So I’ve been wanting to enter contests for awhile. I’ve only raised water types so far; my dear seadra and chinchou. The question is, would all contests have a certain water-themed stage for water types that don’t really do well on land? And another thing, do you need all contest category ribbons to enter the grand festival and how do battles work in contests? I’m sorry, I don’t really know how it all goes. I’ve only ever seen it on tv and it blew my mind how amazing contests are.

I admit my knowledge of contests is limited (that’s more Lanette’s wheelhouse than mine—she was a coordinator whereas I was a trainer), but from what I understand of the way she described it, you only need five ribbons of one type for the main contest circuit—that is, the one that ends with the grand festivals. There are themed contests as well (beauty, cute, tough, and so forth), which are considered to be the closest equivalent to the Elite Four gauntlet that coordinators undertake, but these only have four ribbons, with the master rank contest ribbon being the ultimate goal. (That is to say, the themed circuits don’t end with a grand festival; they end with a master rank contest.)

Battles are only a part of the general circuit. Themed contests focus purely on highlighting a pokémon’s appearance and skills, so they’re structured to showcase both off the battlefield. The general contests, meanwhile, highlight not only the pokémon but also the skills of the coordinator, so they’re divided into the stage round (a performance showcasing a pokémon’s aesthetic and skills) and the battle round (which emphasizes the coordinator’s bond with their pokémon as well as their creativity under pressure). To put the battle round in short, there are two possible goals: knock your opponent out or survive with the highest amount of points. You lose points if you either execute a poorly thought-out strategy (usually defined as a move used in a way that doesn’t highlight your pokémon at the same time—or in other words, brute force) or if your opponent executes a brilliant strategy against you. It’s actually easier to lose points and be disqualified that way than it is to knock out your opponent, so it’s in a coordinator’s best interest to be strategic, rather than strong.

(As challenging as this is, themed contests are still considered harder because of the lack of this round. It’s simpler to work with your pokémon during a contest than it is to rely solely on their aesthetic to fit with the contest’s theme. Apparently, anyway.)

Finally, water-types. While a pool can be made available on request, most coordinators opt for using energy nets to suspend their water-types above the ground. This is considered to be more aesthetically interesting, especially in the Sinnoh circuit, where coordinators combine this with poké ball capsule seals for dramatic effect.