AI in competitive Pokémon: VGC battle ratings
Competitive Pokémon (VGC doubles, the format played on Pokémon Showdown) tests team strategy and prediction, not exploration.
0 records and 1 tracked run or leaderboard for Pokémon VGC (competitive doubles) only. Nothing on this page is compared with other games. How we verify.
Can AI play competitive Pokémon?
Yes. AI models play full VGC doubles battles. On Pokémon VGC Bench, the current #1 is GPT-6 Astra: 1,901 (Rating), as of Oct 4, 2026 (verified, from the official leaderboard). Ratings come from head-to-head battles between the AI systems in that pool.
Tracked runs & leaderboards
Pokémon VGC Bench RECENT
16 AI systems are rated with Bradley–Terry ratings (centered at 1500) across 108 best-of-three series and 247 battles.
How was this measured? (applies to every row)
- Harness
- Pokémon VGC Bench battle harness
- Inputs
- battle state (text)
- Tools
- not disclosed
- Assistance
- none disclosed
- Budget
- not disclosed
- Sources
- ricotoma.com
| # | Model | Rating | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT-6 Astra | 1,901 | Verified |
| 2 | GPT-6.1 Sol | 1,846.8 | Verified |
| 3 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | 1,744.2 | Verified |
| 4 | GPT-6 Sol | 1,640.5 | Verified |
| 5 | Claude Fable 5.1 | 1,614.4 | Verified |
| 6 | Claude Opus 5.5 | 1,614.4 | Verified |
| 7 | Muse Spark 1.3 | 1,614.4 | Verified |
| 8 | GPT-5.6 Sol | 1,565.5 | Verified |
| 9 | GLM 5.3 | 1,482.4 | Verified |
| 10 | Grok 4.7 | 1,482.4 | Verified |
Last checked: Oct 18, 2026 · auto-update: ok
This Week in AI vs Games
One short email every Sunday: new records, memorable failures and runs to watch. Free. Every claim is linked to its source.
Latest issue: Issue #1: The Ender Dragon is down