Round 1

Round one was preceded by this teaser.

Once everybody donned their Gear, Hoopa waved its hands in a broad circular motion, intact ring spinning and growing in diameter. Soon, it was taller than even a flourishing Exeggutor, and the treeline visible through its centre seemed to wobble before vanishing completely. This ring was now a Hyperspace Hole: the gateway to round one.

Two-Ring Circus leapt through and beckoned the others, standing atop a platform above a bubbling quagmire. Earthen cliffs towered over the mud, and through its centre stretched a network of rickety wooden gangways anchored between boulders, dead plants, and giant mushrooms. Details were hard to distinguish below a blanket of thick, lilac fog, but vague shapes of scattered stepping stones could be glimpsed beyond the boardwalks.

As the last competitor crossed through, Hoopa snapped its fingers and closed the portal not an inch behind them.

"You’ll get used to the smell," Merri assured despite her wrinkled muzzle.  “The locals of Salandit Swamp have… Kindly permitted us to use their home!”

"They don’t much like us," barked Grand Aid's elderly Granbull. "Be quick, ya'hear?"

And so began round one.

This description of events may be altered to suit your entry, so long as the prompt itself is consistent. Bulbous Reed Gear can vary in design.

Prompt Details

The following detailed information is available to competing expedition teams (on signs erected by Purrmageddon) should they choose to read it (Judge NPCs except Hoopa may also read information aloud to help illiterate or blind contestants). Here, it serves as a guide to you! No need to follow this to the letter; take it as a jumping-off point.

Corrosive Poison

As though touched by Salandit's Corrosion ability, the swamp's toxins are harmful to non-native Pokémon regardless of typing; even the Immunity ability won't prevent damage.

Gases entering the lungs will cause coughing and spluttering, as well as internal damage: the poisoned status effect. Falling in the sludge will cause severe skin irritation: the badly poisoned status effect. If it starts raining, droplets turn to acid rain, a unique weather condition that causes poisoning.

If you become poisoned, use a healing move or seek a medicinal plant such as Lum and Pecha berries - these grow on the outskirts of the crater and on mounds above the fog. Close to our finish line, the bog becomes steadily more habitable - plant life is easier to find there.

The Locals

Around here, you'll find lots of poison, ground, and bug Pokémon. That said, hardy rock, steel, dark, psychic, and dragon-types may also make their homes here (or travel through).

Unused to visitors, locals are grouchy-to-downright-aggressive. They're immune to the bog's toxins, and essentially possess the Corrosion ability in addition to their regular ones.

Bulbous Reed Gear

Bulbous Reeds contain filtration membranes that purify air - the fumes can't poison you… Unless your gear gets removed or damaged. Toxic mud might melt the reeds' tissues, so be careful!

Fainting

If your teammate faints, don't panic - Revival Herbs are hardy and grow in the swamp.

Staff won't get involved during the round unless in life-or-death circumstances (which are exceptionally unlikely). We will not leave anybody behind; if both of you faint, we will rescue you! Gran and Dora can heal you at base camp. Being rescued of course means disqualification (even if you have your pebbles).

Dimension

Weather condition: none or rain - rain in toxic fog becomes acid rain, which strengthens water- and poison-type attacks, weakens fire- and fairy-type attacks, and poisons non-native Pokémon.

Terrain: none or psychic; may turn electric in the case of a storm.  Keep in mind the toxic fog described by Merriweather in the flavour text.

Pokémon: common are poison, ground, and bug-types, other fungus-like species (Shroomish / Breloom, Morelull / Shiinotic, Nacli, Brute Bonnet), and those with poison-resisting abilities (Immunity, Natural Cure etc). Additionally, rock, steel, dark, psychic, and dragon-types may appear. Others are exceptionally rare.

Geography: a poisonous muddy swamp set in a crater, blanketed by toxic fog. Populated with stones, mushrooms, and dead vegetation, between which lies a network of rickety wooden gangways. Close to the finish line and around the crater’s edge, more plants are able to survive and the mud is less dangerous.

Playlists (these are just for fun):
Area themes
Battle themes

Inspirations:
Images from the Rescue Team games.

Rules

You must show your characters collecting both of their team's glowing pebbles from the noxious swamp and crossing the finish line (a Hyperspace Hole to base camp) for your entry to be counted. What obstacles they face - environmental, combat-based, psychological, logic-based etc. - is up to you. There are no matchups this round, but cameos of other competitor characters are encouraged!

Please keep in mind our regulations for round one -

• You cannot confirm the outcome of any other team's participation in the round (i.e. passing or failing), it can create massive loopholes in your story; doing this will result in disqualification. Everybody will be brought back to base camp regardless, so you can show that others have returned - just don't allude to their status in the tournament. You may include your characters' placement - i.e. first through sixteenth - but even if you pass, others' entries won't need to consider this canonical.

• Don't show other competitors or Judge NPCs: evolve, learn new moves, sustain grave injuries, or die. Regarding form changes, check the character's ref and consider what’s reasonable; ask their owner if you're unsure. Hoopa can't turn Unbound.

• Characters will be given their team accessories before being taken to Salandit Swamp - you don't need to show this scene, but characters must wear them.

• Information under "Prompt Details'' and "Dimension" may be bent within reason. Rigid exceptions are the Judge NPCs' leave-nobody-behind policy and their rules against outright stealing others' stones / flying too high / leaving the swamp.

• If you choose to include a legendary in your entry, we encourage you make it fitting for the setting and prompt (e.g. a Wo-Chien living in the swamp or Suicune seeking to purify it) and/or your overall story - keep in mind though, every round is in a completely different dimension, so showing the same legendary multiple times would need some form of explanation.  We discourage featuring multiple legendaries especially in early entries unless for strong reasons.

• You may make your own weather conditions and terrains.  Don't make up species, forms, abilities, or moves beyond what the prompt describes.

…And the tournament in general -

• Your characters should want to win (this expectation will slacken progressively).

• Contestants who’ve been knocked out stay at base camp until the tournament ends - Hoopa will take them to a dimension solely inhabited by Pokémon (of the character’s choice) to live in for the rest of their lives. This is an in-universe rule: things may happen differently in finalists’ entries.

• Hyperspace Holes can’t lead to dimensions which harbour any species other than Pokémon (they’re limited to PMD-like dimensions), thus they cannot appear in round prompts.

• Characterise the Judge NPCs how you like whilst obeying the info on their refs.

Those who progress to round two and beyond - where rounds feature matchups - will be allowed to show their opponents evolving, learning moves, etc!

Good luck out there - don't let yourself get swamped!

If you wanted to be the first to make a bong joke - too late, we've already done it. Consider this a bong joke.