The first few fans to get Pokémon Sword and Shield at a release event on Nov. 15 in New York City celebrate their purchase. Pokémon Sword and Shield has 400 monsters to catch and is the first full Pokémon game released on the Nintendo Switch.
When Paul Chua first picked up a copy of Pokémon Sword in November, he knew he was ready to invest another hundred hours into the monster-collecting adventure to see which Pokémon was the very best. It's common for top competitive players to completely submerge themselves in a new game as soon as it hits store shelves.
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This time was a little different, though, as Chua didn't have to do it all himself. Instead, he grabbed a rental team.
"I just saw one of the Japanese players I follow share the team he was using," Chua said. "He found a six-mon squad including a Tyranitar, Arcanine, Mimikyu, Gastrodon, Corviknight and Rotom-Heat that he could easily download and play with himself. It's part of Pokémon Sword and Shield's rental system, where players can upload teams to share with other players and the wider community as a whole.
"I have used rental teams at the beginning, and I used them to get up to Master Ball rank [in online play] and then tried to create small variations based on that team," said Chua, who has competed in multiple Pokémon championships. "The only changes I made were pretty small, such as just changing attacks and items."
The process of building a competitive team in Pokémon is far more arduous than most casual fans or outsiders would think. Getting monsters with the best possible stats requires dozens of hours of work, if not more. From there, players have to make decisions on compositions, items to give their team members, in-match strategies and how their Pokémon fare in advantageous, neutral and disadvantageous matchups.
The rental-team system serves as a shortcut. It lets players figure out what they like before they go through the days of effort it will take to get their roster just right. That creates a gateway for new and veteran Pokémon masters alike to get exposure to the more intense competitive aspect of the game.
"[Rental teams] can open up the game and make testing easier, but some teams became so popular via rental codes that players started to take advantage of that," Pokémon competitor and commentator Markus Stadter said. "One way is by preparing a specific strategy for a common matchup, and the other thing is to mimic a popular rental team but change the movesets a lot."
The rental system was first introduced in Pokémon Sun and Moon, but it was held back due to a few awkward design choices. Players had to log in to a Pokémon account and create a QR code in order to share their teams, which was needlessly difficult. Sword and Shield lets players share their teams via 14-digit codes, and from there, any player worldwide can enter the code and match up against other players online with the rental squad.
The game doesn't organize the available teams in any efficient way, though, so the Pokémon community has come together to build rental-team resources at sites like Victory Road and Trainer Tower.
"Rental teams are a great way to try out different team compositions before breeding and training them yourself," Stadter said. "It makes competitive play very accessible, and it's even possible to get a high rank using rental teams while improving and seeing other players' strategies. I have exclusively used rental teams so far in online play because I haven't decided yet what team I want to get in-game."
Sword and Shield is still fresh, having been released only in November. The 2020 competitive season doesn't kick off until Jan. 4, but fans will have their first chance to see top players test out their new teams at the Victory Road World Champion Invitational 2020 on Saturday. Eight winners of past championships will all meet in the community-run tournament.
Some of the top strategies, including new Pokémon like the steel/flying bulky bird Corviknight and the fossilized water/dragon-type monster Dracovish, are available for up-and-coming players to try out and tweak without ever catching or optimizing them. Chua, for example, reached the No. 1 spot in ranked online play after adopting the team composition of the Japanese player whose team he's renting but slightly altering the moves those Pokémon used.
"It's a strong tool that is going to help players to get in touch with already tested teams so they can practice different play styles and archetypes in a fast way without having to invest time in getting the team ready in-game," said Ecuadorian Pokémon player Paul Ruiz, who is competing in the invitational, "while at the same time letting them explore different options directly from top players that share their teams."
The rental teams are a welcome addition to the community, especially after Game Freak announced that only 450 Pokémon would be available in Sword and Shield, down from the total 800 Pokémon in the series. It's a change that will continue into future titles as well, as all upcoming games will feature a different combination of creatures rather than the full Pokédex, according to the game developer.
"Regional formats aren't affected at all by this change, but National and Restricted Dex might not see the light anymore," competitive player Dave Cognetta said. "Personally speaking, this is a positive change. It helps the balance of the game and avoids multiple threats running rampant all at the same time, avoiding an increase of the power creep year by year. It also gives the chance for more uncommon Pokémon to shine in a limited context, where they don't need to fear competition with other, often better, Pokémon similar to them."
The Pokémon Company adjusts the tournament rule set each season, meaning that some years already featured a limited set of monsters. Competition in 2014 and 2017 was restricted to Pokémon from the new Kalos and Alola regions, respectively. The limited number of Pokémon might not be completely new to players, but it could encourage different metagames and team compositions.
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"Limited formats force you to use Pokémon that weren't in the limelight before, like Excadrill, Rotom-Mow and Braviary, who are a lot better this year than ever before," Stadter said. "In National Dex formats like 2013, 2015 or 2018, Pokémon like Cresselia, Heatran and Landorus-Therian were always popular because they are well-rounded and they outclass a lot of other Pokémon."
Even if The Pokémon Company decides to use the national Pokedex for future tournaments, making almost every Pokémon in-game available for competition, it would still be restricted in that each game has only 450 monsters to choose from. We'd still see unorthodox choices and a wider variety of strategies at the highest level of play.
While we might not see the Pokédex change have a huge effect this year, it could mix things up down the line. On the other hand, the rising utility of rental teams means we could see some fresh faces and new strategies at the championship on Saturday.
For Chua, who has been around the competitive Pokémon community for years, a squad built off of for-hire pocket monsters might have some staying power.
"I really like the way it feels," he said, "so I will probably try and build off it."
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