Pokemon Champions Will Only Allow Fully Evolved Pokemon At Launch

It looks like Pokemon Champions will only allow fully evolved Pokemon at launch, according to the game's producer. 

In an interview with HypeBeast, producer Masaaki Hoshino confirmed that only fully evolved Pokemon would be allowed to compete in Pokemon Champions. 

"At launch, only final evolutions will be available. This is another topic that Morimoto-san and I debated at length. After we introduce a lot of the final evolutions, we might consider earlier evolutions as well. For now, this approach is more accessible for new players", he says.

To a competitive player this may make no difference at all- fully evolved Pokemon tend to be better stats-wise, and outside of a few Eviolite-boosted Pokemon it's unlikely to affect the game in any serious way. 

Still, considering the number of Pokemon has exceeded 1000, it may pain some of the Krabby or Bellsprout fans to know that their smaller Pokemon buddies can't come to Pokemon Champions just yet.

Pokemon Champions Final Evolution Rule Isn't The Only Major Change

Those aren't the only major changes coming to the game- for example, the EV system that determines individual Pokemon stats has also been reworked, going from a 252-point scale to 64. 

These values can be adjusted in-game, meaning the days of chain-fighting the same Pokemon to build EVs is over. 

Similarly, the more esoteric IV system is straight-up gone, removing the need to constantly breed better Pokemon in hopes of getting your Ubermensch.