Grand Festival

Dawn performing with Piplup and Pachiriscu

The Grand Festival is the final step as a Pokémon Coordinator to take. In order to qualify, Coordinators must have at least five ribbons. This tournament happens only once a year but in several regions. Like other Pokémon Contests there is an appealing portion and a battling portion. However, in this competition two Pokémon are required for each portion. The winner of the Grand Festival recieves the Ribbon Cup of that region.

Locations

• Slateport City (Hoenn)
• Indigo Plateau (Kanto)
• Lake Valor (Sinnoh)

Competition Rounds

Preliminary Appeal round (Double Performance or Single Performance)

135 Coordinators must produce impressive appeals with their Pokémon, by having them produce one move:

Only the best 32 progress through the main appeal round the next day

Main Appeal round (Double Performance or Single Performance)

32 Coordinators must produce impressive appeals with their Pokémon, by having them produce many moves:

Only the best 8 coordinators go through to the Double Battle Round the next day

Battle round

On the 3rd day of the tournament, 8 Coordinators face each other in knock-out double battles.

Matches last for 5 minutes and the Coordinator with the least points loses if both opponents still have a Pokémon standing. The Coordinator who wins all 3 matches is the winner of the tournament.

Double Battle round

The double battle round is the round in a Pokémon Contest Grand Festival. The purpose of the round is to have the Pokémon battle each other while still making their moves look beautiful.

Each round is five minutes long, except for Sudden Death, which has no time limit.

Scoring

Each contestant begins with a fixed number of points.

These points are lost when

1. An opponent's move hits their Pokémon,
2. Their move misses or doesn't look beautiful,
3. The contestant is issued a yellow card,
4. A Pokémon's combo fails.

Additionally, contestants can be disqualified upon

1. Being found cheating or issued a second yellow card,
2. Presumably being issued a red card.

Winning

A winner in the double battle round is determined by one or all of three criteria;

1. Whoever has more points when time runs out or loses all their points first
2. If two of the Pokémon of one team faints.

If there is a tie upon time running out, the double battle goes into Sudden Death.

Sudden Death

Sudden Death is an extension of the double battle if there is a tie at the end of five minutes.

There is no time limit in Sudden Death. The round ends when one person runs out of points.

Trivia

In the games, there are no grand festivals unlike in the anime.

Gallery

Piplup and Togekiss performing in the Grand Festival.

A Coordinator performing with her Pokemon

The winner shown on a display board