Pokebattleathon 2001

Pokebattleathon 2001 (PBT 2000) was the 14th edition of the Pokebattleathon and it was held in Rotterdam Netherlands. The event comes to Netherlands after Julia Smit was victorious of Pokebattleathon 2000 in Oslo Norway. 30 nations confirmed including the debut of Bulgaria and Czech Republic. However, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Malta, Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from this edition. Russia won this edition after defeating Lithuania. Slovenia placed third, Germany placed 4th and France placed 5th.

Contest
The contest was split into one semi final and one grand final. The bottom 5 nations that placed in 2000, nations that failed in the semi final last edition and debuting nations were placed in the semi final. 10 nations competed in the semi final and 6 nations made it to the final. The final consisted of 26 nations.



Summary
Pokebattleathon has only 30 nations taking part in PBT 2001. There was a semi final with 10 nations and both Bulgaria and Slovenia dominated the semi final. This edition was the first time ever that Italy was not in the final. Both debuting nations qualified. The Final saw the debut of the powerful legendary Suicune from the Russian entrant Nyushu. Russia easily won the contest with Suicune's Surf. The final move was Suicune's Ice Beam on Lithuania's Garchomp.

Fun Facts

 * PBT 2001 saw the debut of Suicune, Kabutops, Auruous and Ledian
 * This was Russia's first victory
 * Best placing for Slovenia, Lithuania and

Other Nations

 * Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed that they would not compete in the upcoming PokeBattlethon due to lack of interest and financial troubles
 * Denmark confirmed that they will take a one year break from pokebattleathon due to other financial ventures.
 * Hungary confirmed that they would not compete in pokebattleathon due to poor results and lack of interest.
 * Israel announced that they would not take part in the event due to poor results. However, a return in the future was not ruled out.
 * Malta withdrew due to lack of trainers and poor results
 * Monaco confirmed that they would not compete due to lack of interest.
 * Serbia and Montenegro originally planned to compete in Pokebattleathon withdrew two days before the deadline due to internal struggles and financial problems.
 * Slovakia for the third year in a row decided not to compete due to lack of public interest.