The Pokémon League Conference.
A Pokémon League Conference is an championship tournament that is hosted seemingly annually in several Regions in the Pokémon World. Pokémon Trainers must register for the region's Pokémon League, something which they can do at seemingly any Pokémon Center or with a Pokémon Professor, and then must win at least eight of the region's Gym Badges in order to be able to register for the competition. In addition to this method, the Indigo Plateau Conference is known to accept trainers who have passed the Pokémon League Admissions Exam or graduated from Pokémon Tech. Also, they are only allowed to use six Pokémon at a time.
Rules vary from region to region, but generally, championship competitions are divided into three parts: qualifying rounds, preliminary rounds, and final rounds. Highly skilled Trainers will move on to compete with a smaller pool of competitors. The Trainer that defeats all other competitors is deemed the winner of the competition. Losing Trainers who participate in the competition will be ranked accordingly.
Structure[]
The general structure of most League Conferences is similar:
The tournament competition itself has an opening and closing ceremony. In some regions, there is a torch with the flame of Moltres or Ho-Oh that burns for the duration of the tournament, a reference to the real world's Olympic Games.
Battles in the Indigo Plateau Conference.
The day after the ceremonial torch has been lit, in some of the regional Leagues the qualifying rounds begin so as to weed out Trainers who have gotten the required eight Badges, but are not yet skilled enough to continue, and those who survive move on to the preliminary rounds. In other regional Leagues, instead, the preliminary rounds will begin right away, and will continue for several days until the top sixteen Trainers have been decided. At this point, there is a short break in the competition so that the Trainers and their Pokémon may rest, followed by the start of the final rounds.
Final rounds in the Lumiose Conference.
In the final rounds, most, if not all, battles are usually Full Battles. All battles are conducted in the main stadium, and Trainers move up the tournament tree in single-elimination style. The winning contestant matchups are shuffled between rounds, as opposed to using traditional ladder seeding. The winning Trainer, upon defeat of their opponent, is awarded a trophy and earns the right to enter the Champion League to officially challenge the Elite Four and Champion of that region.
The League Awards ceremony in the Manalo Conference.
In Alola, due to the lack of Gyms in the region and the fact that its Pokémon League was only recently established, no specific conditions need to be met in order to enter its League Conference, and its winner was directly declared as the first-ever Champion of Alola.
The Exhibition Match in the Manalo Conference.
The newly-crowned Champion subsequently faced the League's founder, Professor Kukui (originally intended to appear as the Masked Royal), in an exhibition match.
Most Leagues use various types of fields during Pokémon battles. While the Vertress and Manalo Conferences uses only a standard dirt battlefield, every other Conference has held battles on various different battlefields, like icy, rocky, forested, grassy, and water to name a few. A standard rule for the Conferences with a myriad of battlefields, is that during the Full Battle stage in the tournament, once one side loses three Pokémon, there is a short break, during which a field change occurs.
Champion League[]
The Champion League.
After winning a Pokémon League Conference, a Trainer may enter the Champion League of the relevant region, where the Elite Four and the League Champion await. Like in the games, Trainers must defeat all members of the Elite Four for the right of challenging the Champion. Once the Elite Four is defeated, Champions are required to defend their title from challengers. If the battle against the challenger is won, Champions hold on to their current status. However, if the challenger succeeds, Champions must relinquish their title to the winning Trainer, who will then be deemed the new Pokémon Champion.
List of League Conferences[]
- Indigo Plateau Conference: The championship competition in the Kanto League, which is held at the Indigo Plateau. Winner of the League Conference: Unknown.
- Silver Conference: The championship competition in the Johto League, which is held in Silver Town. Winner of the League Conference: Jon Dickson.
- Ever Grande Conference: The championship competition in the Hoenn League, which is held in Ever Grande City. Winner of the League Conference: Tyson.
- Lily of the Valley Conference: The championship competition in the Sinnoh League, which is held in Lily of the Valley Island. Winner of the League Conference: Tobias.
- Vertress Conference: The championship competition in the Unova League, which is held in Vertress City. Winner of the League Conference: Virgil.
- Lumiose Conference: The championship competition in the Kalos League, which is held in Lumiose City. Winner of the League Conference: Alain.
- Manalo Conference: The championship competition in the Alola League, which is held at the Manalo Stadium. Winner of the League Conference: Ash Ketchum.
Trivia[]
- The Indigo Plateau Conference is currently the only Pokémon League Conference where the winner is never reveal.
- The Manalo Conference is the only Pokémon League Conference where Ash Ketchum has won.
Gallery[]
League Conferences[]
Winners of the League Conferences[]
| Regional Pokémon Leagues | |
|---|---|
| Pokémon League Conferences | |