Jimmy's Frivolous Bullshit

[Jersey Jimmy]

hi, I'm Jimmy. you might remember me from such smash hits as "posting my Evangelion crossover fic here and nothing else" and "not consistently using the forums otherwise in over four years." noticed they made a dedicated infodump subforum, though, so I figured it'd be handy to have a thread to discuss headcanons and shit - how I envision the Pokemon world and certain regions in particular (read: Unova) to work, fictional regions I've thought of, character headcanons, stuff like that. feel free to ask me for my thoughts on something in particular if you want. or don't, I'm not your dad.

also, you should probably go read Understanding an Inferno. I have a funny feeling I'm going to be tying things back to it a lot.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

THE UNOVAN PREMIER LEAGUE

a relatively common theme with a lot of my Pokemon headcanons that pertain to battling is that they usually tend to take heavy inspiration from both traditional and combat sports as well as pro wrestling, and this is a concept that very much draws from all of those. I never envisioned Unova (or any Pokemon region, for that matter) as actually being ruled over by the Pokemon League, but rather, the Pokemon League being more or less a state-owned UFC/Bellator/IBF/WBC/what-have-you. while it still oversees the region's gyms and Elite Four, the bread and butter of the Unova League would mostly rely on different "circuits" of different types of battling events. these would include standard cards consisting of pre-booked battles, traditional bracket-style tournaments - the most prestigious of which being the Vertress Cup, with the winner getting a shot at the Unova League Champion - and, for what we're talking about here, "leagues."

now you may be asking, "yo dawg, why do you have a league in your league so you can league while you league," but when I say "league," I mean more of a round-robin tournament. you know those top 25 polls they have in college sports, like football and basketball? how about the ATP/WTA rankings in tennis? well, the Unova League would have its own rankings, too - and if you've managed to earn yourself a top-20 position in the February poll each year, that means you've punched yourself a ticket to another of Unova's most prestigious events: the Unovan Premier League.

buildup aside, the UPL itself is pretty simple - if you've ever followed New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax, you'll catch on pretty quickly. the 20 entrants are divided into two blocks of 10, and over the month of March and a little beyond that, compete across 10 different matches - nine against the rest of their block, then a tenth against a crossover opponent from the opposite block. wins are worth two points each, with a single point going to each trainer in the event of a draw. once every match has concluded, the top two in each block move on to a semifinal round (usually after much bickering over tiebreaking procedures), and the winners of those represent their respective blocks in the UPL Final, traditionally one of the most-watched battles of the year.

below the spoiler are an example A Block and B Block table I whipped up to demonstrate how one of these things would go. please feel free to roast the surnames I gave everyone.

Spoiler: 2024 UPL Tables

NOTE: D. Crowley finished ahead of Blackburn and Turgeon based on highest-ranked win (#1 vs. #4/#5)

NOTE: I. Crowley finished ahead of Soryu based on head-to-head win