Playground Battlers Club ~ Communicating. Please Stand By...

Welcome to PokéCommunity's group for Playground Battlers!

This is a group that has been set up for people who like to battle using the Playground Battling standard instead of the more widely-used Competitive Battling standard.

It has also been set up to promote the standard itself, as a lot of people think that to battle online against other people one must adhere to the Competitive standard. To put it another way, many believe that Competitive is the only way to battle online. This is not the case.

If you're a little confused or want more info, feel free to read this blog entry. It should clear everything up.

Simply put, it's battling with your favourite Pokémon that you've raised in-game. There are no level restrictions, nature calculations, number crunching or EV/IV training involved. If you've battled in-game, you can battle Playground without needing to learn anything.

The spirit of the Playground standard is that it's not about winning, it's about meeting new people and battling your Pokémon. If you win, you win. If you lose, you need to train some more, level up and give it another go. The fun comes from the battle itself and not the victory.

Though it's far less restrictive than Competitive, Playground still has some rules for fair play
(to stop people abusing it).

Playground Battling is often shortened to 'PG' because none of us can be bothered to type it all the time. :) When asking someone, you have to either specify the number of Pokémon on your team and their Level Range (e.g."Wanna battle PG six on six? Lv. 50-52"), or link you to their team profile which specifies this information.

Now if you ask someone to a Playground Battle, and they respond with 'What's PG?', then on the whole it would be best to link them to this thread, as it can answer any question they may have on the subject rather than try to explain it yourself.

Since the Playground standard isn't really widespread, it's likely that if people don't specify that it's a PG Battle, they mean a Competitive Battle. However, if you really want to specify that it is a Competitive Battle you want (and we encourage this), then it can be shortened to 'Comp' or 'CB'. (e.g. "Hey - wanna battle CB? *clauses etc.*")

Neither is better or worse.
Everyone has their own preference in the way they battle, and everyone should respect that.

We won't condone any out-right or flaming attacks of Competitive or Playground from either side (e.g. don't go saying 'Competitive ruined Pokémon' or 'Playground is for babies').

This group is for discussion of Playground battling and that may stray into members' feelings about Competitive Battling - this is fine, but please keep it friendly.



Well, now that you've read all of that and understand what the Playground Battling standard is, you have two options.

You can sign up to this group here and meet other Playground Battlers, discuss your feelings and experiences with it and, if we get a good membership, maybe even participate in a few events.

Of course, you don't have to sign up to the group in order to PG Battle now that you know all about it. You don't have to go through this group in order to PG Battle someone - it's entirely optional.