Warning, hype in-bound. The Redemption League!

[DashingStorm]

Greetings fellow Trainer!

So I suppose you have seen the somewhat cryptic hints around the forums and today, I finally bring you what you may have found to be puzzling.

If you have heard of the former Reborn League and have always wanted to participate, but could never find the time or simply didn't know about it in advance;

Now's your chance for a shot at Redemption.

I would like to introduce you to the Redemption League, an online-based League that will take place on the Reborn Showdown server on http://reborn.psim.us !

Before I explain the general idea behind this League, a few things to note;


- The League is currently still a work-in-progress, but the concept is pretty much complete and we're working on some finishing touches.

- Just like the old Reborn League, we have rules of our own, with 18 completely NEW Gym Leaders, each one representing their own type (including a Champion).

- This League will take place during the weekends (Friday - Sunday), from 4:30 PM EST - 7:30 PM EST, to accomodate as many challengers as possible in the alloted time.



Now on to the good stuff.

What I'm listing right here will be the rules for you, the challenger. Keep in mind that we have a team of 11 people right now, each and every person being heavily involved in this process as it keeps rolling onwards to the future.


1) Challengers may only issue 1 challenge per day. If you want to face a Gym Leader, you'd best make sure you know who you want to battle in advance.
This also means you have a maximum of 3 challenges per League week, possibly netting you up to 3 badges a week if you do extremely well. Don't think this will be a cakewalk, we will prepare our Leaders to the extreme to make sure they're ready for anything.

2) You can only use the team you have registered with us throughout the entire League. We will have Trainer Cards where your Pokémon will be listed, along with their moves and the slots for your badges.
We will be creating these badges and cards manually, meaning that you will (most likely) not immediately receive your card right after you have registered with us.

3) We have Pokémon restrictions. What I mean by this is that the following Pokémon/Ability combinations are not allowed to be used. This is a long list, so bear with me here.

Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Mew, Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Celebi, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, Latios, Latias, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Mespirit, Azelf, Uxie, Heatran, Cresselia, Palkia, Dialga,Giratina/Giratina-O, Regigigas, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin/Shaymin-S, Arceus, Victini, Cobalion, Verizion, Terrakion, Tornadus/Landorus/Thundurus and their Therian formes, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo/Keldeo-R, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Diancie, Hoopa & Hoopa-U and finally, Volcanion.

Along these banned legendary Pokémon, you are also NOT allowed to have a Mega Pokémon on your team.
The following Pokémon are also banned: Speed Boost Blaziken (list is subject to change accordingly.)

4) If you get caught cheating by having an illegal move (that is not registered with us), or by using a Pokémon that isn't allowed, you will automatically be disqualified for that battle. Leaders will get your team preview as listed when you register your team with us, so they will always be aware of the situation. If you get disqualified for a battle, the leader will make note of this and forward this to us, meaning you will be forced to make changes and you will be able to challenge that leader again next time they're scheduled.
If you lose against a Gym Leader, you automatically get the chance to be first-pick for the next day the leader is scheduled for a rematch. You can always decline and challenge another leader from the bracket they're divided in if you so please. That's all up to you.

5) You must meet certain badge expectations before you're able to issue a challenge to a leader from a higher-ranked bracket. Down here, you can see the amount of required badges you must have before making challenges to other brackets' leaders.

As for the brackets (I'm not revealing which leader/type is being placed in which bracket just yet), they will look like this:

Bracket 1:

Leaders 1 - 3 (Must defeat at least 2 of these to progress to bracket 2)

Olivia - Grass
Nicholas - Electric

Haley - Ice

Bracket 2: (Must have at least 5 badges to move to proceed to bracket 3)

Alicia - Ghost

Lucifer - Dark

Ariel - Fairy

Bracket 3: (Must have at least 8 badges to proceed to bracket 4)

Helen - Rock

Elliot - Normal

Erwin - Bug

Bracket 4:

Gaia - Ground

Lilly - Water

Venus - Poison

Bracket 5:

Leo - Fighting

Axel - Fire

Ninia - Dragon

Bracket 6:

Dexter - Psychic

Festus - Steel

Oliver - Flying

Champion Bracket:

Redemption League Champion

It might seem complicated, but it's your basic "obtain a certain amount of badges and you can advance to next bracket" system. If you're still confused, feel free to ask us how this works.


As for the Leaders, these rules will be applied to them;

- They all use teams according to their specialized type, but are also excluded from using legendary Pokémon.
However. Gym Leaders from the 5th bracket and onwards have access to 1 Mega Pokémon. So leaders 13-18 will each have a Mega Pokémon.
On top of that, the Champion has free access to one legendary Pokémon AND a Mega Pokémon. So be prepared for a challenge.

- Gym Leaders rotate and have schedules applied to them, League runs for 2 to 3 hours a day, depending on how busy/crowded the queues get.

- Gym Leaders may or may not have more than 1 qualified battling team. That's up to the challengers to find out or not.

Additional rules:

• Speed Boost Blaziken is banned from use.

• We will uphold the Species Clause, meaning you can only have one Pokémon of a certain species in your team.

• The following battle clauses will be in effect for Gym Leader/Champion battles:
  Freeze Clause, Battle Timeout, Sleep Clause, Species Clause, Swagger Clause, Evasion Clause.
  To clarify these rules and clauses;
  Freeze Clause - Only 1 Pokémon per team can be Frozen.
  Battle Timeout - Battle Timeout has to be on at the start of the battle and may not be turned off. Stalling out the timer repeatedly will lead to you getting disqualified for that battle. If you disconnect, the Leader you will be battling (and vice versa, in terms of the gentleman's clause), will wait for their respective opponent to return while the timer is running. If they do not return, they are disqualified for that battle.
  Sleep Clause - Only one Pokémon can be asleep per team, however when a Pokémon uses Rest, it does not add up to the one Pokémon limit.
  Species Clause - You are only allowed to have one Pokémon of the same species (Evolution line) in your team. So you’re not allowed to have Eviolite Doublade and Aegislash or Porygon2 and Porygon-Z on the same team, for instance.
  Swagger Clause - Using the move Swagger is not allowed and when team registration takes place, we will notify whoever is trying to register Swagger on a Pokémon that this is not allowed.
  Evasion Clause - Moves that boost Evasion, like Double Team or Minimize are banned from usage. Items that lower accuracy, like BrightPowder and Lax Incense are also forbidden.
  Moody Clause - Pokémon with the Ability Moody are not allowed.

• To limit, but not have items be abused, you can have up to 3 of the same item on a Pokémon, meaning 3 Pokémon with Leftovers is a viable option. However, the use of Gems is prohibited. (Even though the Normal Gem is viable and legal, we’ve decided to ban every single Gem instead of allowing just one.)

• EV spreads and Items can be changed, as long as the maximum restriction of 3-of-the-same item rule is followed.

• Abiding Smogon rules, we have also decided to limit the use of Baton Pass to 1 Pokémon.
  This also means that the following Pokémon are not allowed to have a combination of Baton Pass & Swords Dance & Speed Boost: Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Ninjask, Scolipede. Agility & Swords Dance however, is allowed.

• On request, we have come to the conclusion that you may have one Pokémon in rotation only after you have defeated all 18 Gym Leaders. If you want to earn that 7th Pokémon, you have to prove to us, and yourself, that you're worthy of having a 7th Pokémon to face the Champion.

Before I end off this introductionary topic to the upcoming Redemption League, I have to make some mentions to a bunch of amazing folks that helped set this up from scratch, and I'll also be giving them their "positions" in this League organisation.

The staff:

-- Redemption League Hosts/Managers --

Bazaro - Redemption League Host/Management & Head-of-Design/Sprite Creator
Haven Pyrrhon - Redemption League Host/Management
Apophyll Sparky - Redemption League Host/Management
mde2001 - Redemption League Management
RBRN Nova - Redemption League Management & Designer/Sprite Creator

-- Redemption League Staff --

RBRN Azery - Redemption League Supervisor & Management assistant
Darvan Korematsu - Redemption League Supervisor & Management assistant
Frarpeto - Redemption League Supervisor & Battle qualifier
Xiri/Jiniri - Redemption League Supervisor & Battle qualifier
Kamina/Fruitdealer - Redemption League Battle qualifier

SHIA - Redemption League Design Assistant / Sprite Creator


In short, all these amazing people have contributed their share on creating this League and we do hope that you'll enjoy every bit of it and who knows- We might be able to crown YOU as the very first Redemption League Champion!

What's that? Oh- I haven't stated my own position..?

DashingStorm - Redemption League Host/Creator, All-round fabulous pony. There we gooo.


You will almost always see me online during League hours, but whoever else is on beside me for specific days will shift and rotate with every day/week, because people have their own schedules to attend to. This is also the main reason we decided to run the League hours mostly in the weekends.


That's it for this announcement, though!

Stay tuned for more information as we progress through this rollercoaster of brainstorming!


PS: We have most our Leaders ready and hungry for battle.. Just you wait.

[Hexagoen]

whaaaa

in all seriousness, i am soo hyped for this XD

Edited October 3, 2015 by Sinikuro013

[InnocentSerenity]

Well, time for a big Training Montage. I need to become strong.

[Jacobliterator]

I missed out on the Reborn League, so this seems like jolly good fun. I better start training.

[Arkhi]

Lookin' gooooood. The Reborn League was awesome, so I've got high hopes for this. I've got some questions, though.

1) Will the leaders from the League be inspired by Reborn's Gym Leaders? Are these leaders the characters we meet in-game?

2) In the Reborn League, challengers had the choice to disallow spectators when they battled leaders. Will that privilege be extended in the Redemption League?

3) When can we expect an estimated date for the beginning of the Redemption League?

4) Will there be a soundtrack for each leader? Or another way to pump up challengers? c:

[Sparky]

Lookin' gooooood. The Reborn League was awesome, so I've got high hopes for this. I've got some questions, though.

1) Will the leaders from the League be inspired by Reborn's Gym Leaders? Are these leaders the characters we meet in-game?

2) In the Reborn League, challengers had the choice to disallow spectators when they battled leaders. Will that privilege be extended in the Redemption League?

3) When can we expect an estimated date for the beginning of the Redemption League?

4) Will there be a soundtrack for each leader? Or another way to pump up challengers? c:

1) Not necessarily

2) That is at the challengers discretion.

3) Next week at the earliest

4) Depends

[Bazaro]

Lookin' gooooood. The Reborn League was awesome, so I've got high hopes for this. I've got some questions, though.

1) Will the leaders from the League be inspired by Reborn's Gym Leaders? Are these leaders the characters we meet in-game?

2) In the Reborn League, challengers had the choice to disallow spectators when they battled leaders. Will that privilege be extended in the Redemption League?

3) When can we expect an estimated date for the beginning of the Redemption League?

4) Will there be a soundtrack for each leader? Or another way to pump up challengers? c:

1) No, we made entirely new characters with no connection to Reborn itself

2) Disallow Spectators will be given on request

3) We're not quite certain on a final release, but it will be very soon (in the next few weeks). We'll keep you posted

4) We have not looked into this feature admittedly, but there's always those who are good at finding battle music, no?

[Commander]

Hmm...I still have mixed feelings about all of this. I'm more weary about leader fighting styles. I kind of hope that leaders fight similar to Reborn in which that have different strategies and not just a simple use the best possible team. I've seen some old Reborn League battles and how some fight really impressed me. I also wonder how the leader thing works. Here's my questions:

1. Do the leaders have personalities and signature fighting styles or did you merely look for trainers skilled in monotypes?

2. Have you filled all the positions yet or are you still looking?

3. Are you going to use a tier system in which certain leaders can't be faced until a certain quota of badges has been reached?

4. How long have you guys been working on this? (I just kind of want to know).

Edit: I knew I was forgetting one.

Do leaders have their own sprites?

[mde2001]

I can answer some of those questions.

1)Yes, all of the leaders have personalities and aces (not fighting styles yet).

3)Yes, we are using the tier system.

4) I'm not quite sure as I only joined after the Corona league thing.

[Sparky]

Hmm...I still have mixed feelings about all of this. I'm more weary about leader fighting styles. I kind of hope that leaders fight similar to Reborn in which that have different strategies and not just a simple use the best possible team. I've seen some old Reborn League battles and how some fight really impressed me. I also wonder how the leader thing works. Here's my questions:

1. Do the leaders have personalities and signature fighting styles or did you merely look for trainers skilled in monotypes?

2. Have you filled all the positions yet or are you still looking?

3. Are you going to use a tier system in which certain leaders can't be faced until a certain quota of badges has been reached?

4. How long have you guys been working on this? (I just kind of want to know).

Edit: I knew I was forgetting one.

Do leaders have their own sprites?

Leaders do have personalities, positions have been filled, there is a quota, and we've been at this for months. Leaders do have sprites, it's still a work in progress though

[Darvan Korematsu]

Hmm...I still have mixed feelings about all of this. I'm more weary about leader fighting styles. I kind of hope that leaders fight similar to Reborn in which that have different strategies and not just a simple use the best possible team. I've seen some old Reborn League battles and how some fight really impressed me. I also wonder how the leader thing works. Here's my questions:

1. Do the leaders have personalities and signature fighting styles or did you merely look for trainers skilled in monotypes?

2. Have you filled all the positions yet or are you still looking?

3. Are you going to use a tier system in which certain leaders can't be faced until a certain quota of badges has been reached?

4. How long have you guys been working on this? (I just kind of want to know).

Edit: I knew I was forgetting one.

Do leaders have their own sprites?

1. Working on it. Hammering out the final details on personality now. We will indeed be varying our battle styles no doubt, the style for each leader is up to their discretion. Don't NEED someone to be skilled in mono, but is preferred.

2. Not sure yet. Most likely still looking, although should consult Dash about that.

3. We have that system kinda already in place.

4. Been in the woodworks for about 2 weeks. We started hammering it this actual thing around Monday.

5. Oh yes we will.

[Bazaro]

Hmm...I still have mixed feelings about all of this. I'm more weary about leader fighting styles. I kind of hope that leaders fight similar to Reborn in which that have different strategies and not just a simple use the best possible team. I've seen some old Reborn League battles and how some fight really impressed me. I also wonder how the leader thing works. Here's my questions:

1. Do the leaders have personalities and signature fighting styles or did you merely look for trainers skilled in monotypes?

2. Have you filled all the positions yet or are you still looking?

3. Are you going to use a tier system in which certain leaders can't be faced until a certain quota of badges has been reached?

4. How long have you guys been working on this? (I just kind of want to know).

Edit: I knew I was forgetting one.

Do leaders have their own sprites?

1) They are characters with their own personalities and styles. They are also well versed in their types.

2) We have all of our leaders ready.

3) The tier list is listed in the main post, although I can clarify it a bit.

0 Badges - Leaders 1-3

2 Badges - Leaders 4-6

5 Badges - Leaders 7-9

8 Badges - Leaders 10-12

11 Badges - Leaders 13-15

13 Badges - Leaders 16-17

17 Badges - Champion

4) We've been at it for a few months now.

5) They have sprites that are currently a WIP, you'll see them soon enough

Edited October 3, 2015 by Bazaro

[Fumble]

Mmhmm, just what I thought~

I'll try to challenge this league!

[Polaris]

I'm so excited for this!

[Notus]

Hehehe, I´ll give it a try for sure! Not having completed my Reborn League Challenge last season was a pity... Time to redeem myself. Congrats Dashie, Baz and everybody, I´m sure it will all work out great!

[TRHStatement]

Whaaa?

*sighs* Well, time to invest all of my time into battling then. I'm not missing out on this.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I'm personally probably not going to participate, I just really don't have the time to relearn battling ((since I've sorta given up on it for now.)). and that I dunno... Not sure the League-based format works for me personally... though I didn't really get a fair whack at the original Reborn League since my responsibilities sorta were eating my time and I never really got to participate like I wanted too. ((settling into running a forum is no easy task XD>)). I'd probably only have a chance to participate as staff etc.... and not in actual battling however you guys definitely have that handled so no need for this ol' loser to get in your way lol.

Anyway, good luck with it you guys. I want to see this succeed and actually become something lol. If it falls flat that would be a shame. I really really hope that does not happen despite my misgivings it will. ((but once again... I'm a cynical bastard and skeptical of everything... sure people know that about me by now lol.))

[Etesian]

Sweet, a new league! It's gonna be awesome, I'm gonna challenge ot with my favorite team and- oh, right, no Megas. Oh well, I'll just grab a last-gen team and tweak it a bi- what's that, no legendaries? W-well, I was always looking for a reason to really learn Team Building, so let's- right, I have exams till the 25th...how long did you say a season lasts?

Edited October 3, 2015 by Etesian

[mde2001]

We haven't decided that yet (at least I don't know if we have). It won't be too short given that the league will only run on weekends. It needs to be a minimum of six weeks for anyone to succeed and I assume it will be a lot longer than 6 weeks so you should be fine.

[Guzam]

League season should be about 3-6 months iirc? I can't remember how long they were in Reborn.

[Commander]

I pretty much never really got into competitive battling which is why I never really participated in the Reborn League. I'll probably pass on this one as well as I do tend to get busy and for all that other stuff I'm in already eats away much of my time. I will say this seems to be very well thought out and in order. Can't really say much about it, but I do hope you deliver.

As for the length of time, always start small. It's easier to extend a period something lasts then it is to cut something short. If something goes wrong and needs fixed, you can end on a high note and come back bigger and better later then.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Yea definitely what Commander said, make sure people have enough time to get their badges done and have a bit of leeway etc... but remember to not make it an excessive amount of time etc etc. Most of what Commander said covers the other concerns as it's always better to extend then it is to sever. One takes away time as opposed to adding it. I don't think I need to explin which is more appealing to see for those who wish to challenge lol.

[Ojama Yellow]

Only got one question.

- Gym Leaders rotate and have schedules applied to them, League runs for 2 to 3 hours a day, depending on how busy/crowded the queues get.

Will these hours always be the same, and if yes, which hours are they?

Good work, btw.

[mde2001]

Only got one question.

Will these hours always be the same, and if yes, which hours are they?

Good work, btw.

We haven't quite finalised the times yet but I think we agreed it would start at around 4:30 EST.

Edited October 3, 2015 by mde2001

[Felicity]

Probably the biggest question

Why am I fighting for redemption? I never did anything to anyone that needs redeeming...