Players will now be able to battle for longer during a losing streak after Niantic added a “battle until you win” mechanic to the Pokémon Go Battle League today.
This doesn’t actually give players the ability to battle until they win a match but instead ensures that everyone will have the most opportunities to win at least one game during a set of battles.
Each set of battles in the Battle League is divided into five individual battles, in which players can participate five per day. These sets all have various conditions attached to them that players need to meet to rank up and receive new rewards, but losing still counts toward the five battle total.
This new mechanic added in the latest update will now allow players to play additional matches, up to 10 per set, if they lose the initial five battles, for a total of 15 matches. After a player loses the first five matches, the extra matches will continue until the player wins one game or the 15-battle marker is reached.
“If you lose all 5 matches in a set, you can continue playing in that same set until you win a match for up to 15 losses, after which you’ll move to the next set,” Niantic added to the official Battle League listing. “You can view your progress towards earning a set on the Battle page, plus you’ll receive an in-app notification and see a red dot on the Main Menu’s Battle button when you’ve unlocked a set.”
While this change won’t affect the ranking system much, it will allow players to earn more rewards even if they can’t win a game during certain sets.
Putting this new mechanic into place will be useful for the more casual players who might not have the most competitively focused teams and are just in it to try and get a few rewards for their time. And even at the higher levels, this may make long stints of losses more bearable for struggling players.
