What is the Big Difference

[supertails]

I understand changing TR's song but I don't understand the contest. Am I missing something or are contest and gym battles basically the same? In the first round you see a person with one or two Pokemon making them look nice and pretty and then in the other rounds it's like the gym battles where you try your hardest to make the other Pokemon pass out. Other then the first round it's basically the same. Am I right?

 

[BakingBluePotatoe]

Not Quite.

In the battle round, you're trying to both defete the opponent AND trying to look good while you do it.

Gym Battles are simply all-out battling

 

[Jessie]

Yea. The point is to make your Pokemon look good while battling...which is harder than Gym battles I'm sure! For instance, if your Pokemon trips while going to attack you'll more than likely lose points.

 

[Shadow Pokemon Master]

You can also watch May's and Dawns battles to get the feel of the contest more in the anime perspective to get a feel how the Sinnoh League Contest work

 

[Eruption]

They dhould do it like the game and show off moves not battle because it makes it too similar.

 

[moon]

They dhould do it like the game and show off moves not battle because it makes it too similar.

I do agree, but the makers of the show wants it to be as spectacular and cool as possible, and that's probably easiest achieved by showing as many battles as possible. The "look good" part may add extra... excitement?

 

[Jorah]

They're both hard in their own way. You can win a contest by doing no damage as long as everything looks good - look what happened with Harley's Ariados vs Wobbuffet - neither of them attacked but Harley won because he looked better. Gym battles however, you're focused on battling and knocking the other straight out.

 

[GKS]

Actually, even in the second round, the judges count point for the better appealing moves. That is why something neither Pokemon faint, but there is still a winner when time runs out.