Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
An interesting change for Pokémon Champions that doesn’t really affect gameplay much: nicknames will appear in Ranked (for the first time, and mainly about how you can nickname a Pokémon as another species, which is not allowed in official competitions—is it allowed in Pokémon Showdown?), but if a Pokémon is not nicknamed, the game will translate the Pokémon names for you. Hence, for instance, if a non-nicknamed opposing Pikachu turns up, it will display as “ピカチュウ” to a Japanese language player and “Pikachu” to an English language player regardless of the opponent’s chosen language.
On one hand, this does make it more convenient for both the players and my writing these descriptions. On the other, I would have to look up Pokémon names in other languages to make sure they’re correct rather than simply using the video as reference.
00:00 - Battle #1
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: ItalianDolph
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (X & Y)
My Pokémon: Mac (Mudsdale), Rigel (Manectric), Paolo (Quaquaval), Rosalyn (Roserade)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Incineroar, Gyarados, Whimsicott, Palafin
My opponent had a 6-game win streak! It is iposing, but all that really means is that they understand the battling and its mechanics well, and to go into this prepared for them to quickly figure out what you’re doing.
And in this case, it’s stuff like knowing Fake Out would not flinch Mac (Mudsdale) or getting the opportunity to use Dragon Dance because the Substitute will keep you safe. They were doing mostly stuff I had seen before though—my win streak going into this was shorter, but perhaps it is also something to watch out for when you see someone with a team made up entirely of nonstandard Pokémon and you see they, too, have a win streak going.
05:47 - Battle #2
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Pàdoms
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Legends: Z-A)
My Pokémon: Paolo (Quaquaval), Rigel (Manectric), Lamar (Aurorus), Rosalyn (Roserade)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Pepe (Pelipper), Bangus (Basculegion) (Male), Dengbuds (Meganium), Kalayaan (Archaludon)
One of the trickiest types of teams for me to face is a dedicated rain team. It’s one thing to have Pelipper or Politoed out there and maybe one or two other Pokémon who thrive under rain, but it’s another to put everything into one mechanic like that. Honestly though, there were enough opponents I’ve faced whose lineup in Team Preview looked like genuine pure rain, only for them to pick their Pokémon more or less randomly that I wasn’t entirely sure Pelipper would even turn up. Some smart switching from my opponent also gave me a lot of trouble.
Though I’m not sure about the other nickname references, a bangus is a fish commonly found in Filipino cuisine. It’s also kind of long and flat, like Basculegion. (Basculegion is based on a species of salmon found in Hokkaido.)
10:25 - Battle #3
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Robert
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Sun & Moon)
My Pokémon: Rigel (Manectric), Lamar (Aurorus), Rosalyn (Roserade), Paolo (Quaquaval)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Dragapult, Gardevoir, Garchomp, Ninetales (Alolan)
This was the first time in Pokémon Champions I had encountered Round, though I did previously see it in Black 2 & White 2 triple battling where someone used Accelgor, Porygon-Z, and Blissey. I didn’t even know Round was valid to use in Champions (though to be fair, I hadn’t checked). Round is a 60 power special Normal move that, in a double or triple battle, if the other Pokémon also use Round, will go immediately after the first user of the move, and at double power. In this case, it was Dragapult, the fastest Pokémon in the game outside of Mega Evolution, and with Gardevoir Mega Evolving, it was like Mega Gardevoir also had 142 Speed. Pixilate also turns Round into a 156 power Fairy attack.
Round is not a flinching move—Dragapult had a King’s Rock, and it happened to activate…
15:20 - Battle #4
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Hera
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Sword & Shield)
My Pokémon: Abner (Absol), Rosalyn (Roserade), Mac (Mudsdale), Lamar (Aurorus)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Rainbow Raf (Farigiraf), Primarina, Race (Mudsdale), Ghos-tea (Sinistcha)
Hey look, it’s Mudsdale versus Mudsdale. This one I trained was designed to fight Incineroar and Sneasler though, whereas theirs is the more expected Stamina variant. I did figure this was going to be a Trick Room team though, and I came prepared to fight anything they had with Trick Room—Farigiraf is the most expected, though I think Sinistcha can learn it too. They opted not to use Trick Room on the first turn though, and that prevented them from using it this match.
This battle first put me into Ultra Ball Rank 2 for the season!
An interesting change for Pokémon Champions that doesn’t really affect gameplay much: nicknames will appear in Ranked (for the first time, and mainly about how you can nickname a Pokémon as another species, which is not allowed in official competitions—is it allowed in Pokémon Showdown?), but if a Pokémon is not nicknamed, the game will translate the Pokémon names for you. Hence, for instance, if a non-nicknamed opposing Pikachu turns up, it will display as “ピカチュウ” to a Japanese language player and “Pikachu” to an English language player regardless of the opponent’s chosen language.
On one hand, this does make it more convenient for both the players and my writing these descriptions. On the other, I would have to look up Pokémon names in other languages to make sure they’re correct rather than simply using the video as reference.
00:00 - Battle #1
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: ItalianDolph
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (X & Y)
My Pokémon: Mac (Mudsdale), Rigel (Manectric), Paolo (Quaquaval), Rosalyn (Roserade)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Incineroar, Gyarados, Whimsicott, Palafin
My opponent had a 6-game win streak! It is iposing, but all that really means is that they understand the battling and its mechanics well, and to go into this prepared for them to quickly figure out what you’re doing.
And in this case, it’s stuff like knowing Fake Out would not flinch Mac (Mudsdale) or getting the opportunity to use Dragon Dance because the Substitute will keep you safe. They were doing mostly stuff I had seen before though—my win streak going into this was shorter, but perhaps it is also something to watch out for when you see someone with a team made up entirely of nonstandard Pokémon and you see they, too, have a win streak going.
05:47 - Battle #2
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Pàdoms
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Legends: Z-A)
My Pokémon: Paolo (Quaquaval), Rigel (Manectric), Lamar (Aurorus), Rosalyn (Roserade)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Pepe (Pelipper), Bangus (Basculegion) (Male), Dengbuds (Meganium), Kalayaan (Archaludon)
One of the trickiest types of teams for me to face is a dedicated rain team. It’s one thing to have Pelipper or Politoed out there and maybe one or two other Pokémon who thrive under rain, but it’s another to put everything into one mechanic like that. Honestly though, there were enough opponents I’ve faced whose lineup in Team Preview looked like genuine pure rain, only for them to pick their Pokémon more or less randomly that I wasn’t entirely sure Pelipper would even turn up. Some smart switching from my opponent also gave me a lot of trouble.
Though I’m not sure about the other nickname references, a bangus is a fish commonly found in Filipino cuisine. It’s also kind of long and flat, like Basculegion. (Basculegion is based on a species of salmon found in Hokkaido.)
10:25 - Battle #3
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Robert
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Sun & Moon)
My Pokémon: Rigel (Manectric), Lamar (Aurorus), Rosalyn (Roserade), Paolo (Quaquaval)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Dragapult, Gardevoir, Garchomp, Ninetales (Alolan)
This was the first time in Pokémon Champions I had encountered Round, though I did previously see it in Black 2 & White 2 triple battling where someone used Accelgor, Porygon-Z, and Blissey. I didn’t even know Round was valid to use in Champions (though to be fair, I hadn’t checked). Round is a 60 power special Normal move that, in a double or triple battle, if the other Pokémon also use Round, will go immediately after the first user of the move, and at double power. In this case, it was Dragapult, the fastest Pokémon in the game outside of Mega Evolution, and with Gardevoir Mega Evolving, it was like Mega Gardevoir also had 142 Speed. Pixilate also turns Round into a 156 power Fairy attack.
Round is not a flinching move—Dragapult had a King’s Rock, and it happened to activate…
15:20 - Battle #4
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Hera
Battle Court: Battle Arena
Music: Trainer (Sword & Shield)
My Pokémon: Abner (Absol), Rosalyn (Roserade), Mac (Mudsdale), Lamar (Aurorus)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Rainbow Raf (Farigiraf), Primarina, Race (Mudsdale), Ghos-tea (Sinistcha)
Hey look, it’s Mudsdale versus Mudsdale. This one I trained was designed to fight Incineroar and Sneasler though, whereas theirs is the more expected Stamina variant. I did figure this was going to be a Trick Room team though, and I came prepared to fight anything they had with Trick Room—Farigiraf is the most expected, though I think Sinistcha can learn it too. They opted not to use Trick Room on the first turn though, and that prevented them from using it this match.
This battle first put me into Ultra Ball Rank 2 for the season!
