Pokemon Sword and Shield Battle Stadium detailed as new trailer drops

The Pokemon World Championships are officially underway, and The Pokemon Company kicked off the event by revealing some new information about Pokemon Sword and Shield. Some of this information came packaged in a new trailer for the game, while The Pokemon Company separately announced a Sword and Shield feature called the Battle Stadium, which allows you to take on trainers from all over the world.

Since this new trailer debuted at The Pokemon World Championships, it should come as no surprise that it's mainly focused on Pokemon battles. More specifically, the trailer tells us what some of the Pokemon in Sword and Shield will be capable of. Galarian Weezing, for instance, has ability called Neutralizing Gas, which neutralizes the abilities of all other Pokemon on the field, including ones who are on your side.

The trailer also introduces us to some new items, such as Room Service, which lowers the holder's speed when Trick Room is in effect, and Eject Pack, which swaps out the holder when their stats are lowered. The new movie Breaking Swipe was previewed as well, while it was revealed that Dynamax Pokemon can't fall victim to flinching.

Keeping with the theme of Pokemon battles, The Pokemon Company has published a new explainer of the Battle Stadium on its website. It's here that you'll participate in ranked battles against other players, with the potential to earn items when certain criteria are met. If ranked battles are a little to serious for your tastes, you can participate in casual battles instead, where legendary and mythical Pokemon can be used.

The Battle Stadium will also be host to online competitions, both official ones from The Pokemon Company and friendly ones that are hosted by other players. Battling in official competitions could net you a chance to participate in The Pokemon World Championships if you're good enough, so those of you who take Pokemon battles serious will definitely want to frequent the Battle Stadium. Finally, the Battle Arena will allow you to fight with rental teams that were formed by other players, or make your own teams public so others can rent them.

So, it sounds like Pokemon Sword and Shield will give you a lot of options when it comes to battling online. Pokemon Sword and Shield are out on Nintendo Switch on November 15th, 2019, and since we're inching ever closer to release date, we expect to hear more about the games soon.