Welcome to Vol. 3, issue 40 of Johto Times. This week, we are sharing some memories from a Pokémon fan called Tyler, and how his passion for the franchise encouraged him to start a series of Pokémon Stadium 2 tournaments with his friends and loved ones. Plus, we have our usual recap of the news from the past week.

The Grand Final of the Johto Times Favourite Pokémon Poll (2025) is now over! Which Pokémon will be voted as the fan favourite? The results of the poll will be shared later this month. A massive thank you to everyone who voted and spread the word, and to all the communities and influencers who shared the poll to help it reach a greater audience. Click here for more information.

On August 1st, Johto Times launched a new website! Check it out and please bookmark us here: Johto Times

A commercial for Pokémon Legends Z-A has been released, ahead of its release on October 15th, 2025

POKÉMON LEGENDS Z-A

A commercial for Pokémon Legends Z-A was shown this week, ahead of the game’s release later this month. You can check it out here.

Source: Nintendo

SCARLET & VIOLET

Shiny Koraidon and Shiny Miraidon are now available to obtain from participating stores globally, starting September 26th until October 15th, 2025. Here are the following locations courtesy of Serebii.net:

United States: GameStop
Canada and Australia: EB Games
Chile: We Play
Mexico: Liverpool Stores

Some stores will require players to bring a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2, and show your home screen to prove you own the games, including the following:

Japan: Pokémon Center
South Korea: Nintendo-approved stores
France: Micromania
Spain: GAME
Italy: GameLife

More dates may be added for other countries which haven’t received the offer, such as the United Kingdom.

Source: Serebii, Pokémon

Sign-ups for the Terastal Crescendo Online Competition have begun, and are open until October 12th, 2025. This contest consists of Double Battles, and players will take a team of just two Pokémon, one of which must be Koraidon or Miraidon.

Source: Pokémon

POKÉMON TCG POCKET

The game has received a monthly refresh, with additions to the Premium Shop, such as an Entei ex promo card, and Lillie cosmetic items.

Source: In-game news

POKÉMON MASTERS EX

Perrin and the Diamond Clan event adding Perrin & Growlithe, Arezu & Hisuian Lilligant, and Mai & Munchlax launches on September 29th, 2025.

Source: Pokémon Masters

POKÉMON SLEEP

A new area, Amber Canyon, is being added to Pokémon Sleep on November 6th, 2025, which can be unlocked after reaching 450 sleep styles.

Source: Pokémon Sleep

POKÉMON UNITE

Mega Lucario debuted in Pokémon UNITE on September 28th, 2025, with Mega Charizard X set to debut on October 24th, 2025. To celebrate the introduction of Mega Lucario, a special event will take place between October 3rd and October 27th, 2025, where you can complete designated missions to earn the Unite license for this Pokémon.

Source: Pokémon

Feature: Tyler’s Pokémon Memories

Tyler is a Pokémon fan whose story may be familiar to many of our readers. He grew up during the early days of “Pokémania” in the late 90s and then lost interest. However, his appetite for the franchise later returned and encouraged him to host and organise a series of Pokémon Stadium 2 tournaments which lasted for many years.

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Tyler:

My history with Pokémon began like many others, when a friend let me try out the game during recess at school. It took a few months for me to get my hands on a copy of my own, and what started out as something intended to occupy me in the car during a family vacation eventually became an obsession. Honestly, I remember very little of what happened on that family vacation outside the screen of my Game Boy!

Pokémania ‘99 was really an experience to be had, and I was fully immersed in the cultural phenomenon of Pokémon for a few years, something I’m sure many Johto Times subscribers can remember themselves. I spent countless hours on my Game Boy with my best friend, Rick, during the heyday of Generation I.

Yet, as tends to happen, I eventually started to lose interest. I sold my original Pokémon games shortly after my 14th birthday, only to immediately regret that decision. A few months later, I had been lamenting this decision with a teammate from my baseball team when he said he’d sell me his copy of Blue Version. I only had $1 in my pocket at the time, but he said if I bought him a bottle of Sprite at the gas station, he’d give me the game. I still have that copy of Blue Version, and I love telling people that I traded a bottle of Sprite for Pokémon Blue!

Tyler's original Game Boy that he got for his 5th birthday, and his copy of Pokémon Blue, acquired by trading a bottle of Sprite

Tyler:

Around the same time, the seeds of future tournaments were being sown. My friend Rick moved far enough away that we wouldn’t be able to see each other very often, and I turned to the first Pokémon Stadium game to satiate my thirst for battles. I spent a lot of high school slowly working my way through the various cups and competitions, learning more about strategies and Pokémon. Yet, I didn’t get the chance to battle human opponents very often, and that always felt like the real goal of Pokémon battles.

During the summer before our senior year of high school, I made the long drive to visit Rick at his new home. His siblings, Laura and Mike, were now old enough to be accomplished battlers in their own right, as well, and I was looking forward to some real battles again. Only we weren’t battling with Pokémon Stadium. Rick pulled out a game I didn’t even know existed: Pokémon Stadium 2! After an amazing weekend discovering this new game, I immediately sought out my own copy and went to work beating all the cups in that game as well.

However, while it was great for Pokémon Stadium 2 to be inclusive of both Generations I and II, [and it is] still the only instance where different generations can battle and trade freely with one another, it was much more difficult to beat the game with only my copy of Pokémon Blue. I was missing out on 100 new Pokémon, numerous new moves, breeding, and whole new Pokémon types! So I picked up Pokémon Gold and dove into Earl’s Pokémon Academy with my cousin, Conner, who would become my main battle partner.

Armed with this new knowledge, I also started picking the brains of various friends for new strategies. All this talk brought out a lot of competitive banter among my friends and co-workers, who all said they had unbeatable teams from back in the day. I’d much rather actually play versus simply talk, so I started inviting people to test out their teams. Excitement started to build when I floated the idea of having a real, actual tournament, to which I received overwhelmingly positive responses. Together, we had plenty of Nintendo 64 consoles [and] Transfer Paks, and my church had the televisions and venue itself. So, in December 2009, I scheduled our first Pokémon Stadium 2 tournament.

Rick (far left) makes some late team changes on Game Boy Color, while Laura (seated) and Bailey (standing) watch Conner (center) and Tyler play their first match

Tyler:

Yet, before we could even begin, we had to decide on a format. A few friends wanted full teams of six level 100 Pokémon. Others wanted no level restrictions. After discussing with many players, most notably the aptly nicknamed “Elite Four” (the quartet of myself, Rick, and his siblings, Laura and Mike), we landed on what I still consider the greatest and most enjoyable format in all of Pokémon: Poké Cup.

Poké Cup restricts only a select few legendary Pokémon and sets the level range to 50-55. We felt this would let people replay their games and re-experience the joy of a childhood favorite while also raising a tournament squad. Teams are selected from an initial group of six, but players are also forced to reveal their six to the opponent before the match begins. Then, they must select three Pokémon from their original six to bring to the actual battle. This makes it really interesting, since players have a general idea of what their opponent might be planning, but also leaves a sense of the unknown. Will the opponent bring a predictable trio? Will they bait the player into leaning too heavily in the wrong direction? It’s impossible to cover all types, too, so there is always something left to chance. It’s so exciting!

Numerous players discuss strategies while players on the far right play a match. This is the best shot Tyler has of the “tiered” area, with couches on platforms of various heights for easy viewing

Tyler:

The first tournament was as enjoyable as we all imagined. We had about a dozen and a half players and spectators, who were all friends, family, and co-workers. None of us really knew what we were doing, and many players had never actually battled a human opponent before. Team synergy was nearly non-existent, and battles were learning experiences.

Very quickly, we discovered the powerhouses of the Generation II metagame, like Snorlax and Tyranitar. Some battles, like one between Rick’s Gengar and Conner’s Snorlax, resulted in a 45-minute attrition-filled fight due to immunities, less-than-optimal movesets, and recovery moves. In another fight, one of the highlights we still bring up very often was when Dylan’s Machamp worked Rick down to his last Pokémon, Furret. Objectively, this is a terrible match-up. However, Rick had given his Furret Ice Punch, and it froze Machamp!

As we had more tournaments, we developed our own little metagame that was totally unique. Some players started to turn to websites like Smogon for strategies, but many strategies didn’t translate to the Poké Cup format, which helped keep things unpredictable. Other players planned in private, thinking that if they could develop a secret weapon, they’d have an edge. At the second tournament, it was hilarious to see five players simultaneously unveil Starmie with Thunderbolt, each thinking they were going to be the only one.

The third tournament would end up being my all-time favorite. Not only did we have our biggest turnout, with about 30 players and spectators showing up, but it also saw some of the most exciting battles that the tournaments would ever have. Luckily, I also remembered to bring a camera to this tournament, so I can share a few photos as well.

Rick cuts a Poké Ball cake baked by their pastry chef friend, Monique

Tyler:

In the first two tournaments, I personally knew every single participant. But one co-worker had a friend who was extremely into Pokémon and really wanted to come. Not to be confused with Rick’s brother Mike, Mike R breathed new life into the tournaments by forcing us all to up our game. A devastating self-destructing Snorlax and a speedy Tauros led his assault and dumped me into the losers’ bracket very early in the evening.

At the same time, my cousin Bailey was stomping her way through the losers’ bracket with her Fissure/Horn Drill Rhydon, a Pokémon that ruffled a lot of feathers and made a few people want to ragequit. I was riding my Toxic Umbreon through battle after battle, and when we finally met up in [the] losers’ semi-finals, my Umbreon survived what we thought was a last-hit situation with just 1 HP, seeing me through. She was so upset, she ran out of the room in tears!

I had to fight Mike R for the second time in the next round, and that Toxic Umbreon won it for me yet again. The fact that he was using Blue Version meant he lacked Cross Chop or Megahorn to take care of Umbreon, something he would remember in later tournaments.

When I got to the grand final against Dylan, I had another instance of surviving with 1 HP, this time my Muk against a Blastoise, but was able to take it out and then outspeed his Machamp in order to [use Explosion] and put myself in a great position to win and end my favorite tournament.

This screenshot, sent via Snapchat, shows their projector set-up

Tyler:

I continued to host annual Pokémon Stadium 2 tournaments for a number of years, although as players started to graduate from college, move away, and the novelty of a Pokémon tournament started to wane, attendance dwindled, too. With the rise in popularity of online battle simulators, like Shoddy Battle or Pokémon Showdown, it was difficult to convince people to invest in buying a Game Boy, a Gen I or II game, and then put in the time it takes to raise a team if they weren’t already devoted to playing on original hardware.

Yet, there was one last hurrah for the tournaments thanks to a friend I met on Tumblr named Kevin. Suffice to say, there was little discourse going on about Pokémon Stadium 2 in the year 2016, but the two of us managed to find each other. Luckily, we lived close enough that we met up in downtown Chicago and had a Link Cable battle at a famous local tavern.

Kevin, like Mike R before him, breathed new life into the tournaments and gave us a reason to have a couple more. His strategies had developed completely isolated from what the rest of us had come up with already and threw everyone for a loop. To take 2nd place at the first tournament he ever went to, out of state, and on the longest road trip he’d ever taken, is certainly an accomplishment!

We even managed to record some matches and add commentary at the last tournaments, and I wish I had figured out the tech situation much earlier, because the methods and equipment we used had been around since the beginning! A VCR, an old sound mixer we found in a church closet, and some editing software were all we needed. I’ll leave links to two specific matches here, one between a husband and wife, and the finals of the 10th tournament, as they are two of the more fun ones we had on tape.

Tyler met up with Kevin at a famous tavern in downtown Chicago to battle via Link Cable. They had never met in person before, and was a really fun first meeting

Tyler:

Finally, the last remnants of the tournaments still show up from time to time. The Elite Four, having grown up together, have vowed to have a mini-tournament the night before each of our weddings. When Rick got married, we stayed true to our word by spending the night before the ceremony hard at work, battling. Laura took home the trophy this time, relying on her smart switching skills and the full-odds shiny Skarmory she caught back in 4th grade.

These days, keeping a Gen II cartridge in working order takes a devoted fan. It’s safe to say that not a single original Gen II game has its original save and battery. This makes it nearly impossible to convince new fans to get into the greatest generation, not to mention the ballooning costs of a cartridge, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and Transfer Paks! Yet, the Elite Four persists thanks to soldering irons and a fantastic homebrew program for the Everdrive called LibPak, which can back up and write save files to cartridges. All our saves are backed up, safe and sound!

The trophy from the first Elite Four wedding tournament, won by Laura in 2018

Tyler:

With thousands of miles between our homes, we make it a point to have extended battle sessions whenever we are lucky enough to see each other in person. In fact, I was able to battle two members of our Elite Four, Rick and Laura, already this summer. It brings back tons of great memories and highlights from the tournaments, but also our lives, as Pokémon has been a constant for us for so long and seen us through many different stages of life. We always know it’ll continue to be there, so long as we’ve got a Nintendo 64 and a copy of Pokémon Stadium 2!

The top three finishers from the 2016 tournament, Nick (left), Tyler (center), and Kevin (right)

Tyler:

Thank you so much for the invite to talk about my history with Pokémon and my tournaments! I adore Generation II with all my heart, and it’s always a great time to look back on the highlights from battles long ago.

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It was a pleasure to share your story on Johto Times, Tyler! Your passion for Pokémon shines through, and you should be proud of the happy memories you have surely given to the many people around you. We hope Pokémon will continue to be a positive influence in your life.