So the next Battle Competition on PGL has been announced, Primal Battle. The Pikachu Cup thread showed a surprising amount of interest so let's try that again with another format. For those familiar with VGC, this is the exact same format but with the added twist of allowing Groudon and Kyogre. Basically this will be very broken but when has it ever not been? If you got tired of Kangaskhan, Landorus-T and Thundurus everywhere, now there's Groudon and Kyogre to throw everything into chaos. Note that since this is a competition following the Battle Spot Doubles (VGC) format, the pentagon is required, which means that unlike all past competitions that allowed cover/event legendaries you can't transfer Groudon or Kyogre from an older game. Registration runs from September 17th 2015 to September 24th 2015 while battles run from September 25th to September 27th 2015. Reward is also just 1000 PokeMiles.
Competition Rules:
• This competition uses the Double Battle format.
• Players may use Pokémon with National Pokédex number 1 through 719, with the exception of the following: Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, and Diancie.
• Players may use only Pokémon found, caught, hatched from an Egg, or received through a special promotion in Pokémon Omega Ruby, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, Pokémon X, or Pokémon Y.
• Pokémon brought over from Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, or Pokémon White 2 via Poké Transporter cannot participate in this competition.
• Register 4–6 of your Lv. 1–100 Pokémon to your Battle Box.
• All Pokémon above Lv. 50 in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• Only four of the Pokémon you register to your Battle Box can be used during each match.
• A 20-minute time limit for each match will automatically be enforced in-game, beginning at the start of each battle. If the outcome has not been determined when the time limit expires, the game will automatically apply tiebreakers to determine a winner.
• At the beginning of each battle, players have 90 seconds to select four Pokémon with which to battle.
• At the beginning of each turn, players have 60 seconds to select a move or change the Pokémon in battle. If a player has not made his or her selections at the end of this period, the game will automatically make selections for the player.
• Players may battle up to 15 games per day of the competition. Any unplayed games will carry over to the following day. A new day begins at 00:00 UTC.
• For additional details, please come back to check the competition’s regulations page when registration opens.
Some things to note:
• You can run Groudon, Kyogre and a Mega all on one team. While this might not necessarily be the best approach, it's very possible and expect to see this.
• Groudon + Skill Swap Cresselia is incredibly dangerous and has been popular in past competitions. Some also run Gravity and Trick Room so be prepared for this. With no Rayquaza, Arceus or Xerneas to choose from, this will likely be even more popular of a strategy.
• Japanese players tear these metagames apart, they will find reliable strategies to deal with Groudon and Kyogre so don't rely on just spamming your legendary.
So yeah that's about it. Anyone going to try participating in this? I'm all for a format that lets me spam normally banned legendaries and while I've neglected past competitions, I might actually give this one a fair shot.
