I made a competitively viable team in a matter of minutes in Pokemon Champions, and I'm confident this could open the door to high-level battles for newcomers galore

I am undefeated in Pokemon Champions. Let me just bask in the glory of that sentence for a moment before we get into this. The soon-to-be dedicated hub for Pokemon's traditional turn-based PvP has a lot riding on it, and heading into my hands-on preview session, I was determined to start my new competitive journey off strong. So, would I say that my 2-0 victory went to my head? Of course not. Well, maybe a little. But, more importantly, I left the session excited about what this new battle-focused game means for the future of Pokemon's competitive landscape.

Pokemon's Video Game Championships (VGC) scene is one of the most interesting parts of the entire franchise, but it's easily one of the most complicated, too. I was around 12 years old the first time I attempted to become a serious Wi-Fi battler on Pokemon Black and White, but little did I know what an undertaking it'd be to even begin. It wasn't just about building a well-rounded team like in the single-player RPG campaigns – suddenly, I was dealing with all sorts of new mechanics, like Effort Values (EVs) to boost stats, and Individual Values (IVs) that could fundamentally decide whether a Pokemon was even capable of meeting their maximum potential in the first place.

I admit, I was overwhelmed, and it didn't take long for me to give up. While Pokemon has made some attempts to simplify these mechanics in more recent years (like with the Bottle Cap items to improve IVs without having to spend hours breeding a powerful 'mon), Pokemon Champions is set to slam that barrier to entry more fiercely than ever before with a Giga Impact. During my hour-long hands-on, I quickly realize that this isn't just another Pokemon Stadium-like battling game, this is about swinging the doors of competitive battling wide open for more fans than ever before – even those who don't own any of the other games.

I choose you

After going through a small handful of tutorials explaining the basics of battling, I'm thrown straight into the action of recruiting my winning team. Although Champions will let you use the Pokemon you've already caught and trained in previous games thanks to Pokemon Home support (meaning that for series veterans like me, it essentially serves as a hub for the turn-based battles we all know and love), you can also team up with new 'mons found within the game itself, which is how I find myself buddying up with a Charizard, Greninja, Gallade, and Excadrill.

There's one catch catch to this – obtaining new battle pals this way essentially operates on a gacha system. A less restrictive one than you might see in some other games, mind you, but reliant on random chance nonetheless. Spending in-game currency – specifically, Victory Points (VP) or other items like coupons and tickets – you enter the Roster Ranch, which generates a "lineup" of Pokemon from you to choose from. You can only pick one Pokemon per lineup, so choose wisely – the randomness means you won't necessarily see the same creatures return again on your next attempt, although it can happen. I'd already recruited my Charizard when I was presented with the option to get a second one, for example.

After that, it's straight over to the training menu to bring each one of my team members up to their full potential. While I didn't see IVs figure at all on this page, everything else you'd ever need to know or change is right here. I pore over each of my Pokemon's neatly summarized stats, which are listed next to their natures (and what stats those natures are affecting), abilities, and moves, in addition to 'Stat Points,' which serve as a simplified version of the EVs system.

Rather than having 510 EVs to play with like we have done in games past – and a maximum of 255 EVs per individual stat – in Pokemon Champions, you instead have 66 Stat Points, with a cap of 31 per stat. Changing these is as easy as selecting the stats you're interested in and adjusting the gauge – after giving it a powerful Modest nature, I immediately max out the Special Attack of my Charizard, knowing full well I'm about to slap a Charizardite Y stone on it to make it an absolute monster when Mega Evolved.

Elsewhere, I ensure my Greninja is running its hidden ability, Protean, to give each of its moves a same-type attack bonus, while Excadrill is set up to be a speedy, hard-hitting powerhouse with Sand Rush. My full team is battle-ready within minutes, with the process made effortless thanks to the easy-to-understand menus. Alas, and you may be noticing a theme at this point, there is once again a catch – this is all reliant on you having enough in-game currency to spend, with each change you make racking up more and more VP.

As for the battles themselves, well, they're exactly what you'd expect from the turn-based games, although an immediate difference I already wish was a thing in the main series titles is the addition of a visible percentage on your opponents' health bars. Now, you know exactly how much damage you're dealing with each attack, allowing you to be more precise with your damage calculations even if you're not a veteran who comes to any battle prepared with the knowledge of exactly how much your moves will do against certain Pokemon.

Admittedly, I don't do much precise damage calculation myself when my Mega Charizard Y is out on the field, as it has so much success blasting everything in sight with its Drought-boosted Fire-type attacks that I don't need to worry too much about the exact numbers. After my first win, I go back to the Roster Ranch to befriend a Goodra and Venusaur, but even on the second round, none of my other Pokemon are able to dethrone my 'Zard as the MVP of the session.

Poke-wrapped

Even after a short amount of time spent with the game, it's clear that Pokemon Champions has a lot of potential. During the preview, myself and the other media and content creators fought using Mega Evolution as the battle gimmick, but it's already been revealed that others like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Terastalization will be present. On top of that, being a free-to-play game that makes it easier than ever to build a competitive team in a matter of minutes (something that, in years past, could have taken hours and hours on end), I'm eager to see how the VGC scene will evolve as more new competitors decide to give Pokemon PvP a proper shot.

However, I already know that my full-time enjoyment of Pokemon Champions is going to depend on how aggressive its monetization is – something that's impossible for me to measure at this point. During my hands-on session, I had unlimited resources at my disposal to recruit as many Pokemon as I wanted, and change all their moves, stats, and abilities without even having to think about how much currency I was spending. It's already been revealed that we'll be able to earn VP just by engaging in battles, so there's no concern about these features being locked behind a paywall, but the speed at which we'll be able to rack up the currency is another matter. Will I still feel as free to experiment with new builds and make fresh teams if I risk running low, or worse still, out?

That's something I'll only know when the game launches next month, but I'll admit I'm tempering my enthusiasm until then. After all, a battle pass and paid membership has been confirmed, and it's not clear at this stage the full extent of what they'll include. With future official tournaments like this summer's World Championships also set to take place in Champions, separating the competitive scene away from the main series titles like Scarlet and Violet for the first time ever, VGC's fate will be tied – seemingly forevermore – to a free-to-play game with monetization elements that I still don't fully grasp. Admittedly, that does make me somewhat nervous.

Overall, though, I choose to be optimistic. Even if folks end up preferring to train their teams in other games where they don't have to worry about spending VP, Champions still opens the door to learning about competitive play in a less complex way, in addition to being software that almost anyone can use thanks to its eventual mobile launch. While I still have some questions, I know that this is going to have a big impact on VGC. For now, I'm hopeful that it'll be in a good way.

Be sure to check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games.