Pokebattleathon 2008

Pokebattleathon 2008 (PBT 2008) was the 15th edition of the Pokebattleathon hosted in Edinborough, Scotland, United Kingdom. United Kingdom won the right to host the contest after Todd Fuller won the contest with his Lucario and Gardevoir combination. 2008 was the first time the contest would be hosted in Scotland. Scotland was chosen as the hosts due to being the location of Todd Fuller's hometown. The competition would be held in a grand castle. Along with the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Serbia, Italy and Slovenia automatically qualified for the grand final. There were no debuts nor returns in 2008 but Belarus, Macedonia and Switzerland withdrew from the competition.

The 2008 mascot of the contest will be Lucario. In the 2007 contest, Mega Lucario overcame incredible odds and defeated Azerbaijani Anar's Raikou in order to bring victory to the United Kingdom.



Contest
For the 2008 competition, there would be two semi finals each with 17 nations competing for 10 qualifying spots. The semi final allocation draw is based on past alliances while their starting location is random.



Other Nations

 * On March 3rd, 2008, Albania confirmed that they would not compete in the upcoming competition due to the restructuring of the broadcaster. A return in the near future was not ruled out.
 * Belarussian HOD stated that Belarus will withdraw from the contest due to a diplomatic row with the United Kingdom.
 * Due to a string of poor results, Bosnia-Herzegovina has withdrawn from the competition. They once again opted against competing in the contest.
 * RTL HOD Lens Flaggart stated that Luxembourg will not return to the competition in the near future.
 * Macedonian broadcaster stated in a press release in December of 2007 that they will withdraw from the contest until further notice. No reason was given for their departure but it is theorized that they were unhappy with the fashion their 2007 representative was eliminated.
 * Monaco withdrew from the contest due to lack of interest in the public.
 * Switzerland withdrew from the contest due to low viewing figures.