Pokemon Go players who have intentionally tanked their Go Battle League ranks are urging Niantic to change the rewards system so they can compete like normal.
For the past few weeks, Pokemon Go players have seen an increase in trainers intentionally losing Go Battle League matches. This practice is called tanking, and its purpose is for higher-skill players to match up with lower-skill players to make winning easier.
However, winning isn’t the only incentive. Players are rewarded for the number of matches they win in a row, and rank tanking makes winning a breeze. So much so that players have shared their reward hauls with the internet.
But playing against easy opponents has grown stale for some rank tankers, and players who want a challenge but don’t want to lose out on rewards are begging Niantic to make some serious changes.
Rank Tankers want big changes in Pokemon Go Battle League
One user named RobertDaleYa, a self-admitted Pokemon Go Battle League rank tanker, posted to TheSilphRoad subreddit asking what the community thought Niantic could change to discourage Rank Tanking.
“Is it safe to say the spirit of pvp is lost entirely with this sort of setup?” they asked before proposing the question of what could be fixed.
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The comments were filled with ideas to fix the Pokemon Go Battle League, most of which are ideas that players have had for several seasons now. The most commonly agreed-upon suggestions were Battle Points and better rewards for higher-ranked players.
Another user on TheSilphRoad, Uunikana, wrote a lengthy post detailing how Battle Points could work.
As it stands, Pokemon Go Battle League participants earn the same rewards no matter their rank. The way they earn rewards is by winning battles, regardless of their opponent’s skill level. So there is currently no incentive to battle more challenging players.
The proposed BP system would allow players to earn more rewards by fighting and participating in harder battles. Not to mention, it would deter players from Rank Tanking since the incentive would be removed.