If the missing gym leader is going to be dealt with similar to how we deal with a closed gym, then challengers will be able to skip the gym and move onto the next gym, but they will not have the badge of the skipped gym until the gym opens back up and the challenger goes back to challenge the gym.

I shall answer all of your questions, but please read the guide before asking, since some of your inquiries have been already answered there.

1- I removed the rule which specifies that every applicant must send a draft badge to teamplasma. This means that applicants don't and shouldn't send anything to him. Applicants need to only send their teams to me.

2- With regards to what should those who have defeated Idno58 do, the guide answers it perfectly:
This doesn't mean, however, that you win the fifth badge by default. You just skipped it for the time being and will have to challenge the gym again, once it is open.

3- As for the hierarchy of the gym leaders, yes, they will be affected. The new admitted gym leader will not be Gym Leader #5 by default. He/She will take a test that current gym leaders have taken before. Details about this test will not be given, and all seven gym leaders are requested not to mention anything about it to the applicants. Please note that not all applicants will take this test. Members will be chosen based on the strength of their team, their activity in the forums and their behaviour and level of maturity. Once the new gym leader is chosen, he/she will take the test just to specify his/her position. This test, however, isn't tournament-like. The results of the test will be compared with the previous results and a suitable position will be chosen.

Okay. Thank you for clearing that up. ^^'

And, I just didn't know if that was implied or not, is all. It was a bit confusing on whether or not that phrase constituted that the challenger had to go back to challenge said leader. ^^'

If i do a re-send thing in the gym leader sign up thing, should i resend my team or do u have it saved ftom last time.

Sadly, Spirit has closed the Sign-Up, and is no longer taking applications for the opened gym spot.

Ya i seen that after i posted (Which sucks) but i do have a quick question about the gyms though. Say if a gym is lv80 or higher, do i have to use a team around that level or can i go on straight with lv100's?

The level range is 80-100, so you can use any Pokémon in that level range (that isn't banned), regardless of what levels the gym leader's Pokémon are.

Quad has answered your question, but just to be clear, yes, you can run through the League with Lv100 straight from the beginning.

Hey I can't get passed the third gym for one specific reason; WiFi. It's been a jerk to me and Whimsi specifically ever since that tournament the Ditto hosted back in August. We had to have a bye between me and her because it was so impossible. We keep getting error 86420.

Send me a PM.

#1; What of Rotom's gym is happening?
#2; You should probably edit the Gym Leader list in the announcements and maybe put up the types available.

I actually asked Spirit to do the same thing awhile ago and this is what he had to say:

RotomGuy is EV training his team. He has internet issues due to snow, which will last throughout this month. It might continue throughout February, but let us hope it doesn't.

As for the second question, it is the same reply that I sent to Quad, except that now I also have to wait for the new leader to be chosen.

This just occurred to me - seeing as Idno left and a couple of trainers have already beat his gym, will the trainers who have already beat that gym have to rechallenge the gym once a new leader has been chosen? I would think so, but I would just like a double check.

I was wondering about the same thing, although it was for a different reason: what if a gym leader leaves or gets banned?

Using the current system, the answer to the first question is no. If you look at the first page of the Certified Trainers list, you would notice that the winners have been listed under the titles of 'Gym #1,' 'Gym #2,' etc. The reason for that is that in case a battler defeats Gym #3 and the gym leader of that position got replaced, those who defeated him or her won't have to re-challenge the same position again.

There are different ways in which a gym leader of a position gets replaced. The first one is the current affair, which is a gym leader leaving and getting replaced by a new applicant. The other way is during the gym leaders tournament, in which they battle for a better hierarchy. Let us assume that someone defeated Gym #2 before, and after the swapping, someone else got that place. The competitor doesn't have to go back. However, if a gym leader rises from a low position to a higher one, then a competitor who has defeated him/her before has to challenge him/her again in the new position, because the basic idea of the league is continuous improvement of the teams of both parties.

In conclusion, the basic idea of the 'challenge' in this league is that members are challenging a certain position (Gym #1, #2, etc.) and not a certain leader. The people can change, but the positions will not, and so a person who has defeated a position will not have to challenge that position again if the leader changed.

As for getting banned, it depends on how long the ban is. As stated in the rules, a gym leader has the right to close his gym six weeks per year. If a gym leader is banned, then his gym gets closed. If the ban duration is longer than six weeks, then the gym is removed.

Just wondering some stuff about the elite positions that will become possible to reach in the hopefully near future, since I find myself close and wondering about such things, and as of yet haven't seen any answers to my specific queries.

This mainly boils down into two main questions;
1) When a challenger opts to become an elite, do they select a type (that isn't used by a gym leader of course) and make a team around that? Since all the elites in the games had similar type teams to trainers.
2) After all four Elites are selected and start to take on challengers, if one were to beat all four of them- is there a possibility of there being a champion position, or is there some sort of special reward or prize for getting the top?

The guide will soon comprehend all details regarding the Elite Four. But to answer your questions quickly; yes, an elitist will have the right to choose his own type and will have more freedom of diversity in a sense that he would only need to have at least two Pokémon of the type he chooses. As for the second question, there will be a special reward for those who defeat all four members of the Elite Four, but I can't announce it yet. Keep in mind, nevertheless, that whatever the reward is, the four elitists will have a better chance of obtaining it within themselves more than the battlers. Once I announce the reward, you would understand this point more.

Oooooooo Spirit has it all planned out~ That's very exciting! Well, will the E4 be able to choose a type that is already picked? Because you know I'm all about that Ghost Type flow...

No, they can't. And since RotomGuy is currently a Ghost-type gym leader, no Ghost-type Elitist is allowed.

Should the Badge Showcase thread be edited and locked?

It will not be locked, but will be edited, but I am still waiting for the two badges.

Just for clarification, since this month is 4 on 4 Rotations will it remain No Restrictions or have Flat Battle restrictions as well?

Rotation battles can only be achieved by Flat rules.

This is a very specific question that will only be needed for a very specific situation, but I need clarification on it just in case it ever does occur...

With the new GameStop event, you can get a legit Meloetta on your team. Let's say someone makes, and gets approved, a Fighting-type gym team. It includes, say, Hitmontop, Meloetta (Pirouette Forme), Machamp, and 3 other non Fighting-types. By all intent, there are 3 Fighting-types on the team, but in the battle, the Meloetta uses Relic Song. Now Meloetta is a Normal/Psychic-type, and the team only has 2 Fighting-types. Is the team still legal, or is there a boundary being crossed here? Also, how do Soak victims get tied into this, if the team only has 3 of the gym's (non-Water) type? I suppose this question could apply to Castform and Kecleon as well, but since Meloetta is a non-Uber (UU) that seems like it could be competitively viable, I think this question should be asked now more than ever.

Wouldnt a problem with that be that meloetta always has to start out as normal / psychic? When you use relic song it switches form and typing, but still.

Extending onto your question, what about rotom? Could one use one of it's forms as one required type, then change form on the fly?

Rotom can only be 1 Form at a time, and can only be changed via the back room in the Shopping Mall 9. To my knowledge, the only Pokémon who can change types on the fly are Meloetta (Relic Song), Castform (Sunny Day/Rain Dance/Hail), Kecleon (Color Change), and Arceus (being the victim of Thief/Covet/Trick while holding a Plate, or being Bestowed one while holding nothing). Also, victims of Soak could apply to this rule, so I should add that into the original post.

True enough, but I mean if someone signed up for, for example, a water team with one of rotom-W forms, could they then change it to Rotom-H outside of gym battles? This would moreso apply to electric type teams I suppose given they all share at least that typing, but still.

Yes, I suppose so, but I'm more referring to a form change inside of battle that changes type, rater than changing it outside of battle, since the form you use in battle would be on your gym team's application, and be locked in, rather than be flexible and able to be changed on the fly like the aforementioned examples.

So... forgive me for asking, but what's going on with the league exactly? Things seem to have grinded to a halt.

That would probably be because nobody's challenged anybody in a while, so there's not really much to be done. Maybe X and Y coming out will attract some new competitive people to challenge us, that would increase activity here (and everywhere else too!)...

Actually, I Re-Challenged Quad On the 10th, and I'm still waiting. But I do Agree with the X and Y statement. maybe It will attract new competition

Quick question: Is the Item Clause in effect for the league? I know it's not with the other listed clauses in the Guide, but maybe, somehow, it wasn't implemented into it or something...? (Always better to ask, right?)

The VR Gym League never has the item clause in effect. The only time it is, is under Nintendo rules during tournaments such as the VGCs. On VR though, you can have multiple Pokémon on your team hold the same item.

Fair enough.
Whats the word on gyms #4 and #5? I'd happily challenge them if it were possible, but last I heard one was having connection troubles or something along those lines and one was accepted and I assume to be setting up, though that was a growing amount of time ago.

Is it possible to re-challenge gym leaders? I'm getting REAL bored.

I've done it a few times, so definitely. You don't get any further rewards though. :P
Unless you count bragging rights as one of them *shot*

For the sake of clarity, I'd like to ask that anyone who has five or more badges to post the total number of badges in their possession in this thread.

I have a total of 6 badges.

I have a total of six badges.

Is It okay if I skip to the next Gym?
I issued my re-challenge over 2 months ago and received no response.

Total of 6 badges here :D

Yes, though you won't be able to complete the League in its entirety until you go back and defeat the Gym Leader in question at a later date.

When are the two new gyms even coming?

And I got 5 Badges...

I have 0 from the current league, cant get anyone to battle or i dont have good times to get online with them.

Any progress on the 2 missing gyms?

I'm pretty sure the gym league is over for now because of how close X and Y are to getting released. People can still challenge the current gym leaders, but I don't think there will be any new gym added. Once X and Y are here, the gym league will probably receive an overhaul.

In that case, know that I'll be applying for the position of Fairy-type Gym Leader as soon as I am able. I can't wait!

Yeah i'll just wait till X and Y come out to take on the league again, i havnt been able to battle anyone since this re-done league started. [Just hope alot of people have/get a 3ds just for X and Y]

Do you have to wait till X and Y to apply for a Gym leader spot im planning to do a fire type gym

You need to be an active user and wait for an open spot before becoming a gym leader.

I know theres two gyms missing i really dont know if them spots been filled all ready or everybody just waiting for X and Y to apply

Like I said before;
The two gym slots have not been filled and are probably not going to be filled in the time before X and Y are released.

Didn't RotomGuy become the Ghost Leader?

I didn't manage to finish my EV's before the League shut down, so I'm not sure what position I'm in.

Well here's hoping in X/Y the league returns better than ever- so that I can conquer it properly and keep my personal promise of getting as far as I can go as a challenger, haha.

Yeah me too, i didnt get even get started in this league at all.

With regards to the status the League is in, Spirit and I have been out of contact for some time-on my part (and most likely the same on his) due to academic responsibilities. That said, I will personally determine the status of all current Gym Leaders as well as the League, its future, etc. after consulting with other Staff members, should Spirit himself not become free within a few weeks.
I am equally accountable for the current state of affairs, unfortunately. With University having just started I'm under a mountain of work, and Labs begin on Monday. I will do my best to get some work done (as well as information released) regarding the League at least once or twice a week from now on.

I have two personal suggestions for the new gym league.

1.) Please bring it back to the online simulator, because not everyone have WiFi and it isn't fair to make it much more difficult for those who don't have WiFi to battle in the gym league.

2.) I am really not a fan of battling the gyms in order, it is not a good idea and I really think it should go back to the way that it was before.

Might as well share my own opinion about the gym league. (WARNING: rant)

The gym league is something that ultimately boils down to how much fun people have when they participate in it. In my time being here, I've participated in 2 leagues; one in 2011 where we used a simulator, while the other in 2012 was on DS wifi.

I'll be completely honest in saying this: I had more fun in the 2011 league- and I'm not just saying that just because I used to be the 8th Gym Leader. I don't know why, but I felt that the first gym league was more challenging, and winning just one gym battle felt so good because you knew that you were able to overcome a difficult challenge. However, the 2nd gym league felt more like a race to the end. It was still nice to participate in, but it just didn't have that same charm as the first league did.

I'll recount my own experiences when I got the chance to become a gym leader. For most of the time, I used an online simulator because that's what most people tended to use. However, there were also people who wanted to battle on DS instead. I felt bad that they were missing out on the league because they didn't want to use a simulator, so I ended up making a DS team to accept their challenges. In the end, I was able to satisfy everyone who wanted to battle me, be it through simulator or DS. What I'm trying to say...is that it really doesn't matter how you battle. Your main goal in the gym league should be to have fun.

Even though I now discourage the use of online simulators, I don't really care if other people use them. I'll admit that I miss being able to battle others through the use of one, but that could be just because of my lack of 3DS wifi in college. I hate thinking that I can't battle or trade people on my 3DS when I'm in college. And this doesn't apply to just Pokémon- I can't go on wifi for ANY game that I have. The only time I'll be able to do that is when I'm at my house, where my 3DS can actually connect to the internet.

Maybe, we could have two league one with Simulators and another with DS? This way is so everybody can be happy, and nobody will miss out on the league.

Long post warning.

So, umm, like
1.) I agree partially. The online simulator is a different experience from DS battling, one that's a little more cheap due to being able to ******* your way through every battle. Maybe your ides of a separate league, or some sort of silver and gold badge distinction for simulator and DS victories.

2.) Then it wouldn't really be a gym league. We didn't have an order before because we had gyms for ALL types and they weren't ranked by skill. Unless you wanna call it the Victory Road Frontier Brain Battle League. :P

First off, buy a hotspot. 3DS Wifi is compatible with it, I'm sure.

Now, I've never really experienced the first league. Too busy muttering a silent curse at whoever was the grass gym leader. But I think I battle Suicune a few times (no matter how much I hated it) and that's how we met. It was simple and pretty easy that way, with 90% of people leaning towards the simulator. Now I am (or should I say was?) the 8th gym leader and have experienced the new league. This way is less lax and more structured, but worked near parallel to the games.

Now, my personal problems with the new one.
1.) This one is obvious, Gen V sucked for battling. Sure, it was equipped with all the fancy tournament rules built in, but took out the option of a free Lvl 100/Lvl 50 all. Even worse, it made getting to level 100 very difficult without a second DS. Since I only have (and can only afford) one 3DS, if X/Y restrict trainer rematches then I don't know how I'd ever get all that EXP fast. (I haven't seen any spoilers yet, don't correct me. :I)

2.) It wasn't even finished. If the X and Y league is to have 8 max again, we need to make sure all the leaders are accounted for before it opens, please. I can't tell you how frustrated I was waiting for those 2-3 holes to be filled since I wasn't challenging an unfinished league. It looked unprofessional and no one got an Elite Four position.

3.) More participants! Back to the leveling up thing, I imagine most did not try because it was too difficult to put in all that effort into creating a team. I know I was on a team making high during that period, but now I don't think I could train a thing even if you paid me.

4.) Events. I remember Spirit posting about having events or some such stuff. But, we like had 1. Spice adds interest to food, so there needs to be more spice in the league. Now that the staff has been reworked to active members, moderate the hell out of it for me, pretty please?

5.) I like the number 5, this isn't really a problem. :D

Last thing, though Cat is all against it I'm sure, I'm all about the simulator idea. Though getting a 95% accurate English simulator would be difficult in the first few months, it makes everything more convenient. Especially considering the 2 weeks vacation rule for gym leaders, I know I'm taking my entire senior summer away from home (in Italy most likely) and I won't have Wifi for a whiiiiile. 2 different leagues or Gold/Silver badges could be a thing, hm?

Lets just hope X and Y brings back the auto-leveling for wifi that DDP/HGSS had. 5th gen got boring as i was the only one that had a few lv100's for a battle while others had like 2. Plus i bought a AR [action replay] just to get the rarecandys cheat so i could get pokes to lv100. [which i disliked, but i wanted to battle others from other sites as soon as possible at the time] but i hardly touch my AR nowdays unless im breeding for ivs using iv checker and quick egg cheats but thats it i dont like to use other hacks. [like that stupid all pokes shiny code]

We'll either have one league (over Wi-Fi) or no league. Let's hope they implement the automatic leveling this generation, or the league might get to be rather limited. If it does, I'm pretty sure the league will be just as fun as the first one was. The activity of the league is directly proportional to how interesting the league is.

I can confirm that my hotspot works fine with the 3DS after I configured it a bit. College Wi-Fi is terrible. It uses WPA2 Enterprise, which is very annoying to use with various devices because of the login system (instead of just a password).

Why can't we have a league for simulator, everybody like it when we had one and now the gym league isn't as fun as it used to be and it is also not as active.

Here is my official response:

I know the simulator vs. DS debate has been going on for years now, I still feel the need to defend simulators so I'm just going to do it.

The current gym league is obviously less active than the one from 2011, and there is no single reason for why. Black and White's neutered Wi-Fi system is likely a large contributor, though. I really hope that X and Y receives a fix which would allow for auto-100 battles, but we will just have to wait and see. Grinding all of your Pokemon to level 100 is a pain for everyone, and was likely a strain for everyone. Training Pokemon is getting harder, and it has to do with more than grinding.

Let's say the Normal-type Gym leader wants to use a special wall Clefable on his/her team. Softboiled, Seismic Toss, Encore, Thunder Wave, and Magic Guard. One would have to transfer tutor a Clefairy in Fire Red or Leaf Green, send it to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and pray that received Magic Guard, send that to Black/White, and finally send that to X/Y. Obviously one could just use a different Pokemon, but my point is that all manners of team making are becoming more strenuous, and this is limiting activity. Simulators allow teams to be made quickly and with legitimate strategy, so you have far fewer put off by the prospect of team-building.

Also, as someone who has used simulators for years, I can vouch for how much fun they can be. In 2011 I fought AuraKshatriya, The Spirit of Time, and Blues a large number of times, as all three wanted my gym badge but had to face me multiple times to get it. All of our battles were a great deal of fun, and judging by how long Aura and I chatted after he finally beat me I think it is fair to say that he felt quite a bit of achievement. The reason for his immense feelings of joy after beating me? Not to sound vain, but he felt great because my team was really incredible. I didn't just pick the top-ranking Flying-type OU Pokemon and slap them together on a team. I ran damage calculations, meshed proper types together, and altered the team when playing against players in standard OU. My team didn't lose to those with teams which were obviously stacked only with the "best" Pokemon; it took legitimate strategy to beat me. I'm not saying this because I am a narcissist, I am saying it because, having great experience with both, there is little strategical difference between simulators and DS's. I had the same team on both medium. They both won a lot, and the simulator wasn't slow, I could use it while vacationing, people were just about always willing to use it, and most importantly of all, I did-

Wi-Fi connection lost. Please turn off DS and re-enter Wi-Fi club because Nintendo doesn't always have the best servers, especially when you are thirty turns into a battle and it could have gone either way.

Oh, and having gone over some other points, I think the League should use the Battle Frontier style of acquiring badges. It worked really well before and allows you to challenge other Gym leaders when others are not available to fight. It may not be a Gym League in the style of the main games, but it works well.

We'll see what X and Y hold in store for Wi-Fi battling, but simulators will most likely remain banned.

For now, I'm locking this thread.

If anyone could find out if Level 100 battles are restored in Pokémon X and Y, I would appreciate it.

Well, that's it. The gym league is definitely coming back due to Level 50 battles.

Details here.

(This also means simulators and hacking are officially banned completely.)

Haha! This going to be fun. I havnt had a good wifi battle since 4th gen. Im back baby!

im excited for the league to be back, can't wait to be a part of it. I SHALL BECOME VR LEAGUE CHAMPION

Can I be expected to reprise my role as Grass Gym Leader? It was fun while it lasted.

Of course. We're going to start reorganizing it ASAP. Aura and Spirit have both been busy, so we may have someone else helping with it.

Jeez, can I get time to beat the game and get a feel for it? I still know pretty much... nothing about this new region. Plus the fact that I can't import anything so I'll be stuck having to make new teams...

Do you have a prospective date for reopening?

I'm hoping about a month before we get serious with things.

Nobody's a gym leader yet. The game was just released. :P

Hope i can be gym leader, i was never one yet here. Plus u figure i got great teams i can make.

Seeing as the release of Pokemon Bank isn't likely until mid-December, it seems we may have an even longer delay on the League coming back... ._.

Pokemon Bank dosen't really make much of a difference though...... Theres only 6 Pokemon in a team after all

Well people do want to use the pokemon they worked hard for in the Last Gen so it does seem fair

I think you're thinking about the storage it offers, but I don't care about it. It's costly. I only want it for its transfer purposes, because I have things that I've trained that are still very useful to me.

But even so, I'm not weak and I'll try to train something spectacular BEFORE December! HA HA!

That is true, for the most part. I too am mostly interested in the transfer purposes, as Turtwig states. Some people will more than oblige to sticking strictly to the games, GTS, and Wonder Trade so they don't have to pay "$4.99 a year".

HAHA! No one said you were weak! *cough* ;)
More to the point, however, you'll be slightly limited on some things until December if you previously had a team with certain moves and such from DPPl/HGSS.

My apologies. I didn't realise you need Pokemon Bank in order to bring old Pokemon over.... I guess I will just use the trial and thats that

I almost have a team ready already, so im good till the bank comes out.

I like how EV training is much easier now :I

For the gym league, are we allow to submit you a team that we have on our 5th generation games that we would like to use for the league after Pokebank is release?

I would assume so, seeing as the League isn't scheduled to open until sometime after PokéBank is released.

Yes, you are allowed to do that.

Is the league have to have the item clause?

The gym league never supported item clause and never will. :3

ok im just making sure.

Aww dang it. Do I have permission to change an item I put on one of my Pokes? He'd be far better off with something else.

Go ahead, I won't be really looking at them closely until 2 weeks from now. :p

Oh! before i forget, when will the VR gym league be starting up now that Pokebank is out.

Well I can start my gym right now.

I could start mine too, the thing im not sure of what to do is making my gym thread. Cause everyone had there own way of doing there gym threads.