The Challenge Board is nothing more than a weathered old piece of plywood nailed to a post and covered with cork, standing out in the middle of an otherwise empty field. It is covered in layer upon layer of paper slips of every size and color held in place by tacks of diverse parentage. The handwritten notes describe challenges ranging from straightforward to intricate, taking place all over the world and under all sorts of conditions. Every now and then, you'll catch a trainer or two standing before it, pinning a new challenge up or examining the ones already there, trying to find one that strikes their fancy.
All battles begin at the Challenge Board, where the rules are first laid down and the battlers and referee get organized. A typical challenge consists of several parts:
1. Battle Format: There are numerous battle formats, including everything from a quick 1vs1 fight to a four-trainer free-for-all. Usually the first part of a challenge defines how many pokémon each trainer can bring to the match as well as how many he or she will need to send out at once.
2. Battle Style: By default, all battles in the league are set style, where the pokémon a trainer sends out cannot be recalled unless that player is willing to count it as knocked out for the remainder of the match. If the battle style is noted as being switch style, then players may freely withdraw their pokémon and then send them back into battle later. If the battle is to be set style, this field may be omitted.
3. DQ Time: The amount of time a trainer has to post commands before being disqualified from the match. The standard DQ time is one week. The DQ time also determines how long a referee has to post a reffing before the match can be surrendered to an emergency referee.
4. Damage Cap: The maximum amount of damage that a pokémon can be dealt by opponents in a single round. Damage caps exist to discourage the spamming of extremely powerful, especially supereffective, attacks in order to bring an opponent down in an extremely short amount of time. Damage caps are usually set between 25% and 40%. It is possible to play with no damage cap, but this is not recommended.
5. Banned and Restricted Moves: Attacks that the challenger doesn't want any player to be able to use, or which they want to limit to a set number of uses per pokémon. Banned moves are often influenced by arena features as well as the preference of the challenger--for example, weather attacks are often banned when the arena is enclosed and they would, presumably, have little to no effect. Commonly banned and restricted moves include OHKO attacks, chills, and direct recovery moves.
6. Arena Description: Arenas vary from the very basic (a flat, grassy field) to the incredibly complex. This section provides a detailed description of the environment where the battle takes place and also spells out any effects that this environment will have on the pokémon within. For example, if you're planning to play in a snowy, mountainous environment where loud attacks could potentially cause an avalanche that would severely damage both battlers, this would be the place to put it (as well as a definition of "loud attacks"!).
7. Additional Rules: Any other alterations to battle style are included here. For example, if a trainer wanted to play a match without considering pokémon's abilities, it would be noted in this section. Restrictions like "only water-type pokémon" or "no pokémon over 200 kg" would also go here.
Here's a sample challenge:
Once a challenge has been submitted, it will be added to the "Open Challenges" section of the post below. If there is an open challenge that you want to accept, simply quote the post containing its information and indicate that you'd like to take it. The challenger may then choose to deny your battle request, but unless they specifically do so, the battle will be moved to the "Battles Awaiting Referees" section once the right number of players has been gathered.
At this point, the challenge will remain valid either until a referee comes along and begins it, or until it is taken down during a board cleaning. The board is cleared of all challenges more than a month old at the beginning of each month unless all battlers agree to keep the challenge active. The third time a challenge is scheduled for deletion, it will be removed regardless of continued interest on the part of the battlers involved.
Please do not post in this thread to complain about how long it has taken for a referee to pick up your match. This is not likely to make anyone want to take it, and may in fact make them avoid it.
The Challenge Board
All battles begin at the Challenge Board, where the rules are first laid down and the battlers and referee get organized. A typical challenge consists of several parts:
1. Battle Format: There are numerous battle formats, including everything from a quick 1vs1 fight to a four-trainer free-for-all. Usually the first part of a challenge defines how many pokémon each trainer can bring to the match as well as how many he or she will need to send out at once.
2. Battle Style: By default, all battles in the league are set style, where the pokémon a trainer sends out cannot be recalled unless that player is willing to count it as knocked out for the remainder of the match. If the battle style is noted as being switch style, then players may freely withdraw their pokémon and then send them back into battle later. If the battle is to be set style, this field may be omitted.
3. DQ Time: The amount of time a trainer has to post commands before being disqualified from the match. The standard DQ time is one week. The DQ time also determines how long a referee has to post a reffing before the match can be surrendered to an emergency referee.
4. Damage Cap: The maximum amount of damage that a pokémon can be dealt by opponents in a single round. Damage caps exist to discourage the spamming of extremely powerful, especially supereffective, attacks in order to bring an opponent down in an extremely short amount of time. Damage caps are usually set between 25% and 40%. It is possible to play with no damage cap, but this is not recommended.
5. Banned and Restricted Moves: Attacks that the challenger doesn't want any player to be able to use, or which they want to limit to a set number of uses per pokémon. Banned moves are often influenced by arena features as well as the preference of the challenger--for example, weather attacks are often banned when the arena is enclosed and they would, presumably, have little to no effect. Commonly banned and restricted moves include OHKO attacks, chills, and direct recovery moves.
6. Arena Description: Arenas vary from the very basic (a flat, grassy field) to the incredibly complex. This section provides a detailed description of the environment where the battle takes place and also spells out any effects that this environment will have on the pokémon within. For example, if you're planning to play in a snowy, mountainous environment where loud attacks could potentially cause an avalanche that would severely damage both battlers, this would be the place to put it (as well as a definition of "loud attacks"!).
7. Additional Rules: Any other alterations to battle style are included here. For example, if a trainer wanted to play a match without considering pokémon's abilities, it would be noted in this section. Restrictions like "only water-type pokémon" or "no pokémon over 200 kg" would also go here.
Here's a sample challenge:
Negrek said:
Once a challenge has been submitted, it will be added to the "Open Challenges" section of the post below. If there is an open challenge that you want to accept, simply quote the post containing its information and indicate that you'd like to take it. The challenger may then choose to deny your battle request, but unless they specifically do so, the battle will be moved to the "Battles Awaiting Referees" section once the right number of players has been gathered.
At this point, the challenge will remain valid either until a referee comes along and begins it, or until it is taken down during a board cleaning. The board is cleared of all challenges more than a month old at the beginning of each month unless all battlers agree to keep the challenge active. The third time a challenge is scheduled for deletion, it will be removed regardless of continued interest on the part of the battlers involved.
Please do not post in this thread to complain about how long it has taken for a referee to pick up your match. This is not likely to make anyone want to take it, and may in fact make them avoid it.
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