Tournament: Raid Group Rainbow Cup

Today is the last day of June, which means it's the last day for Rainbow theme battles in Pokémon Go as instituted by the Silph League Arena. It just so happens that my raid group had scheduled a Rainbow Cup (tournament) of their own today. This was initially scheduled for yesterday, but Raikou happened yesterday, so it had to take precedence. Fortunately, the following day - today - allowed everyone to be free and still compete with the Rainbow theme. I decided to take part to see if I could test my mettle.

The number of participants wavered a bit before the start of the tournament; there were a few people who registered at the last moment, one of them being me. Since I was free, I decided in the morning to take part, and so I signed up. A fledgling recent member of my raid group wanted (or was encouraged) to participate as well, but in the end, the new member couldn't do so due to unpreparedness and technicality. The number of participants also came out to a nice round number of 20, meaning that everyone battled in each round, or in other words, there was no "bye".

As for the tournament results, one good thing was that everyone won at least one battle, including yours truly, and no one came out a total loser. On the other hand, no one came out a total winner too, and thus the final results had to be decided with extra battles to decide who got the prizes from the tournament. (Everyone did get a prize of some sort just for participating.) After the allotted five rounds, four participants won four times, seven won three times, four won twice, and five won once. I happen to have ended up in the last category.

Unfortunately, I also ended up on the very bottom, due to the way of how rankings work for the tournament. I may have had a chance of winning my first battle, but it seemed that my predictions and strategies fell apart at the very end. I only recovered in the end, and that was even after some problems with my cell network, and a dramatic sequence of three battles. It seems this may be a challenging thing regardless of what Pokémon battles I undertake.

With that, the time for the Rainbow theme has come to an end. Its successor theme, which has been announced, will surely have some tricks of its own, something that could be discussed shortly. Preparations are underway for it, and depending on what I can muster, I may be more or less flexible for it. Tournaments like the one held today would surely give an incentive to prepare, as well as frequent practice. My mettle deserves to be tested further.

One year ago: Gifts That Keep on Giving
Two years ago: After Six Months: Poké-Paradise in a Blog