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I'm going to try to reach 200 Rating in PvP. Normal Ranked, Random Ranked, or both. Getting there comfortably in one would be a good start. I'm not good at PvP. I'm 35, from the UK, grew up with Gen 1 and 2, and most of my time in PRO has been spent on PvE and auctions (I'm more of an auctioneer than a PvPer). Competitive Pokémon has never interested me enough to properly learn it. So while everyone starts at 100 Rating, in terms of PvP experience, I'm starting from zero. And that's why I'm making this thread. There are PvP guides written by players who could probably reach 200 half asleep, but I want to document the journey from the other side: Can someone who doesn't know what they're doing learn PvP and reach 200? I'll post my rating, the teams I'm using, mistakes I'm making, things I'm researching, videos and guides I'm watching, advice people give me, what helps, what doesn't, and how my thinking changes as I get more experience. And I'll include the bad stuff too. If I get to 150 and crash back to 70, that's going in here. If I spend time building a team only to discover I've made myself weak to something obvious, that's going in here too. I'm not trying to teach people how to PvP. I'm trying to learn how to PvP. And maybe that's what could make this useful to another new player. Instead of someone who's been playing competitively for years telling you to "just do X", you'll be watching someone who might currently be worse than you trying to understand why X matters in the first place. The goal isn't to hit 200 once because I went on a lucky run. I want to get to the point where 200 feels comfortable. If I drop below it, I want to know I can get back there because I've improved, not because I happened to get lucky with a few matches. If I can do that, maybe this eventually becomes Road to 300. But that's getting ahead of myself. 100 to 200. One step at a time.

Entry #3 - Not Every Entry Has To Be Right Not every entry here is going to be important, make sense, or be technically correct. Some thoughts will be poorly formed, focused on things that don't really matter, or based on something I've misunderstood completely. But that's the point. I'm a noob writing down what I'm thinking as I learn. A noob is naturally going to be wrong about a lot of things. I'll look back at some of these entries in a year and wonder what I was talking about. Hopefully I will, because that means I've learned something since writing them. I don't want to avoid writing something just because I'm not confident that I've got it right. If I only wrote down thoughts once they were polished and correct, it wouldn't capture the process of learning. These aren't supposed to be perfect conclusions. They're snapshots of where my thinking is at right now, mistakes, etc.

goodluck and have fun!

Use this to your wallpaper, if u not sure u can check it by no time.

Goodluck in this journey!! My best advice will be to keep cool regardless of what happens (good or bad) and legit ignore whatever is said in ingame battle chat ^^

Good Luck, Laco! i hope you enjoy your journey.

i would change the mega. anyway GLL!! ❤️❤️🇧🇷

Entry #2 - Thinking Beyond the Current Turn One thing that's already obvious is how little I'm thinking about predictions. Most of my decisions were based on the Pokémon in front of me. Example: Jirachi comes out, I switch to Cinderace because it's Fire and super-effective, without considering what my opponent might do next. The same goes for having Sucker Punch on Cinderace. I can see a situation where Sucker Punch is super-effective and think, "Ok, I have an answer," without thinking much beyond that. What if they expect that? What if they don't attack? What could they switch into? Having the right move doesn't mean clicking it is the right play. My knowledge of typical sets is limited, so that's something I need to build: what a Pokémon usually runs, what it could run, and what I should be expecting. I also led Cobalion every game, mainly because I wanted Stealth Rock up early. Again, it's an automatic decision rather than one based on what my opponent brought. I need to think beyond the current turn instead of just reacting to what's in front of me.

Entry #1 - The Starting Point I recently played a few games on the tournament server as part of a Micro tournament, so this is the beginning for me. I lost them all. Not exactly the start I was hoping for, but probably an appropriate place to begin documenting the journey. The team was put together by @Magikarpsh PokéPaste: https://pokepast.es/1cf4d97c2bc6d95e The team wasn't the problem. I simply didn't play it well. There's something about this team though: Mega Pidgeot is my favourite Mega Evolution. I enjoy using it, and that's something I don't want to lose sight of as I get more involved in PvP. I'm already starting from a position where I'd rather use Pokémon I like than work my way through a viability ranking and pick what the meta tells me is optimal. That may have to change. If I manage to climb higher, perhaps I'll reach a point where those competitive advantages matter more and I have less freedom with choices like my Mega. If that happens, I'll deal with it when I get there. For now, I'd rather enjoy the process. And after this first try, changing Pokémon isn't my biggest concern anyway.

Hello! I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I've forwarded this issue to the relevant team. Please be patient while they look into it. Thank you for your understanding. Kind regards. Hallowglow.

@Divinegold is absolutely correct! At this time, evolving Duraludon is not possible quite yet but will be in the future! I'll go ahead and close this thread as answered, and please feel free to make another thread if you have any more questions!