Pokémon League
- This article is about Pokémon League Championship. For the locations in Sinnoh, Unova or Kalos, see Pokémon League (Sinnoh), Pokémon League (Unova) or Pokémon League (Kalos). For the system in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, see Pokémon League (TCG)
The Pokémon League (Japanese: ポケモンリーグ Pokémon League) is a group that organizes Pokémon competitions for registered Pokémon Trainers. It serves as an umbrella that oversees the regional Leagues.
There are seven known regional Leagues under the Pokémon League: the Indigo League in Kanto, the Orange League in the Orange Archipelago, the Johto League in Johto, the Hoenn League in Hoenn, the Sinnoh League in Sinnoh, the Unova League in Unova, and the Kalos League in Kalos.
In order to participate in regional competitions, Trainers must acquire a certain number of Gym Badges signifying the defeat of that region's Gym Leaders.
The Pokémon League apparently manufactures and distributes Pokémon merchandise, such as Ash's Pokémon League Expo hat.
In the games
In the core series Pokémon games, every region, excluding Alola, has a Pokémon League. The League challenge consists of collecting eight Gym Badges and challenging the Elite Four, as well as the League Champion immediately after defeating the Elite Four members. Winners are invited into the Hall of Fame.
- Kanto and Johto have the Indigo League and the Johto League, respectively, both hosted at Indigo Plateau.
- Hoenn has the Hoenn League at Ever Grande City.
- Sinnoh has the Sinnoh League at an unnamed island.
- Unova has the Unova League at an unnamed area.
- Kalos has the Kalos League at an unnamed area.
Since Generation IV, each place that holds the regional Pokémon League is simply called "Pokémon League."
In the anime
- Main article: Pokémon League Conference
In the Pokémon anime, the League challenge is a tournament. Trainers qualify by having at least eight Gym Badges from the relevant region, and then a single-elimination tournament takes place between the qualifying Trainers. In this canon, the League is known for its many traditions, including the opening celebration which evokes the flame of Moltres, alluding to the Olympic flame.
Other ways of getting into the Indigo Plateau Conference besides collecting Badges have been shown, such as by passing the Pokémon League Admissions Exam, as seen in The Ultimate Test, or by graduating from Pokémon Tech, as seen in The School of Hard Knocks.
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 and is awarded the title of Pokémon Champion. Losing Trainers who participate in the competitions will be ranked accordingly.
Charles Goodshow serves as the president of the League Competition Committee and oversees all the regional competitions.
In the manga
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
In Pokémon Adventures, the Pokémon League consists of a regional tournament held every three years in each region. There are two ways of qualifying for the tournament—either by having eight Gym Badges or defeating a large number of other applicants without Gym Badges in preliminary rounds. The Pokémon League is sanctioned and run by the Pokémon Association.
In addition, there is no Elite Four challenge. The Elite Four are simply powerful groups of four Trainers from each region who ally themselves with each other for power, and their activities are not sanctioned by the Pokémon League or related to the Pokémon Association—in fact, the activities of Kanto's Elite Four were villainous in nature. The Hoenn League added new rules to the Pokémon League tournament. The person that wins the tournament will be allowed to fight the Elite Four, four previous winners of the tournament. The Sinnoh Elite Four was enlisted by Pokémon Association to decode Charon's notebook in order to find out more about his aspiration, and the Johto Elite Four is comprised of ex-criminals who are seeking emotional support from each other by training together.
The Unova League is similar to the Hoenn League. As explained by Black, participants can only compete when they have won eight Gym Badges. The Trainers that have earned eight Gym Badges are allowed to enter the Unova League tournament. The winner of this tournament is then allowed to fight the Elite Four, and then they will be allowed to fight the Champion.
In other languages
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See also
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The Pokémon League | 
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| Participation Trainer • Battle • Gym Leaders Gyms • Badges • Referee Championship matches Elite Four • Orange League Champion League Pokémon League Conferences Indigo • Silver • Ever Grande • Lily of the Valley Vertress • Lumiose • Manalo |
Regional Pokémon Leagues Indigo • Orange* • Johto • Hoenn • Sinnoh Unova • Kalos • Alola • Galar • Paldea Areas of jurisdiction Pokémon League Reception Gate • Hall of Fame Palace of Victory • Cerulean Cave Others Pokémon Association • PIA World Coronation Series (Masters Eight Tournament) | ||