decide to start this one for now. I would like to somehow replicate the team I've used in my first Unova journey, in which I've rotated my team regularly. I went with typical and popular English names for naming theme.

So I started with Tepig, good old James - Midfielder. And I've lost to Bianca, so that means one Yellow Card. And then lost to Cheren, so it's another Yellow Card and end of my run. It was interesting and challenging run. I'm looking forward to everybody's runs.

I'm just kidding, neither Bianca or Cheren had any chance against James. I've continued to Accumula Town for plot and then to Striaton City to beat Cress, but first I have to pick another player for my team - Oscar! Pansage, Striker this time. Okay, time to challenge Cress. His Lillipup fainted almost instantly and while his Panpour put up a fight, James was able to surpass him.

Well, that went great. Now it's time to catch more players! Munna and Blitzle, another Strikers and Tympole, first Defender. Still no Goalkeeper. With a team like this, Lenora has no chance. But Retaliate is real. And Watchog is fast. So fast, that it just gave James a Yellow Card without hesitation. Then it hit me. I should be more careful as there is that rule with Yellow Cards. And I was the one who created it!

While grinding and hunting for Venipede in Pinwheel Forest, one random Pidove is lucky and lands critical hit on Oscar, giving him a Yellow Card. But I got Venipede, another Defender. And with that I have ultimate team to beat Burgh. I lead with Charles and he almost beat Whirlipede, but I underestimated poison damage and Charles fainted. As a right midfielder, James came out and took care of not only Whirlipede, but also Dwebble and Leavanny.

And so this part ends. I only got 3 Yellow Cards and 0 Red Cards so far. That's not bad.

Team

Oscar
Quiet Male Pansage
lvl 21, Gluttony
- Vine Whip
- Cut
- Fury Swipes
- Bite

Isabella
Mild Female Munna
lvl 21, Synchronize
- Psywave
- ~~Defense Curl~~
- Psybeam
- ~~Yawn~~

Charles
Brave Male Blitzle
lvl 23, Motor Drive
- Quick Attack
- Pursuit
- Flame Charge
- Shock Wave

James
Timid Male Pignite
lvl 24, Blaze
- Flame Charge
- Defense Curl
- Arm Thrust
- Rollout

Noah
Bold Male Tympole
lvl 21, Hydration
- Mud Shot
- Supersonic
- Aqua Ring
- BubbleBeam

Harry
Impish Male Venipede
lvl 20, Swarm
- Poison Tail
- Screech
- Pursuit
- Protect

Sorvete · Mar 3, 2019

Ooh, I like what you did there emulating the formation of an actual football team, pretty nice touch. Good luck with the rest of the run :)

So I started with Tepig, good old James - Midfielder. And I've lost to Bianca, so that means one Yellow Card. And then lost to Cheren, so it's another Yellow Card and end of my run. It was interesting and challenging run. I'm looking forward to everybody's runs.

I'm just kidding, neither Bianca or Cheren had any chance against James.

I'll admit I giggled a bit in this part.

Sorvete · Mar 5, 2019

Galar Football Championship Challenge
Pokémon Black
>>>> Trophies: 0/8 | Yellow Cards: 0 | Red Cards: 0 <<<<

Part 1 - The First Setup

In this playthrough I'm going to be testing for my first time the gimmicks of rotating my team around, taking advantage of the fact that I'm forced to capture almost double as many pokémon as I'd normally do anyway. This is not a nuzlocke, so I have planned what my final team will most likely be. I plan to use a few Pokémon I've never used before, reusing some that I enjoyed doing so in past playthroughs, and also using a few Pokémon of my original playthrough of Black.

Also hope I get as few red cards as possible by the end of the run, lol.

So, to start off, I chose Oshawott as my starter, just because I haven't used it in a while now. His nature turned out to be neutral, so I have already found the goalkeeper my team will have for probably quite some time, eek.

Defeated Cheren and Bianca real quick and leveled up Oshawott in the grass to defeat N. Then I won some pretty nice levels at the next route that I am gonna need soon enough, when Oshawott's battles become scarce. The next Pokémon I'm gonna have on my team is Pansear, to help me out in the next gym. I got one that has a plus Sp. Def nature, so it's the first defender.

At this moment I realized I was gonna need a strategy to defeat Cilan. Normally, my plan is to send my starter first, to faint Lullipup, and then the Monkey when he sends out his own. However, Oshawott cannot battle unless a Pokémon in my team faints, so I needed to figure out something else. I decided to catch another Pokémon, and this time it was Patrat. My preferred first route Normal-type in Unova was always Lillipup, but I decided to give this rodent a chance.

So I grinded a bit in the grass to get my mons at level 11-ish and went to the gym! Except I couldn't because I forgot to battle Cheren first, dammit.

Alright, Cheren got taken care of and now it's the time to beat Cilan. I led with the newly caught Patrat - which got escalated to the Midfielder position - and tackled his Lillipup away. Then he sent out Pansage and I switched to Pansear. Even with 3 Work Ups, he wasn't able to take half of Pansear's health, so the match went smoothly for him. First badge was acquired!

So, for this section before Nacrene City, I had to lead every battle with Patrat. For one side, it was good, because he was able to learn a very strong move, Crunch which I think is slightly stronger than Tackle even with the STAB boost, plus it's coverage, so it will be a big help for the long run.

After reaching Nacrene city and training a little bit at Pinwheel Forest's entrance, Patrat evolved and is now a very strong Watchog. He also learned Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, two very annoying moves that will be very helpful to me. It's also worth noting that this Watchog has Illuminate, which is the worst ability ever created by Gamefreak. Bollocks.

Even though it learned these two moves, I wasn't very comfortable with my current team in terms of challenging Lenora, so for that, I decided to catch a new member, Sawk, who turned out to be another Midfielder. In the process of capturing him two of my current team members, Patrat/Watchog and Oshawott fainted and were given a yellow card each, sigh.

I deposited Pansear because I didn't think he'd be much helpful in this next segment, and grinded a little bit. All my team members are now at their 19-21's, I'm ready for the next gym. Her battle will be documented in the next part.

Team

Dewott (Goalkeeper Carlos) ♂ | Quirky nature | Torrent
lv. 20
Razor Shell
Water Gun
Tail Whip
Fury Cutter

Watchog (Midfielder Yancy) ♀ | Quirky nature | Illuminate
lv. 21
Crunch
Work Up
Hyposis
Confuse Ray

Sawk (Midfielder Mateus) ♂ | Naive nature | Sturdy
lv. 19
Low Sweep
Double Kick
Leer
Focus Energy

The Bench

Spoiler:

Post documentation note: By the way, I was supposed to ask if blacking out is game over like in a nuzlocke here, since there are some nuzlocke-esque rules? Forgot to do it earlier. If someone is able to answer that it would be appreciated.

Janp · Jun 22, 2019

Galar Football Championship in Pokémon Black

FINAL PART

Even though Sword and Shield don't look like they will be groundbreaking games, this Challenge was quite the opposite. It has been a while since I updated here and I probably should have update once or twice in between, but I finished my run on Black. I don't know why, but I always associated Unova with rotating my team. Maybe because it was the first region where I did that.

To be honest I don't have much to write here, because I've played most of this run back in May and I kinda forgot on what happened. I remember getting 2 red cards. One for Oscar in battle with N in Nacrene City and another for James in battle against Skyla. And bunch of yellow cards. My team also grew a lot. I've caught Druddigon, Golurk, Sigilyph, Garbodor, Gothitelle, Sawsbuck, Galvantula, Chandelure, Mienshao and Heatmor. So I had really a nice selection of Pokémon to challenge E4. After a lot of planning I decided to go with Bricker (Heatmor) and Charles as strikers, Benjamin (Sawsbuck) and Haley (Gothitelle) as midfielders, Noah as defender and Rhaeg (Druddigon) as goalkeeper.

And so I challenged E4. Battle against Shauntal was easy. While I had no good way of dealing with Ghost-types, I had enough fire power to beat them thanks to their secondary types. Well aside of Cofagrigus, who I was somehow beat with Hayley. But then it went south. My plan was to sweep Grimsley with Benjamin and it ended up after one missed Jump Kick with combination of Brick Break from Grimsley's Scrafty. That's yellow card of Benjamin. Continuing with Caitlin, I had good number of Pokémon ready to take her on and it went really well, until a crit from her Gothitelle gave Bricker one yellow card. And finally Marshal. I had Haley with enough advantage to sweep him, but one Retaliate from Sawk was too much. That's 3rd yellow card in E4 so far.

And so I moved to battle N and Ghetsis. I caught Reshiram in Master Ball and beat N with no problems. And finally, the battle against Ghetsis... And it went pretty much like this - Charles down, Bricker down, Noah down... Ghetsis down!

So I ended up the run with 5 red cards and few more yellow. To be honest I really enjoyed the run. I had enough Pokémon to choose from and was ready for pretty much all battles. I also cared more about my Pokémon fainting than in Nuzlockes for some reason. Might do another run later this year.

And here's the Hall of Fame:

Spoiler:

Team

Bricker
Rash Male Heatmor
lvl 50, Flash Fire
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Claw
- Dig
- Bug Bite

Charles
Brave Male Zebstrika
lvl 52, Motor Drive
- Quick Attack
- Pursuit
- Flame Charge
- Discharge

Benjamin
Timid Male Sawsbuck
lvl 53, Chlorophyll
- Jump Kick
- Leech Seed
- Return
- Horn Leech

Haley
Timid Female Gothitelle
lvl 52, Frisk
- Shadow Ball
- Tickle
- Psychock
- Flatter

Noah
Bold Male Seismitoad
lvl 53, Poison Touch
- Earthquake
- Drain Punch
- Aqua Ring
- Surf

Rhaeg
Serious Male Druddigon
lvl 50, Sheer Force
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Climb
- Revenge
- Night Slash

Xander729 · Jun 22, 2019

Any chance someone could make a version of this challenge for American Football, like with the positions form our game and their own abilities and such? The idea looks cool, but I don't know anything about soccer/European football

BlissyMKW · Jun 23, 2019

What You Are Called: BlissyMKW
What game are you playing: Gold (so it looks like I get to have fun with the random number generator. Fantastic.)
Ultimate run: Nope
Optional rules: I'll pass on the optional rules even though the run only requires me to do Elite Four (so no Red, but I might do him anyway for the sake of "a complete run")

[Challenge] Galar Football Championship Challenge

More options

Janp

Sorvete

Novice

CodeHelmet

Banned

ddrox13

Anti-Nonsense

alisaie

Janp

Janp

Galar Football Championship in Pokémon Black

PART 1

Team

Sorvete

Novice

Sorvete

Novice

Janp

Galar Football Championship in Pokémon Black

FINAL PART

Team

Xander729

BlissyMKW

Rawr