refereeing/judging battles

[Pewter City Geodude]

First, what is it actually called? You know, the person that stands between the two opponents in a Pokemon battle, announcing the rules and saying when one Pokemon has fainted. Is there an official name, referee or judge? I prefer to call them referees for some reason. Anyway, I don't think they've been discussed much. I have several points and questions for discussion. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Does part of the required knowledge for being a trainer include how to be a referee? I ask this because we've seen trainers be refs before, most notably Brock, who IIRC has even reffed a couple of Ash's Gym battles. Hence, my theory that for Gym battles, the Pokemon League prefers that a league-appointed ref (the guy/girl with the yellow armband with the Pokeball logo) be there, but a trainer can do it if an official ref is not present. Maybe Brock had good enough credentials as a former Gym Leader to be allowed to ref those Gym battles?

That also brings up another question: Have we ever seen Ash or Misty ref a match? Misty may have done so in the past...I have a theory that one of the ways her sisters mistreated her that caused her to run away from the gym was that they made her ref their gym battles all the time, when what she really wanted to do was battle as the Gym Leader/Gym Trainer herself.

[Bacl]

I don't recall ever seeing Misty ref, and I know we've never seen Ash ref (although that sounds like it would be kinda interesting). Think back to Ash fighting Price and there was a direct mention that they could not battle without a ref, and then that lady (I forget her name) turned out to be an official ref. And I think they called it a referee too, so at least in the English dub, that's the title.

I bet that it's an alluring profession. By being a ref you get to see up close and personal some awsome battles, and meet lots of friends and see lots of Pokemon. I'm sure that you need to know advanced rules and ways of telling whether a Pokemon is out or about to get back up. Refs can also disqualify someone for breaking the rules, such as when their Pokemon leaves the battlefield, or when it refuses to battle, etc.

Always remember that Brock is the eldest of the bunch, and besides being a Gym Leader and aspiring Breeder (a rare and complex profession. How many breeders have we seen? How many times has Brock said a little tidbit about Pokemon that a Professor found interesting? Being a breeder is neither common place nor easy). Brock is also hella smart. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he held an official "ref" title, or some form of official certification.

The worst ref we ever saw was the ref for the match between Blaziken and Charizard. That ref ruled Blaziken unable to battle, and then allowed the match to continue when Blaziken got back up. WHatever! Pikachu was up and clapping his paws and cheering mere minutes after being knocked out, so why couldn't he battle after being ruled out? The answer: That ref made a bad decision to allow the match to continue and Ash should have challenged. Blaziken was down and out and had the ref not stepped in, then Ash could have had Charizard finish it off while it was down.

[Light_Togetic]

Heh, I guess the Pokemon world has bad refs like the sports world here does! ^-^

I think Brock realizes that most of the major battles between trainers need some sort of ref to make sure everyone does their job alright; so he becomes the unofficial ref for many of the battles Ash and co. have. He must have some knowledge of being a ref, but I don't think he's official because he's never offered or been asked to be a ref for an official battle like a gym match. Maybe they even have levels of refs. Like there's Brock, that lady at Pryce's gym, and the guys at the pokemon league.

I don't think we've ever seen Misty ref either, but she probably has about as much knowhow as Brock does. Since she and Brock are official gym leaders, they must be aware of the rules and regulations of a pokemon battle.

Hmm... hope that made sense, I'm a bit nervous about a final I have in about an hour...

[Chris 2.1]

well remember that in the anime, Misty wasn't a Gym Leader at all. Her sisters were synchronised swimmers and Gym Leaders, but she left home to become a Pokemon trainer. While running the Gym between Johto-Hoenn, she would have probably had an apprentice as her ref, and would not have needed to learn ref skills herself

[Pewter City Geodude]

OK I don't consider the following spoilers since it appears the specials won't even be dubbed, so I won't mark them as such.

In the Brock special, Brock reffed the battle between his parents, which was for control of the Gym, so it was sort of a Gym battle. The same when Flint reffed the battle between Brock and his mother. That would add to my theory in my initial post.

[ShockingAlberto]

Well, I would guess many people wouldn't want Brock to referee in a match against Ash because they don't know him and would naturally assume a bias. I mean, would you ask your opponent to let his best friend judge the match?

Judges are particularly harsh in league battles, so I never could understand why they let Blaziken continue to battle. The judge wasn't half as nice to Ash when Squirtle fell asleep or Charizard refused to battle in Ash's Kanto League battles. Squirtle would probably have been jolted awake the next time Butterfree attacked him; the same goes for Charizard and Pikachu, as well. Surely Charizard would have considered Pikachu more of a challenge if he had a few thousand volts of electricity running through his spine. The judge ruled them both unable/unwilling to battle, which was a complete joke when compared to the Blaziken ruling.

Notice in the battle between Ash and Gary (uhh, the first one), Brock and not Professor Oak judged it. Oak would probably be the least biased and certainly the more experienced. So, maybe there are credentials involved?

I'd like to see a law system like FFTA put in to a few battles of the anime. That would give more of a point to the judges.

-- ShockingAlberto

[Pewter City Geodude]

Again, this is from a Hoso Special so I don't consider it a spoiler...

New info on this...after watching Hoso 9, we saw Casey ref a match between Misty and Otoshi (the guy with the Delcatty and Pelipper that had a crush on Misty), and Misty then reffed the battle between Casey and Otoshi. So Misty has reffed a match in the anime.