Warning, hype in-bound. The Redemption League!

[NickCrash]

You should probably also post which types are in each bracket.

Also, it would be nice if challengers could register 1-3 different teams for the league for the following reasons:
a) Avoid counter-teaming

Avoid having someone unable to progress simply because their team gets devastated by a certain pick of pokemon.

By the way, why register the moves too? What's the point except for the leaders knowing exactly the fighting style of the challenger? Allowing them to switch moves will also help the players improve over time, and it also gives an element of surprise if one decides to play an unusual set. However, if the leader already has knowledge of that, the element of surprise is gone, and the player (who did not switch their pokemon around) is left without many options.

[Felicity]

You should probably also post which types are in each bracket.

Also, it would be nice if challengers could register 1-3 different teams for the league for the following reasons:

a) Avoid counter-teaming

Avoid having someone unable to progress simply because their team gets devastated by a certain pick of pokemon.

By the way, why register the moves too? What's the point except for the leaders knowing exactly the fighting style of the challenger? Allowing them to switch moves will also help the players improve over time, and it also gives an element of surprise if one decides to play an unusual set. However, if the leader already has knowledge of that, the element of surprise is gone, and the player (who did not switch their pokemon around) is left without many options.

I agree with Nick here in regards to multiple teams. Leagues rightful difficulty came from how limited you were as opposed to the supreme adaptability the leaders had in comparison. The only changes you could make were Items and EV spreads, the latter of which were almost pointless to change anyway as you were going to use them in accordance with the permanent set of moves you selected.

And there's nothing wrong with that per se, aside from the whiny people not liking that scale of difficulty and demand for skill, but wouldn't it add a new dynamic if the leaders had to consider the possible tactics the challenger could use? It would also lessen the need for pokemon like Talonflame and co because you can have two teams that can handle different challenges.

Considering the advantages that the later leaders will get in comparison to the old league leaders wth the introduction of new megas, it's an interesting idea, right?

[DashingStorm]

You should probably also post which types are in each bracket.

Also, it would be nice if challengers could register 1-3 different teams for the league for the following reasons:

a) Avoid counter-teaming

Avoid having someone unable to progress simply because their team gets devastated by a certain pick of pokemon.

By the way, why register the moves too? What's the point except for the leaders knowing exactly the fighting style of the challenger? Allowing them to switch moves will also help the players improve over time, and it also gives an element of surprise if one decides to play an unusual set. However, if the leader already has knowledge of that, the element of surprise is gone, and the player (who did not switch their pokemon around) is left without many options.

We're in the process of measuring which leader is suited best for each bracket, when they're finalized I'll put them up.

The point of the League is for it to be a challenge. Having several teams to switch between is actually counter-productive considering that Leaders may also have other teams to counter a possible counter-team.

The reason we have moves registered is because moves would otherwise be switched up indefinitely, giving people easy access to moves that could potentially tear through Leaders with ease. It's more of a "you pick 6 Pokémon that have good coverage overall / pick your favorites" theme and see how far you can actually get. Leaders aren't invincible and each has their own flaw, which you'll find out about soon enough.

That being said, the Leaders won't have insight in everyone's teams. Another reason as to why we register singular teams per person, is because if we let people change up their teams over and over, they can more or less "scout" what Pokémon leaders can/will use and build teams around that accordingly.

This is why I can only reccommend that if you're going to participate and challenge the Redemption League, you build around a strong core and make sure you cover enough options, considering there's 17 leaders and a champion to get through. Diversity is the main key in this aspect!

[Commander]

The reason we have moves registered is because moves would otherwise be switched up indefinitely, giving people easy access to moves that could potentially tear through Leaders with ease. It's more of a "you pick 6 Pokémon that have good coverage overall / pick your favorites" theme and see how far you can actually get. Leaders aren't invincible and each has their own flaw, which you'll find out about soon enough.

That being said, the Leaders won't have insight in everyone's teams. Another reason as to why we register singular teams per person, is because if we let people change up their teams over and over, they can more or less "scout" what Pokémon leaders can/will use and build teams around that accordingly.

The element of surprise is the greatest asset in a battle. If you can figure out what you're opponent's next move is, but they can't figure out what yours is, victory for you is almost assured.

I agree with most of your points on this, but there is one thing that hasn't been covered. I would consider 2-3 reserve Pokemon that can be switched out. This is also the reason why I said to start small. Maybe Reborn's old system has finally gone outdated and a newer system needs to be in place due to the huge amount of Gen VI changes.

[AuthorReborn]

I agree with Commander's suggestion of a few roation mons becauae otherwise it's entirely possible for someone to get stuck. You could have a tier rule so your reserves could only be UU or below or something to prevent people from just slapping on 7 or 8 OU threats and trying to counter team.

Also, quick question, which format will the battles be fought in? I assume Singles, but before I make a team I do want to know if I should be expecting Doubles/Triples/Rotation.

[Juniper]

I agree with Commander's suggestion of a few roation mons becauae otherwise it's entirely possible for someone to get stuck. You could have a tier rule so your reserves could only be UU or below or something to prevent people from just slapping on 7 or 8 OU threats and trying to counter team.

Also, quick question, which format will the battles be fought in? I assume Singles, but before I make a team I do want to know if I should be expecting Doubles/Triples/Rotation.

People on Showdown (Think it was Bazaro) said that they can be single, double or triple.

I didn't see mention of rotations though.

[Dark Desire]

The element of surprise is the greatest asset in a battle. If you can figure out what you're opponent's next move is, but they can't figure out what yours is, victory for you is almost assured.

I agree with most of your points on this, but there is one thing that hasn't been covered. I would consider 2-3 reserve Pokemon that can be switched out. This is also the reason why I said to start small. Maybe Reborn's old system has finally gone outdated and a newer system needs to be in place due to the huge amount of Gen VI changes.

if anything challengers will have gotten an advantage from gen VI changes, more diversity for them but leaders still have to stick to monotypes, reborn league's last season had already gone through a ton of gen VI changes and nothing really changed

with just the little planning i did with my reborn league team before starting, i was still able to clear the league fairly easily, i don't think it's unfair at all if they are sticking with some of the old league rules in order to keep this league a challenge

[Shing]

This is highly interesting. I'm kind of exicted of this.

[RaymondNotRay]

Glad to see the return. Perhaps I'll give this a try.

[Milotic]

Ok so I havent seen anything pertaining to items, so does that mean items are the only things that we are allowed to change throughout the course of the leauge in each battle?

Edited October 4, 2015 by Milotic

[Sparky]

Ok so I havent seen anything pertaining to items, so does that mean items are the only things that we are allowed to change throughout the course of the leauge in each battle?

Items, Abilities, and EV's are allowed to be changed. Pokemon and moves are not.

[NickCrash]

My suggestion for 1 extra team was meant for it to be registered along with the player. Instead, an improvement to that is registering 8 mons which will be used in rotation. Given that about 50% of the OU tier is either legendaries or pokemon whose main use is a Mega form, it's almost certain that people will resort to BL, UU and lower tier pokemon in their fights. As you see on the ladder (and the RCBA matches) some do this quite frequently. Therefore being restricted to UU and below will not change anything as people will make sure the UU pokemon they were going to use anyway are put in the last 2 slots. I suppose the leaders are free to make any switch they like so, in recap, the organising team should consider the 2 extra slots.

[biboo195]

I also agree with having 8 or 9 pokemon for rotations, since you just can't prepare for everything with just 6 pokemon (and you can't even change your moves). Also, i have some questions :

1. Can we start using megas from at least the 5th bracket (or 6th) and onwards ? Since it's already a long and difficult time to get to that point, and the leaders can have their mega and 1 legendary pokemon of their choosing as well. We won't use a legendary pokemon, but 1 Mega is fine.

2. About battle timer, what if someone just has a bad internet connection ? You can't blame them for not being able to battle correctly.

3. How about banned stuff like evasion and sleep clause? Will those be applied for these battles as well ?

[DashingStorm]

I also agree with having 8 or 9 pokemon for rotations, since you just can't prepare for everything with just 6 pokemon (and you can't even change your moves). Also, i have some questions :

1. Can we start using megas from at least the 5th bracket (or 6th) and onwards ? Since it's already a long and difficult time to get to that point, and the leaders can have their mega and 1 legendary pokemon of their choosing as well. We won't use a legendary pokemon, but 1 Mega is fine.

2. About battle timer, what if someone just has a bad internet connection ? You can't blame them for not being able to battle correctly.

3. How about banned stuff like evasion and sleep clause? Will those be applied for these battles as well ?

- Challengers are not allowed to use Mega Pokémon whatsoever.

- If your net drops and Battle Timeout auto-disqualifies you, that's all on you. We're not responsible for your net connection and you are to have a stable connection yourself before battling.

- See what I'm about to post & will update in the OP.

We've come up with a few additional rulings that may or may not be to your liking. To keep this League challenging, we've ultimately decided to not allow Mega Pokémon or Legendary Pokémon simply because up until you've earned 12 badges, you will not see any Mega Pokémon whatsoever. On top of this, the last 6 Leaders will use Mega Pokémon of any possible tier, ranging from NU to OU.

Do keep in mind that even with Gen VI mechanics, it's still not impossible to defeat Mega Pokémon. Sure, the leaders will have an advantage, but that doesn't restrict you as challenger. It just means you should be able to create a team that can work around Mega Pokémon. Think of things like priority moves, Prankster & Status moves, or even Trick Room, to work to your advantage.

(For the record, I've test-battled one of the leaders with my old League team minus Aegislash and managed to do just fine and actually win.)

Additional rules:

• Speed Boost Blaziken is banned from use.

• We will uphold the Species Clause, meaning you can only have one Pokémon of a certain species in your team.

• The following battle clauses will be in effect for Gym Leader/Champion battles:

  Freeze Clause, Battle Timeout, Sleep Clause, Species Clause, Swagger Clause, Evasion Clause, Moody Clause, OHKO Clause.

  To clarify these rules and clauses;

  Freeze Clause - Only 1 Pokémon per team can be Frozen.

  Battle Timeout - Battle Timeout has to be on at the start of the battle and may not be turned off. Stalling out the timer repeatedly will lead to you getting disqualified for that battle.

  Sleep Clause - Only one Pokémon can be asleep per team, however when a Pokémon uses Rest, it does not add up to the one Pokémon limit.

  Species Clause - You are only allowed to have one Pokémon of the same species in your team. So you’re not allowed to have Eviolite Doublade and Aegislash on the same team, for instance.

  Swagger Clause - Using the move Swagger is not allowed and when team registration takes place, we will notify whoever is trying to register Swagger on a Pokémon that this is not allowed.

  Evasion Clause - Moves that boost Evasion, like Double Team or Minimize are banned from usage.

  Moody Clause - Pokémon with the Ability Moody are not allowed.

  OHKO Clause - You cannot use one-hit KO moves, like Guillotine, Fissure or Horn Drill.

• To limit, but not have items be abused, you can have up to 3 of the same item on a Pokémon, meaning 3 Pokémon with Leftovers is a viable option. However, the use of Gems is prohibited. (Even though the Normal Gem is viable and legal, we’ve decided to ban every single Gem instead of allowing just one.)

• EV spreads and Items can be changed, as long as the maximum restriction of 3-of-the-same item rule is followed.

• Abiding Smogon rules, we have also decided to limit the use of Baton Pass to 1 Pokémon.

  This also means that the following Pokémon are not allowed to have a combination of Baton Pass & Swords Dance & Speed Boost: Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Ninjask, Scolipede. Agility & Swords Dance however, is allowed.

• On request, we have come to the conclusion that you may have one Pokémon in rotation only after you have defeated 15 Gym Leaders. If you want to earn that 7th Pokémon, you have to prove to us, and yourself, that you're worthy of having a 7th Pokémon to face those final leaders.

On top of all this, we have decided to not go with 17 leaders and 1 Champion, but 18 leaders and a Champion who reigns supreme. However, you are only eligible to challenge the Champion when you present us your Trainer Card with all 18 badges printed on it.

The Trainer Card is a WIP and a general concept/layout will be finished soon.

About the Trainer Card; We will be handling these manually, meaning that it might take a little while for us to be able to print your team onto one. How we will be dealing with (custom) sprites is still up for debate, as we currently don't have a method of using Showdown's system to link to the forums to automatically create & print badges onto your cards. We're working on a possible alternative method, but we have no guarantee that we can automate this system as of now.

As for the brackets (I'm not revealing which leader/type is being placed in which bracket just yet), they will look like this:

Bracket 1:

Leaders 1 - 3 (Must defeat at least 2 of these to progress to bracket 2)

Bracket 2:

Leaders 4 - 6 (Must have at least 5 badges to proceed to bracket 3)

Bracket 3:

Leaders 7 - 9 (Must have at least 8 badges to proceed to bracket 4)

Bracket 4:

Leaders 10 - 12 (Must have at least 11 badges to proceed to bracket 5)

Bracket 5:

Leaders 13 - 15 (Must have at least 14 badges to proceed to bracket 6)

Bracket 6:

Leaders 16 - 18 (Only when all 18 badges are obtained, the challenger will be eligible to schedule a battle with the Champion)

Champion Bracket:

Redemption League Champion

If things are not clear- Ask away and I'll do my best to answer everything.

[Etesian]

Freeze Clause - Only 1 Pokémon per team can be Frozen.

Could we make that 0 Pokemon? You could argue that stuff like Scald burns are as haxy as freezing, but with Scald, you expect it, it has a 30% chance and, while it sucks, you can play around a lucky burn somewhat. But a freeze is just...you can't play around that nearly as well as you would with a Scald burn. If you get frozen, it's not like fighting 5VS6, it's 5+1-set-up-fodderVS6.

• On request, we have come to the conclusion that you may have one Pokémon in rotation only after you have defeated the initial 18 Gym Leaders and are ready to face the Champion. After you have presented us your Trainer Card with all 18 badges on it, you may register a seventh Pokémon for your team. The rotated Pokémon may not be a Legendary Pokémon or banned Pokémon.

So could it be a Mega?

Edited October 4, 2015 by Etesian

[Juniper]

*sees greninja and aegislash rule*

*Takes aegislash off team*

[Guzam]

So could it be a Mega?

No. There will be no use of megas or legendaries in general, unless a gym leader decides they want to use them.

I'd like to address this here and now, but the original Reborn League was fun and tough for a reason. You had to stick with your team the whole way through. This isn't as impossible as it seems, otherwise nobody would have won league in any season at all. See what I'm getting at? You guys don't need megas and legendaries and extra team members to win if others before you could do it, in season 3 especially.

So please don't complain about being limited to 6 and then eventually 7 pokemon. We don't want this to be a cakewalk and we also don't want this to be impossible, so just bear with us here.

[NickCrash]

Since everyone has essentially 3 challenges per week, if someone is unable to connect one of the 3 days due to rl stuff, can they use their chance on the next day, provided of course it's still Fri-Sun.

[DashingStorm]

Could we make that 0 Pokemon? You could argue that stuff like Scald burns are as haxy as freezing, but with Scald, you expect it, it has a 30% chance and, while it sucks, you can play around a lucky burn somewhat. But a freeze is just...you can't play around that nearly as well as you would with a Scald burn. If you get frozen, it's not like fighting 5VS6, it's 5+1-set-up-fodderVS6.

So could it be a Mega?

Freeze Clause is a thing everywhere, we can't really stop that unless we ban all moves that can Freeze, which will limit a lot of people.

And no- It can't be a Mega.

*sees greninja and aegislash rule*

*Takes aegislash off team*

Edited the rule and pretty much removed it. :]

[Odybld]

Actually, the standard species clause of PS is by Pokedex number, which means no two same Pokemon, no two different ones from the same line or family. So Aegislash and Doublade should be legal and kosher, as well as Gardevoir and Galade, Pory2 and PoryZ, Glalie and Frosslass etc. I really can't see the reason to ban these combos that a) noone would run and have common weaknesses.

[SgtNoobly]

O cool this will be the first event I enter cant wait

[Etesian]

No. There will be no use of megas or legendaries in general, unless a gym leader decides they want to use them.

Yeah, no, figured as much. Just making sure, since you specifically mentioned Legendaries and banned 'mons in the line I quoted, but not Megas.

[Alex]

Abiding Smogon rules, we have also decided to limit the use of Baton Pass to 1 Pokémon.

This also means that the following Pokémon are not allowed to have a combination of Baton Pass & Swords Dance & Speed Boost: Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Ninjask, Scolipede. Agility & Swords Dance however, is allowed.

Does this mean something like Quiverpass Venomoth and Masquerain are legal?

[Guzam]

Edit: Quiver pass is not banned. Feel free to use it :]

[Darvan Korematsu]

Does this mean something like Quiverpass Venomoth and Masquerain are legal?

Don't worry bud. We'll have that covered no problem