Pallet Town Punchbags

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The Pallet Town Punchbags are a non-competitive team which exists to play friendlies with Draft League franchises. They have two rotating squads of ten pokémon, an A team, whose points value adds up to 90 and a B team, whose points value adds up to 60. They may be called upon by league teams to practice new strategies. They are broadly administered by the IPF. Defective Pikachu usually acts as their current trainer during games, while Mountain Dew and his sons are in charge of coaching.

The IPF pays members of the Punchbags squad a flat rate of 100,000 per round.

Their home stadium is Oak Field.

## History

The Punchbags played their first ever game on the 5th January 2020 against a Wonder League All Star team as a preseason event ahead of the first ever Draft League season. They won 6-0, with pundit Steph Aureus commenting that the nature of their victory set the tone for the power level of draft teams.

The Bags played a central role in the Draft League Season 1 preseason schedule, playing friendlies against all three league franchises. They returned an impressive set of results, beating the Route 28 Rustbuckets, drawing with the Old Leaf Pals and losing to Whimsicottonopolis.

During the supplemental draft after round three of the Draft League, Martin and Beach Face made history by being the first Punchbags to sign contracts with Draft franchises, joining the Old Leaf Pals and the Route 28 Rustbuckets respectively. Yanfantastic left to concentrate on her physics degree. They were replaced by Swooper, Sahara and Big Andy.

In February 2020 the Punchbags introduced a B team. Herman Gioma's press release stated that "the success of the Punchbags completely justifies the expenditure. We are excited to embark on this new venture and fully confident in achieving results for our young talent". The B Team played their first matches against the Route 28 Rustbuckets, winning both parts of a double header, 6-4 and 6-3. Maelstrom, Venus and Bonkers were lauded for their performances.

The teams were reworked slightly following the Season 2 draft after Sahara and iceice maybe were chosen by the Rustbuckets and the Pals. Martin opted to return to the Punchbags.

Rosters again changed after the Season 3 draft, as Maelstrom left the Punchbags to pursue a first-team career in Kanto with Pewter Galaxy, whilst ex-Draft League starts iceice maybe and RIP 189 were given contracts, alongside four newcomers.

## Roster (A team)

* Vitamin Sea
* Tranquility
* Raffles
* Nacho Tigre
* 2 Hand Jerry
* Bongo
* Swooper
* Groundhog
* Martin
* RIP 189

## Roster (B team)

* Beowulf
* Mildred
* Panzer
* Bonkers
* Greefer
* Diddy
* Subnautica
* Languor
* The Beast
* iceice maybe

## Ownership controversy

In January 2020 investigative journalist Bob Sudowoodward published an article in The Private Sableye raising doubts about the ownership and funding of the Punchbags.

> It's curious enough that a tiny village of just two residences is home to a major research laboratory, but now that this sleepy hamlet hosts a Pokébattling team capable of beating some of our finest professional sides the IPF has major questions to answer. Who is behind the Punchbags? Where does their funding come from? I think we should be told.
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Despite Herman Gioma pointing out that the Punchbags were a league run operation and their accounts and history were publicly available, Sudowoodward won a Clawitzer for the piece.