Gym Leader Underlings:

[Morganstern]

But think of how many trainers you have to beat before fighting a gym leader. If anything it matches the game closer.

That being said, I too am not really a fan of pulling people out of line to fight for you, if only because of the large number of challengers using stall tactics which would bog things down even more.

What you could do is have a number of Ace Trainer PC-NPCs (a pool of people who are challengers but can be called on to run interference).

[CommodoreSkippy]

[Giovanni]

Hrm, very well thought out and a good condensation of ideas discussed previously. I think it gets a bit granular in that Leaders would have to start up two lists rather than one for lines (Emblem/non) we still have to get gym trainers for all the leaders (I'm thinking 2-3 per leader, meaning we would then be dealing with about 55 people versus 21)

Those are just my initial thoughts on this, I'll ruminate more as I get time.

[Blackfox138]

55 sounds like a lot to handle. So far at Prime and East we have had people drop halfway through, weeks before. It's not fun to find replacements. We already take up a lot of space at official meet-ups with 16 members, can we really fit 55 into one hallway + challengers? Can we even find that many people that want to do this early enough to make logistical magic work?

It's very thought out and cool, but almost seems like too much trouble...

[Maylene]

[Heleor]

[CommodoreSkippy]

That's true... that is QUITE A LOT of people to consider managing. Still, I think there is validity in the idea. For one, Heleor is right. Trainers are intended to be found around the convention and not necessarily at Meetups. Second, all Assistants have to do is say Hi and hand out a card, I'd like to think that most human beings are considerate enough to manage that.

There is a slight concern with less trustworthy Trainers just handing out a pile of emblems to their friends without earning them and pre-screening against that sort of behavior would be laborious. On the other hand, I feel like everyone here is here for the love of pokemon and GLORIOUS POKEBATTLE and genuinely wants to help out. I think the first to be considered for trainers should come from the list of those who didn't quite make it as a Gym Leaders.

Even if every Leader has only one trainer or assistant, it's still a feasible idea. We'd just have to find a reasonable number of emblems to request.

[Ktywf]

Is it just me or is this League almost too awesome for its own good? I mean, you have so many challengers trying to participate there actually isn't enough leaders to go around! That to me is incredible.

Anyway , though it's a small issue, I think its valid to consider the logistics of not only having some 40 or so people assisting in alleviating the pressure, but also how to make sure they're ALL identifiable as trainers/helpers and giving each of them several tokens to work with.

[StarVVolph]

On the issue of identifiability, I think that it would be easy enough for the underlings to have a scarf. If the Gym Leaders wanted, they could even attach their badges to their own underlings so challengers will have an idea of what to expect, type wise.

[Heleor]