Smogon Apprentice Program


Welcome to the Smogon Apprentice Program! If you are new to competitive Pokemon, this is the place for you to learn the ropes!

We here at Smogon feel that the 'one on one' learning experience afforded by our unique system provides the best possible support for any new player who is looking to improve their battling capabilities. Our instruction goes beyond the mundane "Rate My Team" thread where people make careless suggestions that come with no guarantee of being helpful.

In Smogon's apprentice program, you learn from the best of the best. Smogon’s experts will teach you how to build solid teams and how to wield them more effectively on the field of battle.

Overview of the Program

Every round of the apprentice program, our aim is to pair each member of our experienced and talented faculty with a Smogon user who wants to improve his or her skills. Through these unique, one-on-one, partnerships we wish to cultivate a community of elite gamers through the dissemination of our communal knowledge. It should be the objective of every tutor and apprentice to help us accomplish this goal by:

  • Building at least one new team or substantially improving an old team of the apprentice each round.
  • Meeting frequently on a battling simulator throughout the duration of a round. An acceptable level of time spent together is around six or more hours over the course of the round, but of course, longer and more frequent meetings are advantageous and will promote the goal of the apprentice program.
  • Integration of the apprentice into the fold of the Smogon community. Learning how to play is great, becoming a contributing member of this special site is even better.

Queue System

A new round is started every four weeks for singles metagames, while a new round is started every two weeks for VGC metagames. When the time comes for a particular round, a sign up thread is posted in which you declare your interest in receiving a tutor for said round. You are then assigned a tutor who is in a similar time zone to yours. Over the course of the following weeks, your tutor will guide you through the ins and outs of the particular generation you signed up to learn. If a tutor happens to finish a while before a particular round comes to a close, they will be given the opportunity to select a new apprentice from the list of individuals who signed up for the program. Keep an eye out on our schedule to find out when a round is going up!