Pokémon Champions - releasing April 8, 2026

Bakugames said:
I have no love nor hate for ilca but im not sure exactly what is so characteristic of ilcas incompetence this time. any balance patches, item/pokemon availability is almost 100% on gamefreak and tpc, no way ilca had any choice on that. the performance looks buggy and the worst of it but easy to fix thankfully, and not anywhere unique to ilca right now (hi monhun rise)
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The Focus Sash Bug and inconsistent behaviors with things like Mega Turn order suggests something buggy with reusing existing code/interactions, something that also happened with BDSP to the point people were recreating/finding bugs that existed in the original DP releases that weren't replicable in Platinum.

Availability is TPC, but things not working correctly, especially where they worked right before, at least partially falls at ILCA's feet.
 
pika pal said:
The Focus Sash Bug and inconsistent behaviors with things like Mega Turn order suggests something buggy with reusing existing code/interactions, something that also happened with BDSP to the point people were recreating/finding bugs that existed in the original DP releases that weren't replicable in Platinum.

Availability is TPC, but things not working correctly, especially where they worked right before, at least partially falls at ILCA's feet.
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That makes more sense, though id wait to see if they werent tasked with Redoing a bunch of mechanics and thats why things are buggy. im not really interested in defending ILCA so im sure the pipeline there is fucked but i also wouldnt be surprised if they got a shitty task in the first place (change how a bunch of shit works all at once for the new platform Now)
 
Bakugames said:
I have no love nor hate for ilca but im not sure exactly what is so characteristic of ilcas incompetence this time. any balance patches, item/pokemon availability is almost 100% on gamefreak and tpc, no way ilca had any choice on that. the performance looks buggy and the worst of it but easy to fix thankfully, and not anywhere unique to ilca right now (hi monhun rise)
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MH isn't a good point of comparison for performance, tbh. I'd assume you mean Wilds and not Rise (since that game is already 5 years old somehow and ran near flawlessly even on a 2017 day 1 switch), and even then, the controversy over the poor performance was mainly because Wilds is an extremely ambitious game running on an engine that was already notoriously poorly optimized for PC specifically -- it allegedly wasn't all that bad for PS5 users.

I haven't had the chance to download Champions yet to see how it runs for myself, but there isn't really any sort of technical reason why it should perform any worse than than the mainline Pokemon games on the switch. If anything, the fact that it doesn't need to consider any of the overworld elements (like stuff in the environment interactable outside of battle or anything wonky with terrain and positioning) means that it should only really play better than them, if anything. Plus, the game was probably developed with knowledge of the Switch 2 and yet there doesn't seem to be any sort of enhanced performance mode for it either. It'd be one thing if the conversation was on how well/poorly Champions runs on mobile, but this is the actual console version we're talking about here.
 
fluff!! said:
What's the Focus Sash bug?
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There's a video a couple posts/pages back where Dragapult uses Dragon Darts, kills the first target, then procs the Focus Sash on the second target... but the game also for some reason informs that Dragapult's Focus Sash was used up.

It's just a visual bug I guess, but clearly something that should not happen.

TheMantyke said:
Honestly, why not. At this point I think we're already only one oversight away from summoning acid rain.
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My hottest take from the DPPt era is that Smogon should have implemented it and I'll raise my children on that hill
 
...

Mega Greninja should had gotten the new version of Battle Bond and I'll die on that hill lol

I stand by always 40 BP Pursuit being a healthy thing to have. And I've been missing Signal Beam for a long while.

Return I can do without now that Double Edge and Body Slam are back. Still have to give them a run as -ilate moves tho. And speaking of which, Pinsir is back to not learning Dual Wingbeat, obviously. Still bummed at Dragonite not having it tho.

And of course, this is due to keep far more manteinance than the mess BDSP were. So, come on, 6v6. And Triples and Rotations.
 
Vengeance417 said:
Really not liking Champions so far. The menu is clunky, the missing items makes teambuilding a chore, the lack of 6v6 private battles, the Switch 2 performance is somehow worse than PLZA, and not a fan of bots in the standard matchmaking playlist. Really glad I didn't spend money on this, because I'm not interested in investing time in this game.
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I only played the tutorial battle + the other presumably bot tutorial but I am truly baffled by the performance of everything outside of battle. Like, I don't know how, but it felt more noticeable than SV did? Like with SV I could get into the groove with its awkwardness and the really absurd stuff was like that early game class room stuff. But with this I could not stop noticing the frame rate on everything, for very simple stuff.

And agreed that everything on the UI feels clunky. Especially in the help section.
 
R_N said:
I only played the tutorial battle + the other presumably bot tutorial but I am truly baffled by the performance of everything outside of battle. Like, I don't know how, but it felt more noticeable than SV did? Like with SV I could get into the groove with its awkwardness and the really absurd stuff was like that early game class room stuff. But with this I could not stop noticing the frame rate on everything, for very simple stuff.

And agreed that everything on the UI feels clunky. Especially in the help section.
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Just trying to USE the menu when it's this laggy and not intuitive is keeping me away from the game. I've never had less fun navigating text boxes and menu screens in a Pokemon game before. Impressive on ILCA's part.
 
funnily enough I was using Violet before playing because EV training n stuff is easier there and the absolute whiplash I got when going into those Champions UI. SV on the Switch 2 is so smooth.

The battles run smoothly for me, I do think people are being slightly too.. “Pokémon fan”-ish about the game but the UI is super clunky and could do with being smoothed out.

the 3 pixel mega stones in the battle pass are truly hideous though.
 
Yung Dramps said:
Y'know people, myself included to some extent, were doing a bunch of Potential Man coping for ILCA vis a vis BDSP, that they could've done a good job and just got a raw deal in terms of scheduling. Turns out no, they just suck
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i knew they kinda just suck when we basically learned they delayed this game

people are gonna blame game freak for this somehow which will be irritating

i do think champions is fun and i like it, but it could be way better than it is rn with polish and shit

i will say, i think people are wrong about "frame drops", the game seems to be running at full speed (at least on the switch 2)

i believe that they have specifically limited the framerate with certain effects. there aren't really hitches, they just straight up hardcoded lower framerates at points. the game is running at 30fps but they limit the framerate of mons lower if things like sand go up i believe

i have a good eye for framerate shit so i could be wrong but im just saying what i see. the frame pacing seems solid even when the actual mons are animating at like 10fps or some shit. if im right its likely done that way to support phones but idk i think on my next gen handheld it should probably run better than scarlet and violet

i do still think its badly optimized though considering my system gets as hot as when it plays fucking Cyberpunk 2077, However
Bakugames said:
Oh i saw more clips wow this game IS ugly lmfao. maybe ilca does suck. sad! many such cases
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something thats hilarious to me is they have all of these paid cosmetics they want you to do for your trainer but in the actual battle you literally only see the other player 99% of the time. you're paying for another person to perceive you the way you want.

seriously though i think this game is "pretty good", but that's mostly because it was basically impossible to fuck up

my pleasant surprise is its really easy to get VP and you get box space for ranking up
 
R_N said:
Will this finally. finally. be the thing that gets them to add the OHKO clause to No Guard that it should have always had to begin with
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Nah. Moody Smeargle was allowed the entire time. Entrainment into Sheer Cold has some counterplay that's actually reliable. Namely outspeeding and KOing either Hawlucha or Vanilluxe, using Neutralizing Gas, Prankster Tailwind, etc. while Moody Smeargle's counterplay was Haze or just praying.
Yes it is stupid and OHKO Clause and Evasion Clause should exist anyways since both are extremely uncompetitive, but we all know the only rule changes are to regulate Pokemon based on arbitrary titles and item clause for some reason.
 
People surprised about entrainment no guard forgot wolfey was doing skill swap shenenigans to get it on lapras already last year.

Cute ladder gimmick with 0 actual viability in tournaments. Dedicating your mega slot + a shitmon just to lose to taunt or fake out.

Edit: no, seriously, people forget how much of a joke ladder is atm with so many newcomers and people who havent played pokemon pvp ever or outside of smogon singles. Every other dumb gimmick will look op when your opponent is worse than a bot.
 
Ugh I hate if you predict the set wrong you just auto lose in 3v3. Mega lucario clicking swords dance or nasty plot can be gg, or aegislash hitting SD when you expect the flash cannon oof
 
Worldie said:
People surprised about entrainment no guard forgot wolfey was doing skill swap shenenigans to get it on lapras already last year.

Cute ladder gimmick with 0 actual viability in tournaments. Dedicating your mega slot + a shitmon just to lose to taunt or fake out.

Edit: no, seriously, people forget how much of a joke ladder is atm with so many newcomers and people who havent played pokemon pvp ever or outside of smogon singles. Every other dumb gimmick will look op when your opponent is worse than a bot.
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It’s still not very good, but much easier than in the past at least. No more mostly double turn jank setups.

I’m okay with it; it’s overall balanced. Can just think of it like Belly Drum but different.
 
ant4456 said:
something thats hilarious to me is they have all of these paid cosmetics they want you to do for your trainer but in the actual battle you literally only see the other player 99% of the time. you're paying for another person to perceive you the way you want.
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ah, but is that not how clothing works in the real world as well?
and, meanwhile, this "pokemon showdown" has nothing to provide the player a sense of immersion. checkmate again, smogonberals :psysly:
 
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