GTCL (Gemstone Traditional Contest League)
revised and clarified 5/13/08

The GTCL is based on the Ruby/Sapphire GBA games. Unlike the VLCL and SACL, there is no battling in this league. There are five different contests you can enter in the GTCL: Beauty, Cool, Cute, Smart, and Tough, and each one has a Normal, Super, Hyper and Master Rank. Also unlike the VLCL and SACL, instead of winning ribbons for yourself, in this league, your pokemon win the ribbons.


Rules for Participating:

~ In the contest hall forum, start by saying you want to enter the GTCL, then say which contest (Beauty, Cool, Cute, Smart or Tough) you want to enter, and with which pokemon you want to enter. If you have already entered that contest hall for another contest (ex. For the SACL), you need to post in the same topic, even though you’re challenging a different contest.
~ You can only use one pokemon per contest.
~ Any pokemon can enter any Normal Rank Contest, but only pokemon with the preceding ribbon(s) of the correct contest can enter the Super, Hyper and Master rank contests. So if your Kecleon has a Cool Normal Rank Ribbon, it cannot enter the Beauty Super Rank contest, but it can enter the Cool Super Rank contest. Because your pokemon are the ones winning the ribbons, you must use the same pokemon when challenging the next level of contest hall.

After a mod verifies your eligibility to enter the contest you request, you will be taken onstage. The announcer will introduce all coordinators participating in the contest and the pokemon they are using; this is the preliminary appeal. Each coordinator is equally spread out on the stage so their pokemon can properly use its attacks.



The Preliminary Appeal:

The Preliminary Appeal is the first impression of each coordinators pokemon on the audience and judges, and the points earned from the appeal make up half of the total score. The Preliminary Appeal, or Entrance, is judged mainly on two things:
~ appearance, as determined by pokeblocks previously used and scarves (if worn)
~ how the coordinator describes their pokemon’s entrance onto the stage. (Your pokemon remains in their ball up until this point.) Entrances should be rehearsed to score well. Unlike the SACL and VLCL, you do not need to perform an attack to increase your score in this appeal, but you are allowed to use one. This is only an entrance, so do NOT go into an elaborate combo appeal, or it will hurt you more than help. Keep in mind that the entrance is only a first impression, and happens only in a matter of seconds, so don’t overplay it. Seals can be used, but their use alone will not help your score, you must work them into your entrance description.
Having previously used pokeblocks or wearing certain scarves can greatly add points to your preliminary appeal score. Find out how by reading the pokeblock section.



The Appeal Round:

After the Preliminary Appeal (the entrance), there are 5 appeal rounds in which each coordinator’s pokemon uses one attack (only one per round).
~ The effects of each attack can be found on Serebii’s Attackdex, and because each attack has a different effect, the order they are performed in is important.
~ Coordinators are allowed to repeat a move back to back, but you will lose 2 points from your points earned that round if you do.
~ Voltage, or the excitement of the audience, is rated on a scale of 0-5, and can be increased by using attacks of that contest's type (using a cool move in a cool contest). When the voltage reaches 5, it goes back to 0, and the coordinator who caused it to reach 5 gets 6 additional points to their score for that round.
~ The order each coordinator’s pokemon appeals in is determined by how many points he/she has. The first round is determined by who scored highest in the preliminary appeal. The highest scorer gets to appeal first. After that round the pokemon with the most points appeals first, unless an attack is used which has an effect that would change this (ex. Reversal).
~ Mods will keep a running total of each coordinator’s points, and post how many points each coordinator earns that round.

During the Appeal Rounds, the Mod will Keep Track of:

~ Each coordinator's running score and score for that round
~ Pokemon the judge is expecting a combo from (see all combos here. These combos use the first attack one round and the second attack the round immediately following; they do NOT use two attacks in the same round.)
~ The order the coordinators get to appeal in
~ Applause level (aka Voltage) (0-5)

After 5 Appeal Rounds, the preliminary score and the appeal round scores are added together. The coordinator with the highest score wins the contest, and their pokemon is given the ribbon for that contest. Like the SACL and VLCL, there is also a cash prize for the winning coordinator.



Differences Between the Contest Halls:
incorporated April 5, 2009

First Contest Hall - Opponents only know their moves up to level 30, up to one "other move"; Players can only blend 2 berries at a time in their pokeblocks.

Second Contest Hall - Opponents only know their moves up to level 50, up to two "other moves"; Players can blend up to 3 berries at a time in a single pokeblock.

Third Contest Hall - Opponents only know their moves up to level 70 and can know up to 3 "other moves"; Players can blend up to 4 berries at a time in a single pokeblock.

Fourth/Final Contest Hall - Opponents can know any of their level up moves and any of their "other moves"; Players can blend up to 4 berries at a time in a single pokeblock.



Berries and Pokeblocks: What They Do

Berries can be obtained by finding them in your journey, through special events such as promos, or some wild pokemon might be caught holding them. You can also buy and grow your own berries in the Berry Nursery. Berries can be used for contests or battling. Here are some of the berries we use, along with their effects:

Cheri Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes red block, ups Coolness one level; Battling: heals paralysis in battle

Chesto Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes blue block, ups Beauty one level; Battling: wakes pokemon in battle

Pecha Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes pink block, ups Cuteness one level; Battling: cures poisoning

Rawst Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes green block, ups Smartness one level; Battling: cures burn

Aspear Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes yellow block, ups Toughness one level; Battling: defrosts pokemon in battle

Oran Berry*: Contest/Pokeblock: mix with other berry listed above to up that contest type (beauty, cool, etc.) ups two levels; Battling: retores a little health

Persim Berry: Contest/Pokeblock: makes pink block, ups Cuteness one level; Battling: cures confusion

*All berries that are at least 4 flavors (oran, sitrus, lum...) can be mixed with other berries to double whatever flavors those berries have. (So mixing an oran and a nanab berry would give you a Pink Pokeblock w/+2 Cute and +2 Toughness; mixing a sitrus berry with a grepa berry would give you a Brown Pokeblock w/+2 Beauty, +2 Cute and +2 Toughness.)

We use most berries on Snowl's Space. To check what what each berry does, reference Serebii's Berrydex. When blending a pokeblock, specify which Berrydex you are using (DP or original) because some of the berries are listed with different flavors. The flavor of the berry would add one point to the pokeblock for each flavor the berry has. Flavors translate as thus:

spicy - cool
dry - beauty
sweet - cute
sour - tough
bitter - smart

You need at least two berries to use the berry blender, and the blocks created will be added to your profile saying what level of block it is (ex: you blend an oran and a rawst so you get a level 2 green pokeblock, meaning it ups your pokemon's smartness two levels.) You cannot blend together more than 4 berries in one pokeblock.

A pokemon's max is ten levels per flavor (a maxed out pokemon would have Beauty: 10, Coolness: 10, etc...) and each berry used in a pokeblock raises a certain stat one level. If you blend an oran berry with two other different berries, we'll say chesto and persim, then the pokeblock would be a purple level 4: +2 cute lvs. and +2 beauty lvs. Your pokemon can have up to 30 levels total between the different categories (so it's can't max out on every level), which means you should think through which areas would be best to boost it in.

The advantage of using berries/pokeblocks: when you enter a contest, your appeals 'grades' are raised by 5% per level of the type of contest you are in. So if you are in a tough contest and your pokemon has a level 2 toughness (of 10), and your initial judge score is a 79 (max score is 100), then your new score because of your toughness level would be 89! Cool deal eh? You cannot receive a score over 100 for the preliminary round, even if your pokemon is maxed out. (So if you score an 80 in the Beauty Contest, and your pokemon's Beauty is 10, you will get a score of 100, not 130. However, if there is a tie between two pokemon that both score 100 in the preliminary round, this advantage will be taken into account.)



Scarves:

Wearing the correct scarf during a contest will increase your pokemon's preliminary score by rounding it up to the next multiple of 10. This means if you scored an 81 in the Smart Contest and your pokemon is wearing a Green Scarf, then your score it increased to 90. Here are the scarves for each contest:

Red Scarf - Cool Contest
Yellow Scarf - Tough Contest
Green Scarf - Smart Contest
Blue Scarf - Beauty Contest
Pink Scarf - Cute Contest



Ribbons and Winnings:

These ribbons are attached to your pokemon that won the contest.

Beauty:

Cool:

Smart:

Tough:

Cute:

When the contest ends, the host will attach the contest ribbon to your pokemon.
It will then appear in your profile like this:

Rhyhorn
Type: Ground/Rock
Level: 22
Status: Normal
Happiness: 7.25
Toughness: 8
Gender: Male
Nickname: Chuck
OT: Charlie
Item: Yellow Scarf
Ribbons:

If your pokemon has ribbons from more than one contest, it would look like this:

Absol
Type: Dark
Level: 31
Status: Normal
Happiness: 9
Coolness: 7
Smartness: 7
Gender: Male
Nickname: none
OT: Krista
Other Moves: Calm Mind
Item: Green Scarf
Ribbons:

Unlike the SACL and VLCL, the GTCL does not have a Grand Festival. Instead, it has an Honorary Hall of Fame. Pokemon who have obtained the Master Rank Ribbon in 2 different contests or more are placed in the Hall of Fame. For having trained their pokemon to come so far and win the minimum of 8 ribbons, the pokemon's coordinator is given a considerable monetary award and an Honorary Ribbon Cup, the only reward given to coordinators in this league (since all the ribbons go to the pokemon). Because it is possible for a coordinator in this league to have multiple pokemon reach this achievement, it is also possible for the coordinator to be rewarded with more than one GTCL Ribbon Cup, but the monetary award is only granted the first time.


If you have any questions regarding the GTCL, feel free to pm me!

These Contest Rules and Ribbons are ©Snowl. It took a long time to work them out, so please do not steal them or the owls will eat you.