History YMMV / PokemonMasters

** 5-star sync pairs obtained from the PML story arc (Rosa and Serperior, Acerola and Palossand, Cheren and Stoutland, and Calem and Meowstic) get hit with this, due to there being no dedicated ways of raising their move level [[note]]barring a type of event that hasn't happened in ''years''[[/note]]. The only option is to use move candies, which are always better saved for powerful sync pairs obtained from the gacha in order to save on gems, which are best used for obtaining different gacha sync pairs instead of multiple copies of the same sync pair just to raise their move level. Cheren and Stoutland are hit the hardest with this, as the other 3 still see some niche use for free-to-play strategies, even when only at move level 1, while Cheren and Stoutland's viability barely gets improved even after receiving their sync grid expansion in November 2022. Starting on Pokémon Day of September 2023, [[=DeNA=]] has started giving out a copy of one of the Story Pairs each Pokémon Day.

** Of the many combinations of EX Roles possible, none are despised as giving Support Pairs the Tech EX Role. The EX role merely boosts the damage of the support sync, which is often considered useless as many Support pairs do very little damage to their opponents with or without the boost, and the primary purpose of the boost is via benefiting from the 2x sync buff the role gives. As a result, many would often use their Tech EX Cakes on units that have them... which is not helped by the sheer number of units that are given the Tech EX Role that are also supports (of the 16 pairs that have the Tech EX Role as of February 2024, ''ten'' of them are supports, which also makes them the most numerous EX Role in the game)

** While a number of people were expecting the Eevee-loving Penny to make her debut in November 2023 for Eevee Day, fewer people expected Elaine from ''Let's Go!'' to appear given the game's complete lack of ''Let's Go!'' characters even after years of the game's release.[[labelnote:elaboration]]There was Jessie and James, but those two are more renowned for their appearances in the anime.[[/labelnote]]. Almost no one however, thought another free NPC Trainer in the form of the Poké Kid, Eve, would be added.

** A datamined picture of Giovanni was found in one of the datamines, which showed Giovanni snapping his index finger and thumb together. This was quickly edited to instead have Giovanni raise a... [[FlippingTheBird certain other finger.]] The Twitter post with Giovanni's lodge announcement [[https://twitter.com/PokemonMasters/status/1707802534453059868 was quickly flooded by the image in question.]]

** 5-star sync pairs obtained from the PML story arc (Rosa and Serperior, Acerola and Palossand, Cheren and Stoutland, and Calem and Meowstic) get hit with this, due to there being no dedicated ways of raising their move level [[note]]barring a type of event that hasn't happened in ''years''[[/note]]. The only option is to use move candies, which are always better saved for powerful sync pairs obtained from the gacha in order to save on gems, which are best used for obtaining different gacha sync pairs instead of multiple copies of the same sync pair just to raise their move level. Cheren and Stoutland are hit the hardest with this, as the other 3 still see some niche use for free-to-play strategies, even when only at move level 1, while Cheren and Stoutland's viability barely gets improved even after receiving their sync grid expansion in November 2022.

** Ash received this label over time due to measures [=DeNA=] had been taking that appeared to [[Unperson erase Ash off the face of the game]]. Not only has he never rerun since his sole appearance, but his battle theme was removed from the game, and the medals from his event no longer show up in the medal list if you did not obtain them. It is worth noting however, that there is a very real rationale for [=DeNA=] to do so.[[note]]Pokémon as a whole is appearing to retire previous mechanics related to Ash, such as the retconning and removal of Ash-Greninja in Gen IX, likely since he is not the face of the anime anymore. That aside, Ash's status was already dubious, as the desire to use him was likely limited by copyright issues in relations to the Pokémon anime.[[/note]]

** Few expected for a second Furisode Girl named Katherine was revealed for New Year's 2024.

** A second Furisode Girl named Katherine was revealed for New Year's 2024.

%%** A second Furisode Girl named Katherine was revealed for New Year's 2024.

** Finally, to round out the Pallet Town trio, Sygna Suit Blue and Blastoise mark themselves as one of the best tanking/support units in the game. Blastoise's stat spread had a heavy focus on bulk, and Blue's skillset effectively gives him the ability to potentially raise EVERY single stat to max on his own with the right setup. Even then he was considered underwhelming compared to Syna Suit Red and Leaf... So [=DeNA=] added more grid abilities that can recover the team's HP both when Blastoise uses an attack AND when it gets attacked itself, making Blue and his team incredibly difficult to bring down.

*** Nate & Braviary are a strike sync pair that struggles to deal damage. Braviary's stats are all unusually low, with an attack stat that barely gets past 300 when fully upgraded, where most Strikers have their relevant attacking stat in the upper 300s at worst, and many easily reach 400 or higher. Their sync grid is unremarkable, and doesn't do nearly enough to compensate for Braviary's low stats. Their main attacking move is Fly, which due to being a two-turn move means it takes longer for his team to charge up their sync move. With this being Nate's only sync pair for a long time until he received his Neo Champion alternate outfit and sync pair in Novermber 2023, it stands out all the more when compared to the multiple sync pairs all the other Unova protagonists have received.

*** Nate & Braviary are a strike sync pair that struggles to deal damage. Braviary's stats are all unusually low, with an attack stat that barely gets past 300 when fully upgraded, where most Strikers have their relevant attacking stat in the upper 300s at worst, and many easily reach 400 or higher. Their sync grid is unremarkable, and doesn't do nearly enough to compensate for Braviary's low stats. Their main attacking move is Fly, which due to being a two-turn move means it takes longer for his team to charge up their sync move. With this being Nate's only sync pair, it stands out all the more when compared to the multiple sync pairs all the other Unova protagonists have received.

** While Nate getting an alt was a popular prediction for the game, many people brushed it off as another [[MemeticLoser meme prediction]] given [[=DeNA=]] seemed to pour more attention onto other Unovan characters like Hilda and N. So when his Neo Champion alt was announced, everyone was shocked, more so when their partner was revealed to be a Shiny Haxorus!

** As was expected, many people called it that [[spoiler:Paulo's Rockruff would be [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt revealed to be alive]] after Ghetsis's Kyurem attacked it. Just as many people expected (and for a very long time) it would evolve during the VA Finale into a Dusk Forme Lycanroc, seeing as how Kukui has the normal forme and Olivia has the Midnight forme.]]

** Because of Ball Guy's actions (battling various trainers suddenly, along with using Voltorb and Electrode in the process (Pokémon which are infamous for exploding) there are a number of people who joke that Ball Guy is a [[CrossesTheLineTwice terrorist.]]

** '''Ultimate Battle: Anabel's Flickering Flames.''' Where do we even begin?

*** Nate. Not only are he and Braviary considered a mediocre strike sync pair by players, he is the ''only'' Unovan protagonist who does not have an alternate outfit, compared to Rosa who has a Holiday seasonal and a Special Costume with Delibird and Shaymin, Hilbert who has a Fall seasonal outfit and a Sygna Suit with Mightyena and Genesect, and Hilda who has a multitude of alternate outfits including a Special Costume, a Summer seasonal and a Sygna Suit. Not helping this perception was a scene in the Unova Villain Arc where the protagonists arrive to rescue N, where he addresses them as "Hilbert! Hilda! Rosa! [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And even Nate!"]] So when Nate got the coveted Neo Champion alternate costume announced in 2023, you can [[AndTheFandomRejoiced bet there was much rejoicing.]]

*** Nate. Not only are he and Braviary considered a mediocre strike sync pair by players, he is the ''only'' Unovan protagonist who does not have an alternate outfit, compared to Rosa who has a Holiday seasonal and a Special Costume with Delibird and Shaymin, Hilbert who has a Fall seasonal outfit and a Sygna Suit with Mightyena and Genesect, and Hilda who has a multitude of alternate outfits including a Special Costume, a Summer seasonal and a Sygna Suit. So when Nate got the coveted Neo Champion alternate costume announced in 2023, you can [[AndTheFandomRejoiced bet there was much rejoicing.]]

*** Nate. Not only are he and Braviary considered a mediocre strike sync pair by players, he is the ''only'' Unovan protagonist who does not have an alternate outfit, compared to Rosa who has a Holiday seasonal and a Special Costume with Delibird and Shaymin, Hilbert who has a Fall seasonal outfit and a Sygna Suit with Mightyena and Genesect, and Hilda who has a multitude of alternate outfits including a Special Costume, a Summer seasonal and a Sygna Suit.

* MemeticPsychopath: During the "Three Trainers, Three Minds" story event, Red uses some ''very'' ToughLove on his novice team by ''constantly'' defeating them '''himself''' with his ''Articuno'' while they can only cry in agony in every bout they have. Though this harsh training was meant to condition them to not worry too much about defeat, players ended up thinking Red's a vicious psychopath who shouldn't be a teacher. To be fair, Professor Oak does call out Red for this at the end of the event, who can only sheepishly smile.

** As was expected, many people called it that [[spoiler:Paulo's Rockruff would be [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt revealed to be alive]] after Ghetsis's Kyurem attacked it. Just as many people expected (and for a notably long time) it would evolve during the VA Finale into a Dusk Forme Lycanroc, seeing as how Kukui has the normal forme and Olivia has the Midnight forme.]]

** Certain 5-star sync pairs tend to disappoint players when pulled from the gacha:
*** Grimsley & Liepard were created with a very specific niche in mind--Dark weak enemies who frequently use buffs. While there are some encounters that this falls under, most notably Cresselia from the Legendary Arena, they're rare and Liepard's base stats are too low for it to do much else.

** The Prestige system used in the sole Prestige event that has been run (in late 2020). It was a psuedo-Player-versus-Player system where to gain, points, one would have to complete battles using stamina, which would be displayed on a global leaderboard. The fatal problem was the massive buffs using Gloria & Zacian, the newly-released featured Poké Fair sync pair for the event, at higher levels gave, compared to other Steel-type sync pairs released before them, which meant that free-to-play players had no chance of scoring high in the event, and caused the event to be seen as a massive pay-to-win endevaour. Backlash from the community was so intense that this system was ''never used again''.

*** First of all, if you thought the 120,000 or so HP of normal Champion Stadium opponents wasn't tough enough, Anabel's Entei has a whopping '''''924,000'''' HP! And her side partners have nearly ''two hundred thousand HP as well''. And it also is immune to any excess damage if it is inititally knocked below 60% HP.

*** All these combine to create possibly, the single hardest challenge the game has ever seen so far. Every single clear has been done with two or more of the game's Master Fair pairs (some of the absolutely strongest pairs in the game), with some use of Champion Blue, Champion Serena, and SS Kris being essential to complete the challenge.[[note]]Champion Blue has great team healing and utility to take on the enemy's spread moves, Champion Serena lowers the enemy team's stats so their immunity passive can never come into efefct, and SS Kris is a powerful defensive and healing support who removes the enemy team's sun so they cannot benefit from it.[[/note]]

** While a number of people were expecting the Eevee-loving Penny to make her debut in November 2023 for Eevee Day, fewer people expected Elaine from ''Let's Go!'' to appear given the game's complete lack of "Let's Go!" characters even after years of the game's release.[[labelnote:elaboration]]There was Jessie and James, but those two are more renowned for their appearances in the anime.[[/labelnote]]. Almost no ne however, thought another free NPC Trainer in the form of the Pokékid, Eve, would be added.

** Due to November being the month with Eevee Day, a holiday to celebrate Eevee and the Eeveelutions, along with the introduction of Generation IX characters with Nemona in August, many expected that [[Characters/PokemonScarletAndVioletProtagonistsAndFriends Penny]] would make her debut that month with a Sylveon as her partner, since [[spoiler:it is her ace when you fight her at the end of the Starfall Street storyline.]] Sure enough, she was officially released into the game, with a Sylveon partner.

** Given the previously slow pace by which characters from newer Pokémon games were added to the game (it took over a year for the first Galarian characters to be added to the game, and around fifteen months for ''Legends Arceus'' characters to make their debut), quite the number of people were shocked to see Nemona debut so quickly in August, and also at such an odd timing as well.[[labelnote:elaboration]]Nemona was not released at the usual timing, which is at 6am UTC, but seven hours later, in order to coincide with a ''Pokémon Presents'' that was scheduled for the same time.[[/labelnote]]