Pokémon UNITE previews upcoming Holiday Period events ahead of Meowscarada joining the fray next week - Metagross to become playable December 26th

Pokémon UNITE have released information on their event schedule for this year's holiday period, with the Snowball Battle in Shiver City and other holiday activities set to make their return starting December 7th, alongside the debut of Meowscarada and its Phantom Thief Style Holowear. Metagross has also had its release date confirmed, with the Pokémon set to make its way to Aeos Island on December 26th. Additionally, a new Producer Message has been posted on the official Pokémon Community forums, announcing new balancing changes for Ranked Matches are taking place, along with new Held Items & Battle Items.

New video dedicated to Meowscarada showcases new upcoming content!
Meowscarada Spotlight
Meowscarada, who will join the fray on December 7th, is a Speedster Pokémon that uses its agile movements to taunt its opponents. A special celebration video has been released ahead of Meowscarada's launch, showing the Pokémon using its UNITE Move "Blooming Showtime!". The video also gives sneak peeks of whats to come in the Holiday events.

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Along with this showcase, an upcoming Holowear for Meowscarada named Phantom Thief Style: Meowscarada has also been revealed. Other Pokémon, such as Goodra, Dragapult, Zeraora, Glaceon and Mewtwo, will also be receiving their own Holowear as well.

With the addition of Meowscarada to the playable lineup, a new event will also be available, Meowscarada's Flower Petal Challenge, which will give players the opportunity to obtain Meowscarada's UNITE License by completing a set of missions. More details on this event will be available

Holiday Events
The Holiday season is welcoming players with the release of Battle Pass Season 20, featuring Dark Lord Style: Mewtwo, and the start of Ranked Match Season 16! The Holiday event will be starting on December 7th, at 7:00am (UTC), and is scheduled to run through to December 30th at 11:59pm (UTC). Players can check out the full schedule of events on the left.

First up as part of this year's Holiday event, players will be able to play Snowball Battles in Shivre City, a returning Holiday gameplay mode! In this mode, Pokémon that have been knocked out are temporarily turned into Snowmen. While transformed into Snowmen, Pokémon will be stuck in place, with their basic attack changed to only allow them to jump in the air, and moves altered to allow them to take on a variety of poses to give some visual support to their team.

A Prize Machine event will also be available, with new rewards and the chance for players to get up to x100 Holiday Balls, receiving an extra x10 Holiday Balls each day as a log-in bonus along with the normal two daily Balls. Elegant Style: Mew Holowear will be featured as a prize in this event.

An Aeos Gems sale will also be running for the holidays, including with a new 50%-Off discount coupon for Aeos Gems.

Finally, Panic Parade will return later this month on December 20th, just in time for Christmas.

Metagross release date revealed!
Metagross, who was previously revealed to be joining the fray soon, now has a set release date, and is scheduled to join Pokémon UNITE at December 26th.

Message from Producer regarding balancing of the game
Starting on December 5th, the game will be introducing EX Licenses, a new classification for existing and upcoming Pokémon UNITE Licenses. These serve as a way to enact special regulations in Ranked Matches where one or more Master-rank players are participating. The following Pokémon will use EX Licenses:

• Zacian
• Mewtwo (X)
• Mewtwo (Y)

The introduction of EX Licenses won't reduce or change the power of these Pokémon in-game. However, starting Ranked Season 17, on January 16th, 2024, the use of EX Licenses in each team will be prohibited, effectively banning these three Pokémon from competitive play. Regulations will change for each series and will be announced before the start of the series, and it's possible these Pokémon may be admitted back to competitive play at a future point. Players who've already purchased the licenses for these Pokémon will be able to play with them as usual in UNITE Battles other than ranked matches.

Alongside this change, starting Ranked Season 18, starting February 27th, 2024, Draft Pick Battles will be available in Ranked Matches. Draft Picks Battles will allow players from both teams to vote on a Pokémon to ban from play. After both teams select a Pokémon to ban, players will then take turns choosing their Pokémon. However, players won't be able to pick a Pokémon any previous player has picked in that game, even if that Pokémon was chosen by a player on the other team. These draft pick battles will be the same as those used in tournaments leading up to the Pokémon World Championships. While this feature is primarily targeted at Master-rank players, the developers are continuing to evaluate how this game format will affect ranks and ranked battles.

In a recent update, many adjustments were made to Held Items and Battle Items. The UNITE Team has confirmed they will continue to balance these items and adding more items. Additionally, a further two new Held Items will become available in the in-game shop from December 5th: Charging Charm and Resonant Guard. No further information about the function of these Held Items has been revealed as of the time of writing.

Pokémon UNITE Club Membership's Holowear of the Month
This month, the chosen Pokémon to receive a new Holowear was Venusaur, who receives the brand new Holiday Style: Venusaur Holowear! Along with the usual rewards for subscribing to the club, players will receive the new Holowear immediately upon purchase or log-in if the Club Membership has been purchased already.

Community response to this Holowear has been largely negative, with complaints that it is too simple and underwhelming compared to past holowear items.