[Competitive] Have you ever attempted to play Pokémon competitively before?

[Sweet Serenity]

If so, what was your experience like? If you haven't, well, how do you think you would do if you did?

 

[TwilightBlade]

I played competitively during generation 4 and 5. It was fun raising Pokémon for WiFi battles, but battles eventually became a switch out fest. The opponent would switch in something to resist my oncoming attack. I'd switch out to something so that my Pokémon wouldn't die. Then rinse and repeat. I stopped playing competitively after generation 6. I don't think I'd get back into it. I like the collecting aspect more.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I played competitively during generation 4 and 5. It was fun raising Pokémon for WiFi battles, but battles eventually became a switch out fest. The opponent would switch in something to resist my oncoming attack. I'd switch out to something so that my Pokémon wouldn't die. Then rinse and repeat. I stopped playing competitively after generation 6. I don't think I'd get back into it. I like the collecting aspect more.

Yeah, switching is pretty much a must in Singles play. However, it's not really a thing in Doubles. It depends on the format really.

 

[ReKoil]

I've once played a game competitively, but have never done so in Pokemon.
Idk how I would do... I usually manage to do pretty well in Battle Towers, but that's not the same.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Seriously? Not at all. Some games here and there, yes indeed. I don't mind it, even if it's not always easy to understand all the mechanics that there are behind it. It takes time as you have to know the other people's teams pretty well to read their moves. I only tried doubles tbh and I prefer those to single battles.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

What? Gawsh no! It takes me enough time hatching Pichu from the Odd Egg in Crystal. If I had to EV train and breed for IVs and do this and do that just to attempt a competitive match, I'd never be able to look at the game the same way again.

Okay, I'm exaggerating for comedy because a lot of competitive is done with generated/hacked Pokémon, but it sounds like a nightmare trying to play competitively.

 

[Zeostar]

I played on Showdown for couple years. The community experience was awful. (Told to kill myself multiple times, how bad I was at the game, or getting cursed out in the chat). Maybe I was unlucky, but it reached a point that I would start muting the chat and my PM box. I'm aware of how the internet can be so I tried not to take it too personally.

Otherwise, I was a player of sheer mediocrity. My most success was Random Battles, hitting an ELO rating of around 1900. I also hit top 500 in a lower tier using a Lapras team. (which wasn't considered viable, so I was proud of it).

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I played on Showdown for couple years. The community experience was awful. (Told to kill myself multiple times, how bad I was at the game, or getting cursed out in the chat). Maybe I was unlucky, but it reached a point that I would start muting the chat and my PM box. I'm aware of how the internet can be so I tried not to take it too personally.

Otherwise, I was a player of sheer mediocrity. My most success was Random Battles, hitting an ELO rating of around 1900. I also hit top 500 in a lower tier using a Lapras team. (which wasn't considered viable, so I was proud of it).

I'm sorry that happened to you when playing on Showdown. I'm on Showdown quite often and it is rare that players even talk to me let alone say rude things to me. The "worst" experience I had on Showdown was a player DMing me after our battle, telling me that I sucked after he beat me in a Singles match I believe in the AG format or National Dex, one of them. This was sometime last year. He was using a full-on legendary team and I was using a team of literally one of my playthrough teams that I used in Sword with no legendaries. I wasn't having his trash talk, so I challenged him to a rematch. He was even talking trash about me challenging him to a rematch. This time, I led with my Blaziken that had Speed Boost and a Focus Sash. I Swords Danced, endured the hit with Focus Sash, and got a Speed Boost increase. Then, during my next turn, I used Detect to survive his next attack and got another Speed Boost increase. After that, I literally swept his entire team with just Reversal. He didn't say anything after that.

By the way, if you had an ELO rating of around 1900, then you're really good, especially if you're doing random battles. I wouldn't call that "sheer mediocrity" at all. You were also in the top 500 as well in another tier. I'm impressed! 😊

 

[Zed01]

Yes and I enjoyed it a lot (most of the time lol). So my first time trying to battle competitively was in the very late Gen 5, maybe like a couple of months before Gen 6 came out, and that was on Showdown I think. I mostly did Random Battles and I remember also trying to build a good team with Hydreigon and Gliscor since I liked those two but I don't remember the rest of my first "competitive" team or how good or bad it did in that Gen 5 OU since it was so long ago.

When Gen 6 came out and breeding for IVs and EV training got faster and easier I fully got into competitive side of Pokemon, both singles and doubles but I preferred singles (still do). I battled both on Showdown and on the actual game and I enjoyed it a lot but I wasn't super good or anything, just mediocre imo. Still had a lot of fun tho

In late Gen 6 I got into the mini tournaments that became a thing on Pokemon Showdown with the new "Tournaments" channel added to the site and I even won a few. I preferred lower tiers over the OU and Ubers and I did the best in lower tiers tbh. I remember my first time winning one of those tournaments, it was in RU and I used a team I built around Pyroar (an NU Pokemon) and Pyroar won me the semi-final and final battles by being the last Pokemon standing. Very cool memory and a lot of people watching the battles were impressed with Pyroar and asked me about the set and my team so it was a very nice experience.

In Gen 7 I mostly played Little Cup and 1v1. I was in Top 10 (usually Top 5) of LC ladder for most of the Gen 7. I didn't play other tiers much since I didn't like stall and a lot of people were using it back then in higher tiers. I also played Ranked Single Battles on my Sun and Ultra Sun and I enjoyed it more than Showdown tbh.

Then I stopped playing competitively in late Gen 7 and most of Gen 8, came back at the end of Gen 8 and only played random battles on Showdown but I did play both singles and doubles for the last few seasons of Battle Stadium ranked battles on my Sword game. And for now in Gen 9 I'm still mostly playing on the actual game's ranked battles and only singles for now but not that often tbh, maybe a few games a week on average (still got to the Master Ball tier every season so far except for the very first season when I didn't have a lot of good Pokemon, played only a handful of games and finished in Great Ball tier). I do still jump on Showdown a couple of times a month for a few battles, still mostly random battles since I don't have time to actually try and calc and build actual good teams for other tiers like I did back in Gen 6. I do have a few sample teams I found and use when I want to jump on OU and Little Cup but that happens very rarely now.

 

[Sheep]

Mostly in random battles, which I generally still do either average or not do so well on. I'm not as good at figuring out which Pokémon complement each other and work well on a team myself, so I would often rely on random battles that do the teambuilding for me - or preset teams. A lot easier. I do enjoy battling others if it's slightly more casual, but as soon as it becomes a super serious switch fest is when I will get easily obliterated.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Mostly in random battles, which I generally still do either average or not do so well on. I'm not as good at figuring out which Pokémon complement each other and work well on a team myself, so I would often rely on random battles that do the teambuilding for me - or preset teams. A lot easier. I do enjoy battling others if it's slightly more casual, but as soon as it becomes a super serious switch fest is when I will get easily obliterated.

Interesting. I'm like the exact opposite. I tend to do better with teams that I've built myself.

 

[Aether]

I played on Showdown a couple of times on a mono-type ladder with a fighting type team for funsies. It was just all my favorite fighting types, it actually did pretty well!

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I played on Showdown a couple of times on a mono-type ladder with a fighting type team for funsies. It was just all my favorite fighting types, it actually did pretty well!

Nice! I really enjoy monotype battles. I currently play on Showdown quite often with my own Water-type monotype team. It does pretty good too.

 

[stringzzz]

The competitive is about 80% of why I play the games, because you never know what you're opponent is going to throw at you. Just today, I had a ranked battle in SV, and my opponent's lead was a Drifloon. That's right, a Drifloon, not a Drifblim! I immediately thought it was some kind of trick, and it kind of was. I went to take them out, but they survived with a Focus Sash, and proceeded to use Tailwind. The next turn? They were faster, and got Destiny Bond in, taking out my own lead when I got them, lol. It was all purely a kind of trick to psych out there opponent, it was awesome.

Also, as mentioned by others, it is more fun using a theme-team when doing the competitive. If you forget the 'have fun' part, it defeats the point of it.