Pokémon League: Difference between revisions

The '''Pokémon League''' (Japanese: '''ポケモンリーグ''') is the official group that organizes competitions for registered [[Pokémon trainer]]s. It serves as an umbrella that oversees the regional leagues.

Qualifying trainers may battle each member of the [[Elite Four]] along with the reigning [[League Champion]].

[[Image:Pokemonleague.jpg|thumb|A championship competition poster. Note the usage of [[Elemental types (TCG)|elemental type symbols]] used in the TCG. ]]

Periodically, regional championship competitions will be held for qualifying trainers to come together and {{pkmn|battle}} their [[Pokémon]]. Hundreds of the best trainers participate in these competitions.

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 competitions will be ranked accordingly.

In the anime continuity, the League challenge is a tournament.  Trainers qualify by having at least 8 Gym Badges from the relevant region, and then an elimination tournament takes place between the qualifying trainers.  The winner of the tournament is invited to challenge that region's Elite Four in battle.  If the trainer defeats the Elite Four, it is most likely they are eligible to join that region's Elite Four whenever one of the members retires, similar to the reward for the Battle Frontier in the anime.

In [[Pokémon Special]], the Pokémon League consists of a regional tournament held every 3 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, in the Pokémon Special manga, there is no Elite Four challenge.  In Pokémon Special, 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 - indeed, the activities of Kanto's Elite Four were villainous in nature, while the Hoenn Elite Four were a group of Steven Stone's friends he gathered to help fight Team Aqua and Team Magma, and the Johto Elite Four's members are comprised of members of ex-criminals who are seeking emotional support from each other by training together.