 Hello friends, welcome back to another episode here on the channel. For anyone new to the channel, my name is Lee, also known as Osiris. I hope you're all doing well. And in today's episode, we're going to be discussing all of the news updates for series 8 that have just dropped in regards to the online rank ladder system that will be kicking into effect on the 1st of February. As you can see, we got a tweet here from Joe over at Sarah B and just give Joe and Sarah B a little follow over on Twitter if you haven't already. If you want up-to-date news, if you want the precise news at the precise time that it comes out, Joe is your guide to follow and just a big shout out, really, because he does help out myself and I'm sure a lot of others out there. So here we go into today's episode series 8 rules. We are coming to the end of series 7, which we're currently in now in the rank doubles ladder. That's predominantly what we're going to be discussing. But the series 8 rules, there was a lot of kind of talk about what it was going to be. Was it going to be GS couple? We're going to get another band list, but it's been announced that we are going to be getting something very interesting. So without further ado, let's hop over to Sarah B and we can take a deep dive into what we'll be doing. So as you can see, the rules will come into effect on the 1st of February. They will run until the 30th of April. So we've got a few months of these rules and the meta game to develop as well. It will mean that the players cup, the next round of players cup 3, the regional heats will be included with this rule set. So this is what the rule set will be for players cup 3. So those of you that have qualified, obviously you're going to need to get yourself up to speed on what the rules are. The singles will kind of leave because we are predominantly more of a doubles channel. And this will be concerning the rank doubles ladder going forward from the 1st of Feb when the rules will update. But as you can see, Pokemon restrictions available national deck Pokemon. So every Pokemon in the national decks is allowed if they have the Galamark or battle ready mark. So we know what those are for court and game or if you've been to the guy in the battle tower and got the mark on the Pokemon that's been traded. Pokemon limits. Now this word gets interesting team of four to six Pokemon from level one to 100 or Pokemon then set to level 50. We know that already restricted Pokemon. Here we go. One of the following per team. So you can have a team of all the Pokemon that we were used to using in series seven. But you can also add an additional restricted Pokemon, one of the legendary Pokemon, which is going to be either one of this next following list, which is Mewtwo, Lugia, Hoho, Kyogre, Groudon, Rekwaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Reshirom, Zekrom, Curem, Xenius, Yveltal, Zygoth, Cosmog, Cosmome, Sogaleo, Lunala, Nekrosma, Zassian, Zamazenta, Eternatus and Kalorex. Wow. Okay. Now that's, that is, that is a big decision. That is a big shift in the rules because these Pokemon getting introduced, they aren't like, you know, your normal legendaries like Zapdos, Landerous, the slightly central, centralizing Pokemon. These are restricted Pokemon. These are big hitters. These are big powerful Pokemon. We've already had a kind of teaser with an event recently online event where you kind of had a similar sort of rule although you've got two or more restricted Pokemon. So you've had a little fun in the doubles seeing how they operate there and these Pokemon are ridiculously powerful. So adding one of them to your in-game party now, it changes the landscape of the format completely. It's going to be very interesting going forward. Obviously, going down, we'll just cover all the rules before we get into anything else. They allowed Gigantamax Pokemon all the same as what they were before. Battletimer is still 20 minutes. Your time's seven minutes. You get 90 seconds team preview and your turn time is 45 seconds. The eight ranked battle series focus on the Pokemon of the Gala Pokedex, the Isle of Armor Pokedex, the Crown Tundra Pokedex and any other Pokemon obtained in the games will allow you to utilize restricted legendary Pokemon once in your team. So that is a recap and go down and see the restricted Pokemon again. I've went through the list. I'm sure you don't want me to repeat them again, but we can see all their nice pretty sprites here and their typings. These are all the Pokemon that are going to be allowed, which is crazy, crazy, crazy ban list. Unfortunately, we've not come to the point where we're going to get mythical Pokemon allowed in VG events, even though a lot of them are already obtainable in the game through special events or whatnot. But one day, my friends, one day we'll be able to use Melmetal and Jurachi and friends, but that they will have to wait, unfortunately. But yeah, so lots to talk about in today's episode. Obviously, the restricted Pokemon, as I've said, make a big difference to your teams. And you can see here, I think some of the ones to kind of give a big shout out. Well, it's hard to just give a big shout out to a few of them, because all of them are kind of surpassing everything else that we've got already. Obviously, the only ones that can't Dynamax are going to be Zassian and Zamazenta. But in their own right, they are very strong because of the abilities that they have. Obviously, the typing as well, Zassian and Fairy typing, it's the only other Fairy typing outside of Zernius. And we've seen the impact that Zernius has made in Formats before. Zernius is going to be one that you're going to have to watch out for as well. Again, a very powerful one, a good Fairy type, something that's been lacking in series seven really. So something that players can rely on that and Zassian. But you've got things like Mewtwo, very fast Pokemon, probably not going to make as much of an impact as it may have done in previous Formats. Still nothing to be underestimated, but with things like, you've got Dragapult now, and you've got Spectria, Speed Ties with it, the Ghost typings do make it a little bit difficult for it. I think the same with Lugia, although Lugia now having access to its multi-scalability definitely gives it a good place in the Format. That psychic flying type as well is quite nice, matching up with the Galarian Articuno. So it's kind of like a little upgrade on there, just with a few missing moves, and a few other supporting options that it's got access to. Now Houta is a very interesting one, Houta is a Pokemon I love. Fire flying type as well, with access to its hidden ability Regenerator, which makes it incredibly strong. Switch it out, you get a bit of HP back and bring it back and cycle it in and out. Houta is just a tank as well, especially if the Fairy types like Zassian and Zonius become quite popular. Houta is one of those Pokemon, super high, special defense stat. It's going to be able to kind of soak up those Fairy type attacks and deal with those Pokemon quite reasonably. And it's got a nice typing as well, you know, the fire and the flying there, it's got access to Max Airstream, it's got access to Max Flare, and a bunch of other options as well that are really useful for a Pokemon like this. And recovery as well, which is not something that is commonly seen throughout these restricted Pokemon. So yeah, Houta would definitely something to look at, definitely a bit more reliable for those new players coming in, but you've got to be careful about those Rock type attacks. And for the next Pokemon that we're going to be discussing as well, which is Kyoga, obviously Kyoga Groudon Requaza, they've been staples in every single format that they've been available in. They're always going to be used. They bring the Sun, the Rain, and obviously the airlock to nullify the weathers respectively. So yeah, very strong Pokemon. And the fact that Requaza still gets access to Dragon Ascent now, which is its primary, like its predominant move that it used in previous formats to Mega Evolve, obviously haven't got the Mega Evolution mechanic anymore, but it still gets access to that really strong 120 base attack. So you know, it's a very strong Pokemon still, nothing to scoff at with the airlock ability as well. It's good at disrupting opposing weathers and kind of stopping a lot of teams in their tracks. Kyoga Groudon, there's not really much to say about them. We know how good they are as Pokemon, the drought and the drizzle ability there. And you can slap a scarf on something like Kyoga and it can become very, very powerful. And you've got access now to that really good combination of Tornadus and Kyoga again, the prankster tailwind, the fast water spout in the rain. It's going to be nasty and it's going to be something that players are going to have to kind of prepare for for sure. Dialga Palkia, two of my favourites for sure. And we might be getting new games based around the next three later in this year. Who knows? That's a discussion for another time though. But yeah, the Steel Dragon, obviously a really nice Pokemon. Water Dragon, I do like Palkia a lot. They've got good bulk about them, like most of the Restricted's do and Giratina as well, another Pokemon. I think falls a little astray and a bit more into the camp of the psychic types where there's a lot of faster ghost types now that will threaten it and give it a bit more of a harder time. But it doesn't mean to say it can't do well. Reshiram, very good Pokemon, nice typing with the dragon and fire there, Zekrom. And I am just kind of skipping through these Pokemon as we're going because obviously I don't want to keep this video too long. It is just a kind of overview of the rules update. But it'd be nice to talk about these Pokemon as we're going through them, I think as well. So hopefully you guys are enjoying this and interesting. So yeah, you've got the Reshiram, Zekrom, Curam and you're going to have the Curam variants as well, obviously Curam, Black, Curam, White, which you can do in-game now. And then the most famous one of all, the one that everyone hates. But it hasn't got some of its supporting options this time around. Obviously not all the Pokemon are in the format. So we don't have Smeagol to help old Zernius out this time with Evaltel which is, I don't know, is it an upgrade on Maltres? It's a completely different Pokemon. Evaltel is always going to be one of my favorite restrictors as well. I do like Evaltel a lot. I still think it's going to have a good impact in the format for sure. But again, it falls straight of those fairy types that are going to be predominant. And I can really see Zassian being one of the most dominant Pokemon used in the format. Honestly, Zygarde, a great Pokemon, all-round great Pokemon, great typing as well, dragging in ground. And it's got that amazing ability where it can go into its final complete form. Like good old Freezer and just be an absolute pain and coil kind of going to be your most probably seen set used on Zygarde. Cosmog, I don't know about you, but we might see a few Cosmog and Cosmom on some fun teams, but probably nothing serious. So Galeo's an interesting one. It's got a really nice typing, psychic steel. It gives it lots of resistances. And against the fairy types as well, it could be very good. Sunsteel Strike is its signature move. And it's been good in previous formats where it's been allowed. So I can see it's been good again in this format. Lunala is pretty much the same. Love Lunala. Such a good Pokemon. The Crosmog probably not so much. And then we come on to the beasts of this game, which I think will be used a lot. Zassian, Zamazendra. Zassian definitely going to be used a lot. I mean, Zassian is just an incredible Pokemon all around with that ability to boost its attack and some insane attacking moves, which compensate really for the fact that it cannot Dynamax, which is, you know, they have to make up for that somehow. The rest of these restricted Pokemon can all Dynamax, but Zassian's Zamazendra do not have that ability. So they need some sort of compensation for that. And they do have it. And I would imagine you're going to see probably more Zassian than you are Zamazendra, but I wouldn't discount ever seeing Zamazendra. I still think it's a very strong Pokemon. Good option. Eternatus is an interesting one. It's the only poison type or partial poison type restricted Pokemon we've got. I'm a bit on the fence with how Eternatus is going to perform in this format, but it's nice typing. We've seen dragon poison types do well in formats before, but it's one that I'm interested in, but I'm not really too afraid with how it's going to perform. So as we go forward, I guess we'll find out. And then we've got Kalorex, which we know, you know, Kalorex is just crazy Pokemon in itself. So that wraps up the rules. Obviously, we've mentioned that the mythicals aren't going to be allowed. We've given a brief overview of this, but it was just today to give you an update on series eight dropping on the 1st of February, because I'd like to stay on top of these rules updates, especially going forward. I think it's interesting to talk through them a little bit. Just get your heads around them to get you prepared for the 1st of February. And obviously, I will have a bunch of content coming out in preparation for it. We'll be looking at team builds. The different will take a depth and in depth look at these restricted Pokemon and take a closer deeper dive into these Pokemon before we get to the 1st of February to hopefully get everyone up to speed as best as possible with what the format is going to start to look like in the coming weeks. But I'm going to round it up there, wrap it up there, friends. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you like this sort of content, please let me know down in the comment section below. It's not something I generally do. Just sit in front of the camera and just talk about these things, these news updates. But it is something I genuinely like doing. And like I said, we're not going into too much detail today, but we will get into a lot more detail as the weeks come forward. And I get a bit more time to spend looking at these individual Pokemon and we'll take a real look at what some of them are capable of and what the threats are and how we can go about approaching the new format. So we're all on a level playing field going into the 1st of February. Right. Going to wrap it up there, friends. Have a great rest of your day, whatever you're up to. And I will catch you all for another episode very soon. Take care. Bye-bye.