>>58224780
Played OU quite a bit but haven't done anything but casual laddering in a long time. Ranked #12 on the SM OU ladder at some point.

not on cartridge really. i know they keep making it easier to field a competitive team, but showdown will always be easier. i mostly play randbats there, whenever i try and teambuild, or even pilot a sample team, i get stomped. i’m a part of a draft league too, and managed to go 6-0 through the regular season. i’m just waiting for the playoffs, which i think start today

>>58224780
I played Pokemon Online a lot back in 2010-2011ish

In 2013 I entered a VGC national championships and got top 32 with a rain team I borrowed from my friend

Planning on getting into champions when that comes out it looks pretty fun

Smogon is more important than campaign in general

>>58224780
I used to between Gens V and VII. I didn't have a WEP based internet for very long so I had to wait until I got a 3DS to do some BW2 battles in the lead up to XY. Between the PSS making requesting battles easy as hell, my friends all having 3DS' during college so we'd all battle each other during Gen VI's relevance and how streamlined team building became I got into it quite a bit.
I never competed since I'd been to a few Smash locals by that point and hated being around sweaty, unwashed nerds with elitism.
I'd dabble in both Smogon OU/Randoms and on cart in whatever formats were available, but mostly Doubles as I really liked the team building and strategies it'd lend itself to (plus it gave me the opportunity to use Espeon which had become my bro in Colosseum, Magic Bounce + Screens + Light Clay enabled practically any team I made).
Fell out of love towards the end of 2016 though, my friends stopped playing so I had less and less reason to hop on Showdown or battle online, but I did enjoy cheating people out of a win with Disguise Mimikyu back when it was still new lol.
I won't know if I prefer turn based or real time until I'm hands on with ZA but I'm interested in seeing how it goes, it definitely has potential, but it could also just become a cheese fest similar to a CyberConnect 2 anime arena fighter where people just pick the cheapest supports to lock you in place while you block and guard break you/whittle down your substitution bar and wail on you when the opportunity presents itself, only in this case, spamming powerful moves with a large radius with a speedy Mon to take advantage of the slower cooldowns.

>>58224780
At a midpoint between casual and competitive for online singles. Fell out of competitive after USUM. Never got the appeal of Doubles/VGC so I’ve always stuck with singles. I only use Showdown now since I don’t play online often enough to pay for it.

>>58224780
I used to casually play Smogon OU and UU in gens 6 and 7
Dynamax, Dexit, movepool nerfs and the natdex treason (wasn't originally supposed to have pre-gen8 battle gimmicks in it) made me quit

>>58224780
I'm only doing it for the Master Rank ribbon. Currently at Pokeball rank due to getting distracted with a DK Bananza rental.
I'm not enjoying both.

Started during gen 4, stopped with gen 7, it was no longer fun, everything was the same overpowered shit being spammed every match with the UBs Tapus Megas etc., even lower tiers didn't stracth that itch for me anymore

>>58225634
Gen4 with pre showdown simulator was peak. Everyone was just playing with their favorite Pokemon instead of meta try harding.

>>58224780
Since 5th gen I've only played VGC. Doubles is just more fun and lets you pull off synergy and combos you don't get from singles, Smogon or 3v3 Battle Stadium. I prefer turn based. There are plenty of action and fighting games, but Pokemon fills a niche few games do. It's basically Chess, but with a hidden information aspect. "What Pokemon will they bring to the battle? What could its moves and stats be? What move will my opponent pick this turn and how do I counter it?" You don't really get that from many other games so it'd be a shame to see Pokemon head down the path of just becoming a generic fighting game.