Can't wait!

Like no one ever was?

Seriously though. This has been fantastic to follow and partake in. Good luck to both of the finalists.

We just played the final round.

The battle video is V3GG-WWWW-WWW2-HU8J

The winner was: SpaceBoat

@spaceboat: Going to check out the vid, I'm curious to see how good you are Mr. Boat ;)

Twas a good final bout, I will definitely be coming for the crown next "season"

Hope everyone had fun can not wait for the next season!

@spaceboat: GZ on you're victory

@spaceboat: Congratulations!

@goranp: I think best of 3 is a really good idea, though it might cause some repetitive battles. Perhaps if people could name a team of 7, with one poke acting as a 'flex' that can be swapped in for the second battle, or would that just overcomplicate things?

Otherwise I think the rules for the first season were good. Makes sense to be a little loose with tiers until things have settled down a bit. Tier specific tournaments would be cool in future though.

Final thought: a secondary cup for people knocked out in the first round might be a good way for people still learning the ropes of competitive battling [such as myself and many others who expressed interest when the idea of a tournament was first floated] to get a bit more experience. Alternatively, once a few more of these have happened and it becomes clear who the big names are, there could be separate tournaments for beginners and vets.

I support the best of three idea as well.

Also, like aajf said, a losers bracket would be a good addition, if we have the people for it.

I do think best of 3 is a good plan, however I'm also worried about battles being a bit repetitive. Rather than having a seventh pokemon, would the trainers be allowed to change items and reorder their party between battles? That might make things pretty interesting.

@goranp: I think that if we're going with substitute Pokemon, that only the loser of the previous match should be allowed to substitute. This is just my opinion, but I think what's cool about best of 3 is that it allows the loser to rethink his strategy against the opponents team and get a second opportunity. If the winner can switch too then it would be kind of random. Know what I mean?

@goranp: I like the idea of best of 3. If that is implemented then the switching out subs for the loser sort of has to be allowed or else it may end up being 2 one sided matches if one team just wrecks the other. 3 subs seems like a good number.

I don't know how I feel about best of 3 matches. Especially when you have games like when I got stomped by Milkman. No substitutes I could have put in would have made a substantial difference, the gulf in skill was too wide. I think just one match with a winners and losers bracket would flow a smoother.

I think best of 3 is probably a good thing.

In a single match, it's easy to get discouraged if things start to go bad and you know you don't have another shot. This could cause you to make poor decisions and lose a game you might have come back from. Also, it would at least mitigate certain things. Like when that Focus Blast missed in the finals. That was pretty big and the battle might have been different if it had hit. I do see what DarthOrange is saying though. In some cases, if you lose very convincingly, it can make you even just give up the second game.

I also agree that it would be interesting if you could only substitute after losing. Though I could also see that making it even harder to win if you sub wrong. I guess that's part of the risk.

Being unable to change the items is also smart. For one, usually you build a Pokemon to hold a specific item, so switching it would be weird. But it would also invite too much of a random element if at any point I can swap my Choice items around. Even doing something like switching a Choice Band onto my Dragon Dance Dragonite. It makes no sense. The other guy has no idea and could get wrecked by something silly like that. It's true that in a real match you don't know what item the other Pokemon is holding, so you need to be careful, but this is the second match. You can't forget that I used Dragon Dance the battle before, so you wouldn't be prepared.

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

I think best of 3 is ideal, can help weed out flinch/crit hax determined battles and allows for some versatility in how people go about 2-0 or 2-1'ing someone.

I throw my hat in for best of three with a maximum of three subs. I'm undecided on whether only the loser of the previous battle should be allowed to sub, but that seems to be the consensus so far.

Best of 3 makes a lot of sense to me. Double elimination is fine, but I don't know if that becomes too unwieldy if a lot of people sign up. I think it would be better to allow more people into a single elimination bracket rather than less into a double elimination one, but if its the same number either way double is good with me.

The idea of subs is cool. Has there been any discussion on Mega Evos? It seems like a lot of them are on par with Legendaries in terms of power, so I wouldn't be opposed to counting them out. Then again its a new mechanic for X/Y so people probably want to use it.

Would we just register 9 Pokemon instead of 6 or would we pick a main 6 that we would be required to use in round one and 3 subs?

I'm on board for best of 3, 6+3 Pokemon, loser gets the sub opportunity.

I think Mega Evos are fine. There are a few specific things that limit them from being as strong as legendaries. Usually not all their stats go up and they don't benefit from their new speed on the first turn. Also, they don't get to hold items, which limits them. I think a big tell is that none of the matches I watched were really won or lost BECAUSE of mega evolutions. They were there, but they didn't completely overpower the other team. Then again, I have a mega, so I'm biased, heheh.

I'm also curious about whether you pick 6 from the 9 in the first battle or just have a dedicated 6 that you can sub. Both ways lead to pretty different strategies. I feel like being able to pick any 6 at the start kind of defeats the purpose though, because you might end up just picking the team you would sub in anyway.

Do Mega Evolutions count as a new pokemon or do we have to use something that was introduced in Kalos?

I am prepared!

This breeding is kicking my ass, have to sit this one out as well! GL to all entering!

@goranp: the rule about having 1 of a held item in your party, does that include mega stones? despite them being named differently they are still at the end of the day the same item.

i have just signed up and i will send over my draft soon ( I'm training up 2 pokemon right now and i want to be sure there ready before i put them up for battle)

@lord_canti: wasn't a problem last season. Someone, I forget who, had gengarite and scizorite on his team

@lord_canti: I think this problem is mitigated somewhat by the fact that you can only use one mega evolution per battle, though that does give megastones a degree of unpredictability that other held items don't have. I guess whether it's a problem or not depends on whether you think that this unpredictability provides a greater advantage than a second item would. I'm inclined to say that it doesn't, though, full disclosure: there are two megastones in my total party of nine as things stand now.

Why wasn't a new thread made for Season 2? Anyway, I am signed up. I hope we see some more people, I have only had time to train 3 Pokemon since the last season so I don't expect to do any better than last time.

As for substitutions, do we have to quit the match, switch out our pokemon, then invite the other person again to fight or is there a way to do it in between battles?

You will have to quit for subs, which is a bummer.

Having multiple megastones shouldn't really be a problem anyway because you're effectively taking only 5 items into battle.

Good luck to the teams! Stuff came up, and I couldn't get a team together in time, but I'll try to make it next season.

Wasn't able to train my team in time... again. Well now that I have the power items I should have a full 6-9 ready by Season 3.

Myself and @aajf just had 2 battles, one was tense as fuck and the other was quick and decisive!

First game is WZ7G-WWWW-WWW2-U5RP

The second game is GBSW-WWWW-WWW2-U5TR

Ha, we're going to have a repeat of the finals match up in round 1.

Better be on your guard, because I'm looking for a repeat performance.

I beat lord_canti in 2/3 matches. It was very close!

VWDG-WWWW-WWW2-U9T3

K49W-WWWW-WWW2-U9TA

8LYW-WWWW-WWW2-U9TL

@spaceboat you better be ready!

I beat Jinx1 in some pretty tense matches. I thought I was done after the first one.

EM6W-WWWW-WWW2-VAS7

ZUFW-WWWW-WWW2-VASL

5Y2G-WWWW-WWW2-VASE

These matches have been great so far. I hope I can get my new team done by season 3

Ugh, I wish I had been able to get this earlier so I could participate in this x_x

Hopefully I can prepare for season 3.

I just fought, my old rival, ThaMilkMan and won. I was shaking after the second game, it was so intense.

423W-WWWW-WWW2-VVQY

M7TW-WWWW-WWW2-VVQZ

64ZG-WWWW-WWW2-VVQU