The Spectacular Contest Hall!
Under the dazzling lights of the stage, watched by thousands of people, it is time to put ferocity and the rules of battle aside, and conquer the hearts of the spectators through elegance, skill, and cunning! Welcome to the Contest Hall, where the magic can happen and the very air glitters with grace!
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( Cheat Sheet | Rewards | View Contest Threads )
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- Entering the Contest Hall costs
JC, 
Comet Shards, and/or 
Star Pieces, depending on the Contest Level.
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Super Contest (Level 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 JC1 Star Piece | 3 JC2 Star Pieces | 6 JC1 Comet Shard3 Star Piece | 10 JC1 Comet Shard4 Star Pieces |
Contest Summary
Players are coordinators, leading their contestant Pokemon through routines to wow and amaze onlookers! Coordinators lead their competitor Pokemon to victory by earning the highest score from the Judges—and the audience of readers viewing their thread—over multiple rounds.
Sign up for a Contest Level with your contestant Pokemon; and pick a Genre (Beautiful, Clever, Cool, Cute, or Tough) to be your Pokemon's Specialty for the contest. Know that you will need to perform in many Genres in a contest; not just your specialty. Once 5+ coordinators are in a queue for the same Contest Level, a referee will take three (3) from the queue at random as a contest pod. You may need to target a Contest Level that's populated; that's expected!
To note, though: a ref is excluded from the random pool and doesn't count towards the number of players needed for a Contest to fire. Be careful if you want to pull double duty!
Those players will DM the referee with different moves known by their contestant, up to the Contest's "production length", to be their "Production" — the contestant will appeal using only moves chosen in their Production. You're essentially cutting your movepool down to a subset for the contest, so choose and strategize carefully!
The Contest Level determines the contest's Production Length, the Voting Bonus, and the number of Appeal Rounds, as determined below.
| Contest Level | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Super (Level 4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Appeal Rounds | 3 | 4 | 6 | 9 |
Production Length | 10 | 14 | 21 | 31 |
Voting Score Bonus | 8 | 11 | 16 | 25 |
Format
1v1v1 Contest
36-hour Player DQ
72-hour Referee DQ
"Battle" Level is equal to Contest Level.
Other match rules are inapplicable.
If a coordinator is disqualified before the voting phase starts, the contest returns to the queue of the appropriate Level to seek a new entrant. Sometimes, enough entrants will be in queue for the contest to "fire" again with the new pod of players, with the same ref.
A coordinator who is disqualified after the voting phase has started, is played by the referee for the remainder of the contest. The referee can earn player progress rewards for rounds spent piloting that coordinator; so they have a vested interest in defeating the remaining players!
If all coordinators are disqualified, the Contest ends prematurely.
Move Data for Contests
Every Move in the game has its own block of Contest-specific data, including flavor text and effect text, like so:
The move's Genre, Appeal rating, Jam rating, and Contest Effects are used only in Contests. The move's Tags are shared with its battle data.
Pokemon in Contests
In a Contest, each Pokemon has the following properties:
- An integer Score, that starts at zero. Score can become negative, so watch out!
- A genre Specialty, being one of the five Contest Genres, that they signed up with.
- A list of moves, called a production, that was sent in with them.
- Each move in the production is either ready to be used or stricken from the production, after having been used.
- A single bearing, or major status, that starts out as a Neutral bearing and can be changed by effects later.
- A number of marks, or minor status, that starts empty. Pokemon can gain marks from effects later.
The Unveiling and Voting Phases
The first phase of any Contest, before any rounds are played, is the "Unveiling". Each player will introduce their contestant and coordinator, in-character, with a written scene or dialogue that showcases their personality and charm. Players might write about how much their Pokemon can eat, how cute they are, how fast they can run, or anything else they think could sway an audience.
Your Unveiling won't win any votes if no one reads it, so carefully consider how much you write!
Once all three players have posted their Unveiling, the referee will create a 48-hour poll in the thread, with the three contestants as options. The poll should ask readers which of the Unveilings was their favorite, and it should list the options in the format "Trainer's Pokemon, Nickname!"
Any passerby—BBP player or mere spectator—can vote in the thread poll to choose their favorite Unveiling! After the poll time ends, the contestant with the most votes will start the appeal phases with a bonus to their Score, depending on the Contest Level. The referee gets to decide ties at their own discretion, so keep that in mind as you write!
The Appeal Phases
following the unveiling, coordinators and their competitors will participate in consecutive rounds of appeal-based judging. players will post, ordering their competitors to appeal using the moves from their program, to gain score and excite the judges.
Standings and Post Order
At the start of each Appeal Phase, the referee will post the current standings: Each contestant's current Score, Bearing, Marks, and any moves remaining in their Production. These standings will also include the Judge's genre preferences, and the Post Order for the current Appeal Phase.
Using each Pokemon's Score, and the presence or absence of the "Opening" and "Closing" Marks, the Post Order is determined as follows:
- Pokemon with Opening and without Closing will order first; followed by Pokemon with neither Mark or both Marks; followed by Pokemon with Closing.
- Within this, Pokemon with lower Score will order before Pokemon with higher Scores.
- Within this, Post Order will be determined randomly.
Contest Orders
In their order post, coordinators will issue Contest Orders to their contestant, which will strongly resemble Battle Orders:
"Dazzle them, Darling! Show them what you can do!"
Snowscape - Blizzard - Icy Wind
Darling the Milotic will appeal to the Judges by performing the moves Snowscape, then Blizzard, then Icy Wind, in sequence.
Unlike in battles, there are no steps in the round. Darling will appeal with their moves all in a row; then, the next contestant will appeal with all of their moves in a row.
The first contestant in a round gets to perform three moves, the middle contestant gets two moves, and the last contestant gets only one move. However, many moves disrupt or hinder contestants who appealed before the user in the round. This means your preferred place in turn order will depend on your strategy—and you may often find yourself fighting over a certain placement!
Appeal, Jamming, and SensationsWhen a contestant performs a move as an appeal, the following processes occur in sequence:
- Excite: Any Judge that currently prefers the move's Genre gains one (1) Excitement, if able.
- Appeal: If the move has any Appeal (not --), the user's Score is increased by the move's calculated Appeal:
- The move's base Appeal is increased by one (1) if its Genre is the user's Specialty.
- Then, if the move is a Sensation, the move's Appeal is doubled (x2).
- Then, if move won any amount of Ovations (see below), the move's Appeal is doubled (x2).
- (Yes, this does mean that scoring an Ovation on a Sensation quadruples (x4) the Score gained.)
- Jam: If the move has any Jam (not --), each prior contestant in the current round loses Score, equal to the move's Jam. Some effects modify, prevent, or redirect Jamming.
- Effect: Any execution effects of the move, in the move's contest effect text, are followed as instructions.
(Effects that aren't triggered effects, ongoing effects, or data-setting effects are execution effects.)
Some effects, including those of the move itself, may state that a move is a "Sensation". A move's Appeal is doubled once if it is a Sensation—multiple sources of "being a Sensation" don't stack.
After performing a move as an appeal, that move is stricken from the user's Production (with
[s]strikethrough[/s])—it has become old news. The user can't perform stricken moves as appeals, except while their bearing is Endearing, below.
Referees should post each contestant's production alongside their scores each round, in hide tags, so that coordinators can plan their next moves.
Judges and ExcitementEvery contest is paneled by three Judges: A Novice Judge, a Seasoned Judge, and a Master Judge. The Genre preferences of these Judges will greatly influence your contest strategy. The referee is encouraged to select any NPC trainers they find fun to serve as Judges.
At the start of each Appeal Phase, the Novice and Seasoned Judges will choose Genres at random, from among Genres they haven't yet preferred this contest, as their default Preference for the round. Once they've preferred all five Genres, they start again. That fifth round, where the Judges' upcoming Preferences can be known for sure, is a very crucial round!
The Master Judge will instead choose a Genre at random at the start of the first Appeal Phase. This will be the Master Judge's default Preference for the entire contest, though effects can still temporarily change it.
All three Judges have an amount of Excitement, starting at zero. When a contestant performs a move of a Genre they prefer, their Excitement increases by one. Each Judge has their own maximum Excitement: two (2) for the Novice, three (3) for the Seasoned, and five (5) for the Master.
A Judge with maximum Excitement is "fully excited", and a Judge with minimum Excitement is "fully calm". A move that fully excites one or more Judge wins an ovation from those Judge. This does stack with being a Sensation, meaning that managing the Judges are crucial to earning large amounts of Score.
Once a Judge has given an ovation, they become fully calm and gain Ovation Fatigue for the rest of the round. While they have Ovation Fatigue, their excitement can't change any more that round, and they can't give any more ovations that round. Even Judges need rest.
Earning multiple ovations at once is a waste, so figuring out how to stagger the Excitement of the Judges can be an important part of your strategy.
Marks and BearingSome effects describe one or more contestants "gaining" an effect. That effect on an object called a "Mark", that exists on the Pokemon for a specified duration—much like Conditions do in battles.
Each contestant also has a property called a "Bearing". This is a special object that starts Neutral, and then becomes other various named bearings as effects modify it. Contestants can only have one Bearing at a time; applying a new Bearing to a contestant will replace all previous Bearings; and if they ever lose their Bearing, it becomes Neutral again.
Special Pokemon and Contests
Certain Pokemon with special movepools in BBP have special exceptions in the production-writing process:
| Pokemon | Production Process |
|---|---|
 Pikachu | Coordinators who own Costume key items for Pikachu may send their Pikachu wearing that Costume, and the Costume's provided move may be included in their production. The Pikachu must specialize in the Genre of that provided move. |
 Unown | The coordinator may include any extant move that has Contest data in their production.
|
  Sketch Users | The user's Sketched move or moves may be included in their production. |
 Revavroom | The moves Wicked Torque, Blazing Torque, Noxious Torque, Magical Torque, and Combat Torque may be included in their production. Revavroom can't use more than one "Torque" move each contest round. |
Advice
- The Ordered List tool can help ensure you send the correct number of moves in your production.
- Don't underestimate non-effect moves. High (and unconditional) Appeal and Jam make them good choices for filling out a nearly-complete production.
- In rounds where the Judges don't prefer your best Appeals, it is usually better to focus on disruption or protection.
- Going first in the round will let you set up elaborate combinations of Appeals while using protective moves to prevent Jamming, but doing this will cost many moves.
- An opposite approach is to focus on going last in early rounds in order to conserve moves in your production, and push for big Appeals in later rounds once other contestants have used up more moves.
- Try to avoid being the middle contestant in a round if you can. You can neither Appeal nor Jam your opponents effectively from this position.
- Beautiful: You'll need to balance how often you go last, or you won't get to use enough moves to have a high Score.
- Clever: Remember to earn some Score yourself, instead of purely focusing on Jamming, so that you can pull ahead.
- Cool: Find safe moments to deploy your very-high Appeal moves, when you can best ignore their drawbacks.
- Cute: Your moves that steal score, instead of merely Appealing, become very dangerous with Appeal-boosting effects and ovations.
- Tough: If you spend too much time stacking Pumped and preventing Jamming, you won't have time left to make use of your stacks.
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Stardust:
Helios level 1 contest