There has been a lot of discussion recently about the possibility of starting a competitive Pokemon league here at UO, and last night it really hit a critical mass. I just wanted to post a few resources that I like to use in my Pokemon training, with the thought that they might be useful to y’all.

One major caveat: training competitive teams can be complicated; sure, we can all get that pretty easily. But it can also be hugely time-consuming. . . which, given the hours I know that we currently collectively spend playing Minecraft, also isn’t such a big deal.

But here’s the thing: much of what is written on competitive Pokemon assumes that you’re playing at the absolute edge of what is possible. Pokemon boils down to numbers and strategy. High-level competitive play emphasizes strategy by assuming maximized numbers. That’s all well and good when an online simulator lets you choose whatever numbers you want, but the real game doesn’t make it so easy. So when you’re studying strategies and etc., my advice is to keep the emphasis on the fun. Do what seems fun and it’ll all work out.

Smogon University is, according to the website, “the most comprehensive and accurate online resource for competitive Pokémon battling.” Enjoy being overwhelmed.

Bulbapedia is an encyclopedia about Pokemon. Generally useful for playing the games, and particularly useful for tricky tasks like figuring out moveset logistics, breeding chains, locations, all sorts of stuff useful in competitive battling.

Pokemon Showdown is a slick little online battle simulator that runs in your web browser, no download needed. One sweet feature for those at all knowledge levels is the ability to lurk and watch other trainers battle live. Very cool!

There are tons more resources out there for sure. If you’ve got a favorite, share it in the comments!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2012 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Thoughts.  Tagged bulbapedia, emerald league, pokemon, smogon You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.