Arena Factions, Assemble

By now, the Silph Arena is quite well-known for its individual Trainer competition, which draws in practically most Trainers on the competitive scene. It is quite appropriate and welcoming for that, but after being on the scene since pretty much the introduction of PvP battling in Pokémon Go, the individualism and format may start to become a little dull. It is likely for those reasons that the Silph Arena now has an expanded team competition format called Factions, starting last month.

The core part of this competition is the teams, so that needs to be discussed first. A team is composed of seven members (plus one), which is quite significant as far as teams go. Three of those members deal with one each - as a "Specialist" - of the three Leagues of standard PvP battling (Great, Ultra, and Master), making these an entry point for anything other than the Great League in the Silph Arena; for this purpose, Ultra League also carries an additional stipulation of at most one Legendary or Mythical Pokémon and at most one starter in a team, and Master League has a limit of at most one Legendary or Mythical Pokémon in a team. The entry of these Leagues should benefit those who have experienced them in Go Battle League.

The other four members are also Specialists, but for rotating themes called "Battlefields", not unlike the themed cups of the regular Arena. Currently, there is only one Battlefield, called Floating City, for the initial qualifiers, but later on it may be possible to have others, which means deciding which Specialists are to deal with what. As for that "plus one" part, that one is an alternate (a substitute or "pinch hitter") for any one of the other Specialists above, including for those that deal with the open Leagues. The effort to build a team is therefore quite involved, but has a high potential for camaraderie.

Teams are divided by regions (presently, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific) and compete in "cycles", which are the equivalent of iterations of individual tournaments. In a "cycle", teams are paired with another for "bouts", which is the equivalent of "rounds" within an individual tournament. Within a "bout", each Specialist of a team is matched with the corresponding Specialist of the other team and battles three times, like in an individual tournament; each win is counted as one point and the winning team is the one with more points. The number of bouts for a cycle will accordingly differ based on the number of teams for each region. The matching and battling process takes place within a week, with Monday to determine who battles, Tuesday and Wednesday to set and reset teams if necessary, and Thursday onwards to battle. It's rather complicated, but it does work out like an individual tournament with group participants.

Obviously, for those who have been observant of my Arena activities since several months ago, I'm not involved in the competition. Apart from being constrained in participation, for things like these, I always find it difficult to group with others. My personal activity aside, I do recognize two people from my raid group who are playing for two different national Factions, one of them being a Master League Specialist and the other being an Ultra League Specialist - which I do have to say is very lofty indeed. If I could join a Faction myself, I'd deal with a Battlefield rather than any of the Leagues, which I'm ill-suited for. Whether I can steal a point or two from the other side is a big question, but it just might be possible, in doing so helping my Faction. That would be something to discover.

The entry of Factions into Silph Arena means many things. For those who can exercise their prowess with higher PvP Leagues, it's an opportunity. For those who want to obtain shared pride, now they have a way. And for those still entrenched with the Arena, it's a handy change-up from the common and universal individual format. There is PvP glory to be found here as well, and all it takes is for the right group of people to assemble and show what they can do.

One year ago: The Persistence of Pokémon Spotlight Hours

Two years ago: To Hold or Not to Hold?

Three years ago: Variegated Pokédexes

Four years ago: Pokémon and Sports