The Future of Competitive Pokémon, According to the Masters

With Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond, one could argue that a new chapter of Pokémon is beginning — especially with the introduction of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a completely new take on the Pokémon formula. With no competitive mode in these games, there’s always a fear that Nintendo could be deprioritizing competitive play. After all, recent Pokémon games like Sword, Shield, and Let’s Go Pikachu have homed in on the more casual side of the franchise.

Davide Carrer and Wolfe Glick are two professional Pokémon players with a multitude of wins under their belts, and they faced each other in the VG Grand Finals of the Pokémon Players Cup II in 2020. For both players, the lack of ranked play in the upcoming remakes isn’t much of a deal-breaker.

“I don’t feel bad about ranked battles being excluded, to be honest,” Glick tells Digital Trends. “If BDSP (Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl) were going to be full new Pokémon games, it would be devastating, but to be honest, playing the game with only the first four generations would probably get old really quickly. I’m especially grateful that we won’t have official tournaments using BDSP as I don’t imagine the game would be super fun to play.”

Carrer has similar feelings regarding a lack of ranked battles in the upcoming games, saying: “I think it’s understandable, because it looks like Arceus and the remakes aren’t going to have a very large Pokédex. It makes sense to play gen-8 (Video Games Championship) on the only games that have every gen-8 Pokémon and also the old legendries (very much needed to alternate between regional, national and restricted formats). I’d just be glad if we had more series without Dynamax, like series 10, or also a third DLC to shake things up.”

Both players are less interested in ranked play appearing in every game and more invested in a competitive scene with an expansive Pokédex, which allows for a wide variety of teams and strategies. The upcoming remakes, as well as the new Arceus game, will not include the full roster of Pokémon, which would make creating a fleshed-out competitive team more difficult.

Despite not having a baked-in ranked system, this does not mean that players cannot create their own competitive scene. Glick thinks that a grassroots scene is possible, but is uncertain about the scope for it.

“I’m sure there are some people that will battle when BDSP comes out,” says Glick, “but I don’t expect there to be a serious competitive scene. We can probably expect a similar level of competitive play as we saw with Let’s Go Pikachu! and Eevee!, if I had to guess.”

Since the new games will not have a ranked system, competitive play will remain exclusively in Sword and Shield, likely until the next mainline Pokémon game drops. That created some initial concern when Sword and Shield first landed. Originally, the Sword and Shield Pokédex was significantly smaller than previous generations, with only 400 Pokémon available to players. This caused a significant divide among trainers who were missing their preferred Pokémon. Fortunately, expansions have widened the roster significantly since then, making the situation less dire.

While the state of competitive Pokémon gaming is polarizing, pro players are willing to roll with the punches for now, though they think things will need to change to keep it from getting stale. Carrer believes that there is still life in the competitive Sword and Shield scene, but Nintendo will need to show players a light at the end of the tunnel soon for it to remain viable.

“Without a third DLC, I expect that gen 9 will come out in fall 2022, since the last few gens are all three years apart, and I’d be perfectly fine with that,” says Davide. “If not, two more years on Sword and Shield without any addition would be too much.”

Glick seems to think that Sword and Shield competitive play can still be interesting as long as Nintendo returns to creating live events to help shape the meta. He notes that much of the innovation in the series ultimately comes from those in-person competitions.

“It’s hard to say whether Sword and Shield are stale or need something new, because we’ve had almost no live events, which is the driving force behind metagame development,” said Glick. “Pokémon continues to change the rules for competitive play, though, more than we’ve ever seen before, so I’m excited to see what new rule sets they still have planned.”