Pokemon Challenge

[Madcarrot]

Pokemon is Back!

This time in a new format.
3 times per season we will create a themed knock out tournament rotating through the badges using different match conditions and formats.

Each tournament will be free to enter, but every game will have the same match conditions.

There is only 1 rule. On round 1 you must make a Zimbabwean youth pull, it's only required on round 1 and that's it. This rule applies to members only, non-members are exempt as they have no control on the Nationality that they recruit.

There are prizes for 1st and 2nd place for each tournament, with the winner getting an official badge in their in game trophy case.
The winner will become the gym leader until a new tournament starts the following season. Who whoever wins the tournament starting in week 5 will be gym leader until the following season week 5 tournament, etc.

Anybody who beats the gym leader in any friendly or competitive match that is in that badges format and conditions, will also have their name on the forum leaderboard and win the badge.

The 1st person to win all 9 badges will be crowned the grand champion and win a massive 3 years membership

Can you collect them all?

Boulder Badge
Senior One Day hard/humid
TBA

Cascade Badge
Youth One Day uneven/overcast
TBA

Thunder Badge
Senior One Day crumbling/overcast
TBA

Stunning Stars
Youth T20 green/humid

Defeat the Stunning Stars by the end of week 0, season 61 to win the rainbow Badge!

Lincolnshire ccc
Senior One Day sticky/sunny

Defeat Lincolnshire ccc by the end of week 8 season 61 on SOD Sunny/sticky to win the Soul Badge!

The Krack'd CC
Youth One Day slow/sunny

Defeat the Krack'd by the end of week 9 Season 61 to win the Marsh Badge!

Registrations are now open!

Volcano Badge
Senior T20 dry/hot
Competition is currently underway!

Earth Badge
Youth T20 flat/sunny
Registrations are now open! Join now for a chance to be the Vermillion City Gym Leader!

Plain Badge
Senior One Day even/sunny
TBA

[Madcarrot]

Rules

1. There are 9 badges to collect, 1 for each type of pitch.

2. Every season there are 3 knockout cups, the schedule for them are posted in the above forum post. The cup will always be free to enter, and the winner will become the gym leader for 1 season.

3. To participate in any cup, entrants must make 1 Zimbabwean youth recruit during round 1. Managers who are not FTP members are exempt from this rule as they have no control over what Nationality they can recruit from.

4. The winner of each cup will become a Gym Leader for 1 full season after the completion of their tournament.

5. There are 2 ways to win a badge
A) win a tournament to become a Gym leader
B) Defeat a current gym leader in any friendly, league or cup match that has the same pitch, weather and format, you must defeat This can be a friendly match.

5. A gym leader must accept all friendly requests, and is expected to be fair in who they accept when multiple people have challenged them. They are expected to play to their best ability while they are the gym leader.

6. A manager cannot challenge their own main or affiliate teams for their Badge.

7. A gym leader gets to decide the weather and the game format for the next time their cup comes around. So for example the Boulder Badge is always a hard pitch, but the reigning gym leader can decide that next time the cup will be hard/hot in a t20 format.

8. First person to collect all 9 badges will become the champion and win 3 years membership.

[Madcarrot]

Leaderboard

Aggressive Vegetables
All Your Funky Needs
Al Khobar Falcons
Agitated Flora
Amsterdammer
Blade Breakers
Dingo Town
Indian Capers
Jared's XI
Lincolnshire ccc
Maddo's Madmen
Me & My Buddies
Shahzaday11
Stunning Stars
The Krack'd
Topmen
Vegas Venoms
Wolfpack: $ V Gonna Rock $
Wools Wanderers
Zaankanters CC

[Madcarrot]

We have made it, here we are the quarterfinals of the first ever Pokemon Gym competition. It's been an exciting first 4 rounds with some epic clashes and some amazing teams being sent home early. Now we have only 8 teams and 4 matches left.

Streesedesserts vs Bladebreakers

Stressedesserts are currently the #1 team in New Zealand and #4 team in the world. They are currently in contentions for the runner up position in New Zealands Division 1 SOD and have been absolutely dominant this season in T20 division 1.
Stressedesserts have had probably the toughest draw so far to get here, beating De Houthakkers, Dawn and now DISHKYOMMM!!! But they recorded the highest rating from all remaining teams so will be a favourite to take the title.

Bladebreakers are the lowest rated team left in the competition but don't take them for granted. They are on the verge of Division 1 in T20, and managed to topple Moorlands Radio despite being underrated by 21k. They have a strong bowling line-up that is perfect for the Boulder Badge conditions including 3 fast bowlers and 3 FM's so they have plenty of options and strength.

Stressedesserts will be favourites to win but need to be careful to get the job done.

Blobs of Metal vs Realism Ravens

Realism Ravens were the winners of the original Pokemon Challenge a few years ago and are looking to defend this title.
They were New Zealand's season 57 and season 56 Division 1 Title winners,  are currently the world #34 ranked team. To did have a little bit of luck coming into the quarter finals, with their 2 big opponents Snickets II and Damaster both forgetting to set orders. But don't let that discount him, the Ravens are a massive team, Muff is a very experienced manager and has 6 National players in his side. They could definitely challenge any team in this competition.

Blobs of Metal have won 2 out of the last 3 SOD titles in Canada, and have finished top 3 in the last 3 t20 titles as well. They are one of the stronger teams remaining in the competition with 2 national players and a strong bowling line-up with good pace bowlers. This one is going to be a close match.

Wools Wanderers vs Dingo Town

Wools Wanderers are a dual Division 1 team based in the West Indies who have already won the T20 title and are in top 2 contention in SOD. Wool Started back in 2010 and has a wealth of experience in the game, he's won a whopping 5 SOD titles and 2 T20 titles and recently he's been on fire making it to round 9 or 10 of the MKMC each season for last 3 seasons.

Dingo Town are the oldest team to have made it to the semi-finals, having been created way back in season 3. They have 3 T20 titles and 2 SOD titles and have seen everything that this game has to offer. They have had probably the easiest run so far in this tournament, but at rating around 246k they are not to be discounted

Wolfpack: $ V Gonna Rock $ vs Me & my buddies

Wolfpack is definitely one of the most enthusiastic managers that I have met in FTP, he's a great character and his team is truly strong. He has 21 players in his squad and 17 of them are 27yrs old so they are in their prime, and they they are on fire this week knocking out Bancroft, one of the main contenders for the title. They have 2 SOD and 2 T20 titles to their name and are MKMC semi-finalists. They have been dominant this season in Sri Lanka guaranteeing their promotion to div 1 SOD very early.

Me & my buddies have recorded the highest ratings in both seam bowling and top order batting from all the remaining teams in the competition. These are arguably the 2 most important categories in these match conditions and therefore make them one of the other favourites to win this competition. They have made round 9 this season and round 10 last season in the cup. They are ranked #2 in Ireland for both senior formats and are going to be very tough to beat.

8 teams remaining but there can only be 1 winner, who's it going to be?

[Muff]

Streesedesserts vs Bladebreakers

Stressedesserts are currently the #1 team in India and #4 team in the world. They are currently in contentions for the runner up position in India Division 1 SOD and have been absolutely dominant this season in T20 division 1.
Stressedesserts have had probably the toughest draw so far to get here, beating De Houthakkers, Dawn and now DISHKYOMMM!!! But they recorded the highest rating from all remaining teams so will be a favourite to take the title.

Blobs of Metal vs Realism Ravens

Realism Ravens were the winners of the original Pokemon Challenge a few years ago and are looking to defend this title.
They were India's season 57 and season 56 Division 1 Title winners,  are currently the world #34 ranked team. To did have a little bit of luck coming into the quarter finals, with their 2 big opponents Snickets II and Damaster both forgetting to set orders. But don't let that discount him, the Ravens are a massive team, Muff is a very experienced manager and has 6 National players in his side. They could definitely challenge any team in this competition.

These are funny ways of spelling New Zealand

[Madcarrot]

Streesedesserts vs Bladebreakers

Stressedesserts are currently the #1 team in India and #4 team in the world. They are currently in contentions for the runner up position in India Division 1 SOD and have been absolutely dominant this season in T20 division 1.
Stressedesserts have had probably the toughest draw so far to get here, beating De Houthakkers, Dawn and now DISHKYOMMM!!! But they recorded the highest rating from all remaining teams so will be a favourite to take the title.

Blobs of Metal vs Realism Ravens

Realism Ravens were the winners of the original Pokemon Challenge a few years ago and are looking to defend this title.
They were India's season 57 and season 56 Division 1 Title winners,  are currently the world #34 ranked team. To did have a little bit of luck coming into the quarter finals, with their 2 big opponents Snickets II and Damaster both forgetting to set orders. But don't let that discount him, the Ravens are a massive team, Muff is a very experienced manager and has 6 National players in his side. They could definitely challenge any team in this competition.

These are funny ways of spelling New Zealand

Oops, fixed!

[Wolfpack]

That day finally arrived! Clash of the Titans... Mighty Wolfpack taking on Boomerang Buddies... In other words.. Young Blood taking on Experienced Oldies!
Its a lovely sunny day here in Srilanka, with Sun waking up from his bed, while he on the toilet, the toss will happen at 5.15am local time. Once he starts bathing, first ball will be bowled. We got a special guest, Mr. Crow Fan, who will be tossing the coin from his private helicopter right on top of the ground. We also attached a gps tag on the coin so that if it gets missed from falling on the cricket ground, which is 3000kms away from Crowie's helicopter, can be tracked down easily. Power bug, tournament's techie will be controlling the high speed AI Drones to track this coin. After the toss, bug will focusing on lovely girls in the ground with his drones.
The coin has got two faces. One is a mad rabbit holding a piece of carrot in his mouth, crushing it with anger & the other side, the biggest rival and enemy on earth of Mad Carrot, the Mad Potato, with a symbol of a rat digging a potato from earth, start biting with its front tooths. Mr. Muff has been assigned as the security officer in charge for this game, who will be screening only the beautiful lovely girls coming to the ground. His job will be closely monitored by his own girlfriend for safety reasons through CCTV cameras. Wolfpack is definitely gonna call the mad rabbit with carrot side on the coin. So it's gonna be really interesting to see, who gets to bat first. Batting first will definitely give an edge on this conditions. Since the ground is jam packed with no space even to fall a safety pin, few private jets has been arranged to station on top of the ground. After the game, parachutes will be arranged for these passengers to land in the ground since aircraft landing is prohibited. We will not be responsible for any injuries or death caused due to this match. Mr. Mad carrot will be fully responsible for any bad incidents happen during or after the match. FBI reports says that if wolfpack is lost in their home ground, then the crowd is going to get really violent, mad carrot's Carrot house will be destroyed like chopping carrots for veg salad . So it remains to be seen if mad carrot will ask his umpires to be soft towards wolfpack... Its only few hours... So folks, fasten ur seat belt with the maximum possible limit... For the bigbang roller coaster show! woo hoo hoo!

[Madcarrot]

It's business time!

It was an exciting quarter final with some huge ratings and big performances. We are only 2 weeks away from finding out who will be our first Gym Leader in the series!

Blade Breakers vs Stressedesserts

Blade Breakers actually started well, putting up 79 runs before the first wicket fell. But it was all desserts after that. Their bowling attack tearing through the Breakers and bowling them all out for 175. 2 early wickets gave Bladebreakers a hope but defending 175 is almost impossible in these conditions.
Stressedesserts won by 5 wickets

Blobs of Metal vs Realism Ravens
This was a contest between 2 batsmen, the Blobs Stephen Quinn who scored 189* in their team total of 332, while almost his entire team collapsed around him, and the Ravens Ewan Shepphard who scored 175*, but the difference was that the Ravens had a lot more players score in their 20's and 30's. Nonetheless it looked really dire for the Ravens but they managed to scrape through it 1 ball left to go.
Realism Ravens win by 4 wickets

Dingo Town vs Wools Wanderers
Wools had a very solid performance to score 304, they had 4 players score in their 40's and 50's, and Dingo had to rely on their wrist spinner to take wickets as their seamers struggled to gain traction. Regardless they managed to keep Wools to a chase-able score. Dingo Town had a lot of starts with the bat but weren't able to really get many partnerships.
Wools Wanderers won by 54 runs

Wolfpack vs Me & my buddies.

Very close game by 2 of the strongest seam attacks left in the competition.
Buddies struggled to take wickets and allowed Wolfpack to get some good partnerships. Wolfpack scored 328 with 3 consecutive 80 run partnerships.
Buddies had a good start but unfortunately had a middle order collapse and fell just short
Wolfpack won by 19 runs

Semifinal
Stressedesserts vs Realism Ravens
Wools Wanderers vs Wolfpack

It's really hard to pick a winner from here, all 4 teams have been exceptional all tournament and have incredibly strong teams. It really is anyone's game now

[Madcarrot]

Your Pewter City Gym Leader is Wool!

Wool has defeated Muff in a very hairy final match up.
Wools 5 pronged pace attack was too strong and Muff failed to put up a defendable score.

To win the Boulder badge, you must beat Wool in any friendly or competitive SOD match where the conditions are hard and cloudy.

Good luck!

[Madcarrot]

Me & my buddies is the first person to defeat the Wools Wanderers and win the Boulder Badge! Congrats He Man!

Who else thinks that they can challenge Wool for the the Boulder Badge?

[Wolfpack]

Me & my buddies is the first person to defeat the Wools Wanderers and win the Boulder Badge! Congrats He Man!

Who else thinks that they can challenge Wool for the the Boulder Badge?

I don't see any point in challenging poor wool, who has nothing with him. The badge is now with the buddies, they took away everything from our little wool . Wool has now got only his school badge, i am not sure if anyone would be interested in taking that away from him. Probably he will have some nice wool clothes and wool diapers with him. That makes more sense to challenge. So probably with a correction " who else.... for the wool diaper badge?

[Madcarrot]

Me & my buddies is the first person to defeat the Wools Wanderers and win the Boulder Badge! Congrats He Man!

Who else thinks that they can challenge Wool for the the Boulder Badge?

I don't see any point in challenging poor wool, who has nothing with him. The badge is now with the buddies, they took away everything from our little wool . Wool has now got only his school badge, i am not sure if anyone would be interested in taking that away from him. Probably he will have some nice wool clothes and wool diapers with him. That makes more sense to challenge. So probably with a correction " who else.... for the wool diaper badge?

Wool has an unlimited amount of badges and he gives one away every time someone beats him.
I reckon you can totally take him Wolfy!

[Madcarrot]

Only 2 more rounds until we have our 2nd gym leader!

Wuhan Wonders vs Al Khobar Falcons
Dingo Town vs De Houthakkers

Who's going to win?

[Madcarrot]

Wow what a day for upsets in the Battle to become the Vermillion City Gym Leader!
It is now quarter-final time and we have seen some big results this week, we lost the 2 highest rated teams in the competition this week.

Chesney Champions lost to Amsterdammer, and Chepu beat Me & my buddies.
That's the nature of T20 though, it's exciting and a reminder that any of the remaining 8 teams could win from here even those who are rated lower.
It's also been interesting to see the different strategies, a number of teams have been playing 4 spinners and some are finding success with that strategy.

Our remaining games are

Dishkyomm!!! vs Ice Cold Huskies
Bunker Bugs vs Armstrong 13's
Amsterdammer vs Indian Capers
Chepu 206 vs Super Team

It's really anyone's game now!

Congratulations to wmchamps for winning the Cascade Badge this week, you can see his team up on the forums on the leaderboard.

Wool was good this week defending his Boulder Badge, see if you can beat him on SOD Hard/Cloudy and get your name up on the leaderboard as well.

Don't forget to challenge the Wool's Wanderers for a chance to win the Boulder Badge, challenge Dingo Town for a chance at the Cascade Badge.

You'll find the links to those teams on my club page blog and on the forums

Also don't forget to sign up for the Celadon City Gym position and see if you can become a Gym leader yourself.

Happy Badge hunting everyone!

Professor Carrot

[Madcarrot]

Another big week of contests and we are up to the semi-finals of the Vermillion City competition now!
Only 2 more weeks until we have our 3rd gym leader of the series.

Unfortunately for Ice Cold Huskies, Armstrong 13's, Indian Capers, and Super Team, their journey has come to an end, but in 2 weeks they along with everyone else will have a chance to challenge the winner to try and win the Thunder Badge from them.

Next week we have 2 games.

1. Power Bug vs Dishkyomm!!!
Wolfpack made it to the semi-finals with his main team in the Boulder Badge competition, and will be hoping to go 1 step further this time with his affiliate. They crushed the Huskies and will be a tough challenge, but he's only been playing 2 spinners which is a contrast to Powerbug who is playing with 4.
This was a costly strategy against the 13's with fs opener getting hit for 18 the 2nd over of the game, maybe Dishkyomm can punish this strategy, or maybe they will suffer for only playing 2 spinners. We will see.

Amsterdammers vs Chepu206
Amsterdammer have 2 very strong wristies who tore through the Indian Capers middle order this week, Ross Herring took an incredible 5-5 from 3 overs. Chepu is another proponent of the 4 spinner strategy but it was his batters who did the work. Chepu's game was the only one this week with a score over 120, and he cleared it by chasing down 150 runs. Chepu has shown that he can chase big so if Amsterdammer bat first they will have to really put some runs on the board if they want to win.

We are halfway through the season, so time is starting to run out to challenge for the Boulder Badge. Congratulations to the Indian Capers who won the badge today, Wool will be available to challenge until the end of week 1 season 60. So get in early or you will have to wait until the next competition comes along.

If you have a good youth team don't forget to challenge Dingo Town and join the Celadon City Challenge.

Professor Carrot