Battle Convention!

[indigo_league]

Early Saturday morning, the doors of one of the largest --if not the largest-- convention centres in Viridian City open to welcome everybody to this years Battle Convention.

Spread out across several floors, and the battling fields outside, the Battle Convention is the place to be for anyone with an interest in pokemon battling. Whether you are a hardcore battler trying to hone your craft even further, or a newcomer to the battling scene hoping to learn, the Battle Convention has things of interest to everybody. It's promising to be a busy event, with trainers attending from all over Johto and Kanto. Famous battlers and gym leaders alike can be spotted in the crowds, hosting workshops or even entering in the tournaments.





The Tournament Ground

Outside of the convention centre, stands have been erected around at least a dozen Pokemon battle fields. This is where the various Tournaments will be held. Throughout the weekend, three tournaments will be held here. There is the Otherworlder Battle Tournament, a separate tournament for native Elite Four Champions, and a third Li'l Champs tournament for trainers under the age of ten.

Viewing the various battles is absolutely free, and could be a good source of insight into battle strategies employed by some of the best battlers in the region. Or, if you are attending the Li'l Champs tournament -- a most adorable insight into the dedication and friendship between young children and their first Pokemon.

Due to the number of battles, at any given time, various battles will be ongoing. The Li'l Champs tournament will be held on Sunday, while both the Otherworlder battle tournament and the Elite Four Champions battle tournament will have most of their preliminary matches held on Saturday, with the finale few matches on Sunday.

So, if you are done shopping (or maybe just ran out of money) and there aren't any workshops catching your eye, why not come down to the Tournament Grounds and catch a few battles?

First Floor

The first floor of the Convention Centre has been reserved entirely for various workshops and battle demonstrations. In essence, whatever topic related to battling you might be interested in -- whether it is using certain moves or items, battle strategies, or even demonstrations on why you should be adding X type to your roster -- you'll probably find someone here willing to talk about it. Even breeders might find something of interest here, as there are a few people giving workshops on how to breed pokemon for battle-minded customers.

Schedules are available so you won't miss anything you are interested in. Some of these workshops might only be given once, while others are repeated a few times throughout the convention, so make sure to check your schedule!

And among the crowd giving demonstration and workshops, you might even find a few familiar faces -- yes, members of the Aurora League have also been given the chance to speak about any battle topics near to their heart. Why not check out what they have to say?

Second Floor

The second floor of the Convention Centre has been reserved for the important business of commerce. Have some money to burn? Want that sweet serotonin boost of buying a thing? Maybe you deserve a little treat after winning (or losing) your battle. If so, head on up here.

Spread across various rooms, the Battle Convention dealers have everything that could be of interest to a trainer. There is, frankly, far too much to list here individually, so please accept this rough list of what your characters can find here.

Held Items -- it is possible to buy held items here, however the vast majority of them are pretty rare, so sellers will only sell you one of each. Buying several different held items is fine, but you won't find anyone willing to sell you five Amulet coins. The only exception is for held items that also double as evolutionary items. Those can be freely bought in any quantity. TMs -- It is also possible (though might require some searching across various dealers) to buy any kind of single-use TM here. The same rules apply as with Held Items -- TMs that are currently available in stores can be bought at any quantity; TMs outside of that are limited to one per person. Eggs -- There is also a small group of professional breeders present where you can order eggs with egg moves. The eggs themselves will be delivered to you in the days after the tournament. There is no limit on the amount of egg moves you can request for your egg, but there is a hefty price tag involved! These are professional breeders, so expect a base price of 6000p per egg, with 1000p per requested egg move. Training Equipment -- it's also possible to buy all manner of training equipment for your pokemon. From weights to training bags to agility aids -- if you can think of something that could help you train your pokemon in a more efficient manner, you can find it here. And the bigger items can be delivered to where you are staying, so you won't have to carry around a giant Wailord Training Bag. Odds and Ends -- In addition to all this very focused battle stuff, you'll also be able to find general pokemon items, such a wide variety of Pokeballs, Evolutionary Items, Vitamins and Potions and such. All of these will be sold for the same price as in stores.

However in addition to all of these items, the Silph Co. Booth is drawing a lot of attention. There is an announcement that they will be unveiling something truly special on Sunday, so all of Saturday is awash in rumours and guesses. There is talk that whatever they will be unveiling will be one of the prices in the tournament, though who knows if that is true. When Sunday finally comes, there is a huge crowd around the booth, watching as Silph Co. unveils

EXP-Share, the newest held item to make your training a little easier.

The EXP-Share, which will go on sale in the department stores after this weekend, is a new type of held item. Once given to a Pokemon, this Pokemon will receive EXP during battles, even while not battling itself. Have a Pokemon that is difficult to train like Magikarp? Did you just hatch a new Pokemon, but you are in an area where the wild Pokemon are too high in level for them to train against? Why not give them an EXP-Share and have them comfortably gain EXP without risking them in battle.

Battle Convention attendants can get an early start on buying an EXP-Share, though they are limited to one per customer. The price is 40,000p.

Third Floor

This is where you can go if you need a little break from all the hustle and bustle downstairs. Various food vendors and sit-down places have been set up here, allowing characters to grab a meal or something to drink, rest a little, or even go strategise for upcoming tournament battles.

As always with these type of events UBIRDS will be available to fly characters to Viridian City and back to where they were staying afterwards.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

[Radley nods.]

The event is more for Trainers than Breeders, but I've been finding out some useful things too.

[He really appreciates the workshops he attended.]

[outofsynth]

I don't know. Maybe the tournament itself is, if you don't like watching battles either, but it seems like a breeder could get a lot out of the rest of it. The TMs and some of the items would be good for a breeder, right? If you have the cash.

[He's not a breeder himself, but he's been learning a lot about egg moves since the tournament started.]

[crystalmaster]

Yeah, I've been enjoying the stores a lot.

[Evie warbles happily in agreement!]

We all have. I've bought a lot of stuff there.

[outofsynth]

I haven't really bought anything, but I've been looking. I might buy an egg? I'd have to pick up another job after, but it might be worth it to get a Pokémon with moves it wouldn't be able to learn otherwise.

[crystalmaster]

The eggs are expensive, but with good reason, yeah.

[He wonders if he'll ever be that good at breeding. It would be nice, but so many might not be able to afford his prices.]

Maybe if I ever get to that point, I'll have different tiers of eggs so some of mine will still be more affordable.

[outofsynth]

I'm sure you will. Eevees are already pretty popular, right?

[And he knows Radley owns a lot of those guys...]

If they knew some TMs, or you got one that already has eggs moves, you'd probably really up their value. Though I'm sure there are plenty of newbies out there who'd just be happy to get their hands on a regular egg at a decent price.

[crystalmaster]

They are.

[Radley smiles.]

I'm getting TMs for some of them and working on breeding some with egg moves. Some of the ones I'm hoping to use for couples are still too young or otherwise not interested yet.

[He wasn't sure Lily and Scotch would ever be interested, but maybe someday....]

And I definitely think I'll sell some regular eggs no matter what.

[outofsynth]

Well, there's no pressure, right? Sometimes good things just take time.

Especially with something that personal, it's probably better not to pressure them into anything before they're ready.

[Not that he thinks Radley would, of course.]

[crystalmaster]

Definitely.

[Radley smiles.]

I don't force any of them to breed. That wouldn't work anyway, I'm sure; they have to really like each other to want to make eggs.

[outofsynth]

Oh, I know. Don't worry. I didn't think you'd be the kind of guy to do something like that.

Your Pokémon all seem really happy to have you.

[crystalmaster]

Yeah, and I'm happy to have them too.

[Radley pets them, pleased.]

I'm really happy I've been able to get to know them.

[They all rub him.]

[outofsynth]

I've been enjoying getting to know my team, too. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have them with me.

[If he had to go through this alone he'd be spiralling constantly. It's no substitute for having Ryan with him, but at least he's had companions to help keep him grounded.]

[crystalmaster]

Yeah, I practically lost it when we were stranded without our Pokemon a while back. This sweetheart was my greatest support.

[He holds up Lily.]

I'm glad she chose to come back with me.

[outofsynth]

Where were you stranded?

[crystalmaster]

A place called Hisui. It was back in the past. It reminded me of a steampunk 19th century, only we didn't get to be around much of the tech other than the old Pokeballs.

[outofsynth]

Oh, right. I heard about that.

It sounded like it was pretty scary. Kind of glad I wasn't around for that.

[crystalmaster]

Yeah, it was mostly roughing it with really aggressive Pokemon all over the place. Scary is a good word for it.

[outofsynth]

That sucks. How long were you there for?

[crystalmaster]

A month and a half. I still don't know everything my poor Pokemon were doing in the meantime, except that two of them made a StaryuTube channel about me and started putting up videos they'd made of me beforehand.

[outofsynth]

They can do that?

[He knows they're smart, but video making smart...?]

[crystalmaster]

Evie and Cosmo can! And there was an event organized by rat Pokemon sometime back where pictures of the humans were submitted. Most of the entries were submitted by their Pokemon!

[Radley chuckles.]

That was interesting.

[outofsynth]

Why did they want to submit pictures?

[He's... going to start hiding his PokéGear before he sleeps. Just in case. Mostly because he doesn't trust Blitz, but Ryan could be a bit of a wildcard if he got hold of it, too.]

[crystalmaster]

It was to rate the humans on "hot or not." The Pokemon were very proud of their owners and wanted to show them off. It was flattering, really. But still awkward!

[outofsynth]

[WOW, OKAY. Yep. Super, super glad he missed that. Definitely hiding his Gear just in case there's ever a repeat. This is not a man who's remotely equipped to deal with anything like that, whether he was deemed hot or not.]

Yeahhhhh, that sounds pretty awkward.

[Honestly, he looks like he would have preferred to get stuck in Hisui.]

[crystalmaster]

Most of the participants were good sports, but ... yes, that was a time.