Before NL plays in the tournament next week I wanted to give a quick rundown of what showdown is and all the important stuff about what he has to do.

I hit #22 in the world on showdown random battles last week with an elo of 2380, so suffice to say I know it pretty well. I'm gonna break this down into sections.

1. What is Showdown?

TL;DR: Pokemon Showdown is an online simulator of pokemon battling.

Longer Version: Pokemon Showdown is an online simulator designed for Smogon play (Smogon is the organisation that maintains competitive pokemon). It allows you to talk in chatrooms, build teams, play on a ladder, in tournaments, challenge friends and a variety of other things.

Most of this doesn't really matter for the tournament because it is using the [Gen 8] Random Battles game mode, which gives you randomised teams, no work required.

2. How do I start playing?

It's ridiculously easy. Open it up in your browser and make an account (All you need is a name and a password. No phone or email or anything like that).

At that point you can either tell your opponent your nickname and have them challenge you, or, if you wanna do it yourself use the command "/challenge [name]" in one of the chatrooms and choose the appropriate game-mode. From there, you'll enter a battle which has very self-explanatory UI.

Once you make an account you can click the cog in the top right to do stuff like mute music and sounds, Block PM's and Challenges (VERY IMPORTANT) and change your avatar (there are many bald choices, do not worry).

3. What is Random Battles?

From Smogon:

In Random Battles, both you and your opponent get a randomly generated team, with procedurally generated sets for each Pokémon.

Here's an article about it if you want a full rundown.

Basically, Pokemon Showdown has a pool of availible pokemon with different movesets. Many pokemon have multiple different move-sets in the pool, so they're not all identical. Obviously some pokemon are better than others, so the stronger pokemon are a lower level and the weaker ones a higher level, which to a degree equalises them.

Generally in competitive play, the nerd stuff like EV's, IV's and Natures is important, but in Random Battles everything has evenly spread EV's and neutral natures so it's not a factor (thankfully).

Finally of note, if you're playing Gen 8 Random Battles, which I assume you are, there is a new mechanic called Dynamax. You get to use it once per game, and it doubles the pokemon's health and gives them powerful moves with bonus effects (as well as other niche effects like ignoring moves like Encore and choice items). The rule of thumb of when to use these is basically when you have a very strong pokemon out, or your opponent has a very strong pokemon out.

Also because of Gen 8 there are some pokemon completely missing because of "Dexit" (long story) but you can basically just ignore that, it isn't really relevant.

4. Basics of Smogon gameplay.

Again, here's a basic article

Like I said earlier, showdown is designed to facilitate Smogon gameplay. Random Battles is obviously a very accessible version of this gameplay, but there are a few key ideas which maintain their relevance. This is gonna be super abridged, but it's just things to consider.

Prediction: This is the bread and butter of battling. Figuring out what your opponent is gonna do and countering it is how you win. If I have a fire type out against your grass type, and I see you have a water type pokemon in the back, maybe I'll switch into my own grass type anticipating your switch, because momentum is king. This is something you'll get better at over time.

STAB: Same Type Attack Bonus - Moves of the same type as the user do 1.5x extra damage, so you should almost always go for them.

Items: There are many items in pokemon, but on Showdown, there are several notably strong ones which you'll see on almost every pokemon. These are:

• Choice Items: Increase a stat but only let you use one move until you switch.

• Life Orb: Your attacks drain some health but do a lot more damage.

• Leftovers: You heal a bit at the end of every turn

• Lum Berry: One time heal from any status

• Heavy Duty Boots: You ignore hazards

There is also an attack called Knock Off (in my opinion the best move in the game) that is very common and removes the item of whatever it hits.

Hazards: These are the bread and butter of Smogon, but you never really use them in the base game so it's important to explain. Moves like Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Sticky Web and G-Max Steelsurge create "entry hazards", which have an effect every time a pokemon gets swapped in (usually damage). Since switching is so important when you're playing against a human being, these are everywhere and if you have them n your random team, you should always try and use them ASAP.

Physical/Special Split: in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum games, a change was made to make every move either physical or special. Moves that do solid, tangible things like Mega Punch or Earthquake are physical, but more abstract and less physical stuff like Water Gun or Shadow Ball are special. Some Pokemon have very strong Physical power and low Special power (think Machamp), and vice versa (Alakazam), and some pokemon can tank physical hits very well but not special (think Golem) and vice versa (Blissey).

Abilities: Too many to list but you should always check what you and your opponents ability does. They're very impactful often. You can see these by mousing over a pokemon.

Pivot Moves: Moves like U-Turn, Volt Switch and Teleport allow you to switch during the turn itself, allowing you to respond to your opponents move or switch. These are generally extremely strong in a game where momentum is so important.

Field Conditions: There are 4 different weather conditions and 4 different terrains. They all have different effects depending on certain types, moves and abilities. You'll figure it out quickly.

Speed Tiers: Different pokemon are faster than others. You can see a pokemon's possible speeds by mousing over it (It's the bigger number in 99% of cases.)

Status: Burn, Poison, Paralysis, Badly Poisoned, Sleep and Freeze. They're really important.

Set-Up: Normally nobody uses these in the games themselves, but in Smogon they're super important. These moves boost your stats and can very quickly get out of hand; a well set-up pokemon will rip through teams.

Stats: There are six stats.

• HP

• Attack

• Special Attack

• Defense

• Special Defense

• Speed

Different pokemon are good at different things. This is way too much to memorise quickly and just requires experience, but it's worth keeping in mind.

There's of course more information, but I don't want to mindflood you, and it's quite easy to figure out through a little practice.

5. Important Commands

There are a lot of really important commands you can use by typing them into the battle chat.

• /help: lists every command if you forget

• /user [name] shows you whether a specific user is online, and allows you to challenge or message them.

• /dt [name]: This lets you get info on whatever you type, pokemon, item, ability, anything. You'll probably use this a lot, considering even I still do.

• /randbats [pokemon]: This is a command that tells you all the moves a pokemon can possibly have in random battles.

• /calc: (Warning: EXTREME RESIN) This takes you to a damage calculator where you can put in the relevant info and see how much damage something will do. If you do the command in a Random Battle it will automatically calibrate to give you the relevant stats and moves, though sometimes it has the wrong item.

• /weak [pokemon], /resist [pokemon]: These tell you what types the pokemon resists, is weak to, or is immune to.

• /coverage [move 1], [move 2], (etc): Lets you check the type coverage of your combination of attacks.

6. How to practice

Simple. Play.

You can either find games on the ladder (should only take a few seconds its very active), or challenge an experienced friend for the easy, easy collaboration/mentoring content. Hell, you can play against me if you really want, just ask and I'll send you my showdown username. The world is your oyster. Trust me, you will get better very quickly.

That's about it. if I'm forgetting anything important the comments will probably tell you. Good luck in the tournament :]