Pokemon GO Battle League Players Train to Tank Rank Faster Than Their Opponents

Niantic rewards players with some slick cosmetics and exclusive Pokemon if they win enough battles in the Pokemon GO Battle League, but trainers are practicing to tank their ranks instead of winning.

GO Battle League Players Tank Ranks On Purpose

Pokemon GO’s Battle League is like any other online competitive experience. The higher your rank, the more challenging the battles. This means players have to optimize their teams to keep up with the meta-team composition, all the while strategizing for when to best use their charged attacks and shields.

For some players, that’s too much work, and they’d rather spend their time training to lose. And a post from Foulmouth232 on the r/pokemongo subreddit teaches players the best method to lose faster than their opponents. Foulmouth provided a visual aid as well as three crucial steps to becoming the quicker loser.

The steps are something like:

1. Place thumbs in positions outlined in the provided image
2. When the GO! appears, tap with your left thumb, then your right thumb
3. Lose Successfully

The post has over 1,000 upvotes at the time of writing, and Foulmouth has even taken to the comments to help players struggling to lose. One player stated they couldn’t lose because the “bad network connection” prompt blocked the “confirm” button. Foulmouth replied, “This is a bit tedious. However, there is a small area on the top of the ‘yes’ button that the ‘bad connection’ pop-up doesn’t block. I suggest you try to always tap to that area instead of the middle of the yes button.”

Foulmouth claimed in another comment that tanking allows players to earn their daily GO Battle League rewards in less than 50% of the time it would take to battle normally. They also claimed that ‘tankers’ will always get better rewards due to how Pokemon GO’s streak-based reward works.

There are pitfalls to this strategy. The first is you won’t be able to earn the Avatar Items or Luchador Pikachu as you won’t be going up in rank. And the second is just that: you won’t be climbing the ranks unless you follow Foulmouth’s advice and wait until close to the end of the season.