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.

Edited 25 minutes ago25 min by Lacomus

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 ^^

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

Edited 35 minutes ago35 min by Clickicebeam

Entry #1 - The Starting Point

Record: 0 wins. All losses.

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

Mega Pidgeot / Dragapult / Cobalion / Gliscor / Azumarill / Cinderace

PokéPaste: https://pokepast.es/1cf4d97c2bc6d95e

The team wasn't the problem. I simply didn't play it well.

There's something important 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.

Edited 5 minutes ago5 min by Lacomus

goodluck and have fun!