After Decades, Pokémon Finally Got Me To Look At It In A New Way

A Kotaku writer says competitive Pokémon once felt discouraging because viability talk and optimized teams made play feel exclusionary.

Pokémon Champions brought them back to ranked matches by making it easier to compete with a personally chosen team, even without full roster features.

Instead of chasing only meta picks, they found that sticking with favorites like Raichu could still be rewarding and fun.

The piece argues the new battling format may make competitive Pokémon feel more welcoming to longtime fans.