Why Spark is the Best Team Leader

Honestly, I’m like two years too late on this article. Most people have already picked their teams and there’s absolutely no way of changing your team without starting a new account. Some people are insane enough to never pick a team, but most people will tend to pick red, blue or yellow.

From my brief research, it seems that Team Mystic, with Articuno as their mascot and Blanche as the team’s leader, is the most popular team. Apparently about 40% of players are with Team Mystic but I can’t actually find any up to date stats, most of these figures come from 2016 when the new team system was added. Team Valor, with Candela and Moltres, aren’t too far behind, and then there’s Team Instinct, with Zapdos and Spark as their mascot and team leader. Most people probably close Mystic because Articuno’s the more popular of the legendary birds and because blue is a popular colour. Red is popular too, but yellow not so much.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and argue which team is better. The answer is “Not Team Mystic” for various reasons, (mainly because supporting underdogs is fun) but that’s not the point of this article.

But frankly? Spark’s probably the best team leader out of the three of them.

Why? Well, various things.

Most of the time, when you see the trainers, it’s via appraisals of your Pokemon. Each trainer has their own set of phrases based on the stats of the Pokemon – its IV, its best stat (attack, defense or health) and how big or small the Pokemon is. But Spark and Candela at least put some emotion into it. Blanche only cares if it’s a good Pokemon or if it’s particularly big or small. Otherwise it’s that same old cold stare.

Before you say “Blanche just gives you the facts”, she doesn’t. None of them do. You want a quick way to find IVs and stuff, especially on a lot of Pokemon, you’re better off grabbing a calculator app or something.

The other time you see the three team leaders is in the NPC battles, where you can practice PvP without another human being involved. All three of them pose around like idiots, but Spark is the only one who is there to have fun. The other two just want to challenge you and test your skills, but Spark just wants you to have an awesome fight. There’s something about that which I can appreciate, especially since all three of the team leaders don’t exactly have the best Pokemon. Really, Blanche and Candela saying “we’re going to test your skills!” sounds ridiculous after the second fight.

But the main reason is that he actually SMILES sometimes. Blanche has a permanent sneer on her face and Candela looks slightly smug all the time. Spark HAS AN ACTUAL SMILE ON HIS FACE. Sure it’s a cheesy grin but it’s still a smile. That smile just makes Spark seem far more human.

So yeah, the reason why Spark is the best team leader is because he seems like a normal person who could potentially exist. Candela could be a potential person as well if she smiled instead of smirked occasionally, but Blanche is a boring old robot driven by invisible data you can’t see.

Anyway,