Last suggestion, I will not bother you guys anymore. It is concern about the champion. How about since we are in BETA. We should gather the first 4 challengers to beat the whole league, then we make a small tournament of semi-final --> and the Final decided between the best 2 best players - like the anime. The winner will be crown it as Champion of Prism League. Then we can go for the final
You're not bothering anyone, don't worry ^^ Like I said, we do need feedback. As for the champion, um. Guys, are we even doing a champion position for beta? :v If we are, I'd imagine it's whomever gets there first, with all the wins that entails. If everyone wants a tourney though, (assuming that many people make it to champion) sure, why not eh?
I don't think gyms being scouted would be much of a concern from an individual standpoint...if someone has been losing against a gym they should be using their battles as a way to learn and improve. There is a line though on straight-up counter-teaming someone...but if a challenger resorts to using other people's videos to scout (that's without any guarantees that the gym leader would use the same team) then they're probably missing the purpose of the league, which I feel is to challenge yourself and have fun.
I would suggest taking a look at how much freedom is given to challengers, I kinda feel that allowing us to change movesets might be a little too much freedom in some cases. This also ties into the singles-doubles separation, and I agree with Krystia on that point. It's true that challengers should learn to build their teams to play well in singles and doubles but unfortunately not every Pokemon can work in both. Either people are forced to use Pokemon that do well in both formats (thus limiting their options and everyone just runs more or less the same team) or they run with a team that might be ill-suited in one case or another.
I had that dilemma when I was thinking of a team to submit: while I wanted to use the mono-Psychic team that I've been familiar with in Singles I knew I might struggle a bit more on a Doubles match, but time will tell how well it can adapt to Doubles. There might be better insights gained on these topics as the beta goes on, but I think that those things should be on notice.
^ Lots of good points in there.
On team scouting through replays - I really don't think it's a problem. Sports teams and competitive pokemon trainers alike watch replays of their opponents matches and learn their playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses all the time. Learning is a pretty legitimate way to overcome an opponent imo. Especially if you're talented enough to pick out the crux of what they do, and find a way to overcome it on your own. Plus - keep in mind you can't change your team without losing all progress against the league, which means even if you counterpicked for one leader - you'll still have to use those same counter-picks against every other leader hahah. I think we have a fairly balanced system right now, pending how the rest of this goes. ^^
On singles - doubles team woes - hmmm. I think the freedom that you say is too much sharkshocker, is the balance to having one team instead of two. Because really, any pokemon has its playstyle in either singles or doubles; and being able to switch between them keeps the point of the challenger on making the best team, rather than making a good team to go against the types of leaders that play singles, and making another team to do well against the types of leaders that do doubles. Because again, Challengers get to pick from anything that's not banned, for a full team, which they design to work with one another to cover a wide variety of type matchups and situations. Leaders can't do that - regardless of singles or doubles, because they only get pokemon within 2 typings. But; while I do feel strongly about this - maybe we should take it to a vote. If I'm the only one who's all for one team for challengers, obviously ignore me and just do it the more preferred way lol. This is what Beta's for though :) Testing things like this out. I can say so far in my challenge, I've had no issues with speccing pokemon for either format, since I'm using a full team of pokemon I made for doubles, and have only played singles leaders so far hahah.
And on your team Sharkshocker - psychics are great for doubles :P Some of the best even, I'd say. They have a lot of doubles specific moves; like Ally Switch and Heal Pulse. My honest advice, (in a non condescending way) is if you're worried about doubles matches, just try that format out more. Because your comfortability in that format is gonna make a lot bigger difference than cycling teams or just builds, guaranteed.
