Welcome to Battling 101! If you're seeking a tutor for Draft League, you are in the right place. Please read all the rules carefully and fill out every part of the application.
RULES
- You must be able to access Discord, or whatever your tutor wants as the primary form of communication.
- You must be willing to use Pokemon Showdown! even if you are being tutored in a cartridge format such as Battle Spot or VGC.
- You, the tutee, should have at least 15 posts before signing up AND your account's age should be a minimum of at least 1 month old before signing up.
- This is not a strict requirement meaning you may still be paired without satisfying it, so no matter what, DO NOT spam post elsewhere in the forum. That is an infractable offense and we do not encourage such behavior from potential Tutees.
- You must have battled competitively for a decent amount in at least ONE of the Smogon tiers or Battle Spot / VGC to sign up. Playing 10 or so matches on the PS! ladder is not substantial enough, ~70 or so is more reasonable. This experience does not need to be for the format you sign-up for; this is just to weed out people who have never played competitively that can improve themselves simply by using resources already available to them without needing a tutor to hold their hand.
- You, the tutee, are responsible for setting up times with your tutor. When you receive the Smogon notification informing you of the pairing, please take the initiative and post on their VM wall first. Continued scheduling and communication is key to a successful pairing!
- Use the Tutee Talk forum to complain about your tutor (or praise them if they're doing a good job). These are no longer mandatory, but if your tutor is ridiculously inactive or is a complete jackass, COMPLAIN HERE. Nobody can see your tutee talk posts except for you and the Battling 101 Staff; everything is confidential.
- Signups older than 4 months or 1 month since last login will be considered inactive. These will be moved to the Inactive Posts thread, and can be returned back to this thread by request.
- Tutors can and will drop you if sessions go badly, and significant violations may result in a ban from B101. Be active, be enthusiastic, be respectful. Make the best of your time together!
Here is the signup template, and an example sign-up post.
Username: Iceball47
PS! Username: ggiceball
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: EST (GMT-4)
Usual Hours of Availability: 7am -1pm Weekdays unless I pick up a morning shift. I'm usually free Saturday unless of course I have prior obligations. Lastly, past 4pm on Sunday.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
I started getting into competitive Pokémon seriously around 2016, starting with
Pokémon Brick Bronze on Roblox, where I was part of a tight-knit community called Team Celestial. We ran our own ELO system and held regular tournaments before transitioning to Pokémon Showdown after Brick Bronze was taken down. I played most actively during Gen 7, mainly focusing on OU and UU, and while I’ve slowed down a bit since then, I’ve stayed involved with the scene.
These days, I’m most active in draft leagues, and that’s easily where all my skill points went. I’ve played in about five leagues so far, and the draft phase is hands-down my strongest aspect — I love theorycrafting teams, sniping picks, and building a roster with synergy. I still run with that same core friend group from my Brick Bronze days, and we’ve been playing more draft than ever — both in our own server and through Smogon. It’s been great, but I’m trying to take things more seriously now and level up compared to some of the more experienced draft players in the scene.
Prep is where I struggle the most. I tend to have “Smogon brain” — I’m good at learning and using established sets, but I often second-guess myself when it comes to thinking outside the box or adapting to unique matchups. Since no prep is ever the same, every game feels like a fresh puzzle, and I sometimes find it hard to confidently decide what’s best or how to build off previous experience. Even stuff like speed tiers — which I
do understand in theory — can throw me off in the moment when I’m looking at my prep doc and doubting myself.
That said, I’m here to grow. I love this format, I’m hungry to improve, and I want to get better at translating my draft strengths into well-rounded gameplay across every part of the match process.
Are you able to use Discord?: Yup!
and 
. I work best with a balanced or hyper offensive playstyle, but I can manage with bulkier builds too.
