Game8 Ranked Season 3 Recap | Pokemon UNITE

Ranked Season 3 in Pokemon UNITE is almost ending! Take a look back on the third Season of Pokemon UNITE with Game8's recap of Season 3. See which Pokemon was the best, the most improved Pokemon, the best New Pokemon, and more!

Most Valuable Pokemon (MVP)

Lucario Takes Its Throne Back!

Lucario takes its throne back as season 3's MVP. It showed consistency in its playstyle, tier list placement, and ability to take over the game despite receiving multiple changes. It has proven to be a bane for most Pokemon, being a hard-counter for them. It has also remained as a top pick in ranked and in tournaments for a long time while maintaining a high win rate.

Lucario Guide: Builds and Best Items

MVP Criteria

Each of these factors determine which Pokemon deserves the Most Valuable Pokemon award for each season.

• Consistency: Refers to a Pokemon's effectiveness or impact in matches despite buffs and nerfs.
• Rank Usage: Refers to how frequent the Pokemon is used in Ranked Matches.
• Tier-List Ranking: Refers to a Pokemon's Tier-List placement throughout the season. If the Pokemon remained in the highest tier throughout the season, it's a contender for MVP.

Tier List: Best Pokemon to Use

Most Improved Pokemon (MIP)

Alolan Ninetales Takes the MIP!

Alolan Ninetales has remained under the radar for a long time. However, when it received a buff in the 1.4.1.7 Update, it has become more versitile, increasing its support capabilities as well as a damage dealer. As a result, its usage and tier list ranking has increased. It has even become a common pick in tournaments.

It's these reasons why Game8 picked Alolan Ninetales as the MIP for Season 3.

Alolan Ninetales Guide: Builds and Best Items

MIP Criteria

Each of these factors determine which Pokemon deserves the Most Improved Pokemon award for each season.

• Significant Improvement: Refers to a Pokemon's sudden significant improvement after a patch.
• Increased Usage: Refers to the significant increase in a Pokemon's usage in matches.
• Tier-List Ranking: Refers to the Pokemon's increase in the Tier-List Ranking. If the Pokemon experienced a significant jump in its raking (S or SS tier), it's a contender for MIP.

Tier List: Best Pokemon to Use

Top Picks for the Season

Top 3 Picks for Season 3
Lucario Pick Rate: 28%	Greedent Pick Rate: 8%	Dragonite Pick Rate: 6%

These are the top three (3) most used Pokemon by the Masters Top 100 in the leaderboards. These Pokemon helped the players achieve such a feat so give them a big round of applause!

Master Rank Top Pick List

Best Pokemon Per Role

Best Attacker: Duraludon

Game8 chose Duraludon as Season 3's best Attacker. When the Pokemon was released, it caused shockwaves across the meta due to its incredible area burst damage, making it notorious for taking out multiple opponents in a single move. It's versitile in terms of laning, since it can go in any lane or in the jungle. It also made its debut in official tournaments, becoming a common carry Pokemon. Although it received its fair share of nerfs in the 1.4.1.10 Update, players certainly won't forget its impact in the meta.

Duraludon Guide: Builds and Best Items

Best Speedster: Talonflame

Game8 chose Talonflame as Season 3's best Speedster. Its high mobility, burst damage, fast-charging Unite Move, and objective-stealing proved to be highly valuable in matches, winning teamfights as well as scoring high amounts of points. It continues to prove its well-deserve S-Tier placement.

Talonflame Guide: Builds and Moves

Best All-Rounder: Lucario

Game8 chose Lucario as Season 3's best All-Rounder. Apart from also being Season 3's MVP, it proved its dominance and value despite receiving multiple changes to its moves. It also remained as a top pick in ranked matches and tournaments with an impressive win rate. It will continue to dominate games and won't stop any time soon.

Lucario Guide: Builds and Best Items

Best Defender: Greedent

Game8 chose Greedent as Season 3's best Defender. Its high durability, mobility, and its ability to heal itself with no cost makes it difficult to stop. It's been causing choas in games, drifting around the map, dealing high burst damage, and eating endless amounts of Berries. But it's most notable for pioneering a new strategy called counter-jungling, invading the enemy jungle and stealing jungle camps from them. Although difficult to master, it can definitely win games due to its unique mechanics.

Greedent Guide: Builds and Best Items

Best Supporter: Hoopa

Game8 chose Hoopa as Season 3's best Supporter. Its ability to instantly teleport allies back to base and to its position pushed the meta to new heights in terms of pacing and strategy. It made it possible for teams to be in two places at once. It certainly made a significant impact in the current meta, and is deserving of the best supporter title.

Hoopa Guide: Builds and Best Items

Best Holowear

Best Holowear for Season 3
Dark Suit Style (Absol)	Ruins Style (Lucario)

Game8 has chosen these two as Season 3's best holowears. The effects these holowears have is definitely satisfying to watch and experience. They added a well-suited personality to the Pokemon.

Holowear List: All Pokemon Skins and Costumes

Best Newcomer: Hoopa

Game8 chose Hoopa as Season 3's best newcomer. Hoopa offers damage and utility, and has changed the meta significantly in terms of pacing and strategy. Its portals via Hyperspace Hole and Rings Unbound provides global presence for its team, allowing them to quickly traverse the map to heal, take objectives, score points, and more. It can also deal high burst damage thanks to Hyperspace Fury and Psybeam. It's truly viable pick for any team, especially a well-coordinated team.

Hoopa Guide: Builds and Best Items

Notable Meta Changes

Score Comps

One notable change in the meta is the rise of team comps centered on scoring goals. These score comps consist mainly of high-mobility Pokemon like Talonflame and Dragonite equipped with Buddy Barrier, Score Shield, and Goal-Getter. The strategy involves aggressively scoring goals throughout the game in order to get the score advantage, especially during the last two minutes of the match.

The score comp strategy has proven to be extremely effective in winning matches that even when a team takes all Rotoms, all Drednaws, and Zapdos, the score comp team will still have a significant score lead.

Emphasis on Rotom

One big effect of the score comp strategy is the emphasis on securing Rotom. The reason for this shift is to utilize Rotom's effect on goals when it enters them, allowing the team to score goals instantly. The best scenario for this strategy is to open the top lane before the 2:00 minute mark, then taking the last Rotom to put pressure on the enemy team.

Counter-Jungling

Another notable meta change is the strategy called counter-jungling. It involves invading the enemy jungle at the start of the match and stealing the jungle camps from the enemy team, delaying or stopping the enemy jungler's power spike. Greedent is currently the only Pokemon that has proven to be the best at this strategy due to its mobility, durability, and healing.

Pokemon UNITE Related Guides

All Ranked Seasons and Rewards

Current Ranked Season
Season 11

Ranked Season Rewards

Ranked Season Rewards
Season 01	Season 02
Season 03	Season 04
Season 05	Season 06
Season 7	Season 8
Season 9	Season 10
Season 11	Season 12

Game8 Ranked Season Recap

Game8 Ranked Season Recap
Season 01 Recap	Season 02 Recap
Season 03 Recap	Season 04 Recap
Season 05 Recap	Season 06 Recap
Season 07 Recap	Season 8 Recap
Season 09 Recap	Season 10 Recap
Season 11 Recap	-