The first Pokemon Scarlet and Violet ranked season is almost underway. It kicks off tomorrow and runs until January, so if you're looking for a chance to prove your mettle on the competitive Pokemon circuit, you won't have much longer to wait.
As ever, this new ranked season will come with a brand new set of rules. You'll only be able to use Pokemon from the Paldean 'Dex, so hopefully you've assembled a powerful team in Scarlet and Violet. You can compete in either singles or doubles games, both of which will last 10 minutes overall, with 60-second limits on choosing your team and taking your turn.
Legendary and Paradox Pokemon are also banned from this ranked season, so no using that nasty glitch that duplicates legendaries. However, you're free to Terastallize Pokemon to your heart's content, so if you've found a particularly mean Tera-type Pokemon, there's nothing stopping you from using it. Competition is done via Pokemon's online battle system, so get ready to jump in starting from tomorrow.
Nintendo addresses Pokemon Scarlet and Violet performance...sort of
As well as the ranked season, tomorrow will also see the release of a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet update. It'll add the aforementioned ranked battle system, which you can access through the Battle Stadium, as well as a couple of bug fixes. You'll need to free up about 1GB of memory on your Switch for it.
One specific bug Nintendo makes reference to in the patch announcement caused music to play incorrectly when facing the Elite Four and the Champion, and that bug should be fixed with this patch. Other "select bug fixes" have also been implemented, which should make your Paldean adventure a touch smoother.
Nintendo also makes mention of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's performance, which has been one of the biggest points of contention and has led to users creating mods to help the game run a little better. The company says it's aware players may "encounter issues that affect the games' performance" and offers an apology "for the inconvenience". Furthermore, Nintendo says it's taking player feedback seriously and is "working on improvements" to Scarlet and Violet. We'll have to see what those improvements entail in future.
In the meantime, while you're waiting for the ranked season and new update to drop, why not take a look at our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet guides to help you through your adventure in Paldea?
