How I Met Your College: Clubs

The period immediately after the interaction ban lifts can feel like a continuous game of Pokemon. All the clubs look so shiny and you just gotta catch ’em all.

But before you start throwing your Pokeballs at clubs, hoping to dazzle them with your skills, remember that there is limited space in your bag. It’s good to attend lots of GBMs to fill up your Pokedex but there are only a limited number of clubs you can stay with and commit to long enough to have a chance of defeating the elite four at the Man Comm interviews.

It’s good to have diversity in your team by catching both technical and non- technical types. On the other hand, the non-technical clubs are easier to catch. One can even go out of their way to catch a lot of them, but keep in mind that having a team of more than two clubs is a huge problem, because then you don’t have time to pay attention to all of them. And like regular Pokemon, if you understand how to properly tap into their potential, they shall reward you handsomely- perhaps even help you defeat some legendaries in the interview round in your 4th year. (Or, as we like to call it, The Placement League).

The technical teams (Formula Manipal, Aero MIT, etc most of which live in isolation in the deserted Workshop lands) are the hardest and rarest Pokemon to catch. Keep in mind, that once caught they are like Ash’s Pikachu. You can’t tuck them away out of site, you have to give them constant attention and you rarely, if ever, get a chance to take out any of the others. Though they require dedication, they can throw some pretty kickass thunderbolts at the Placement League, unmatchable by most other clubs.

Once you’ve joined your chosen club and all the recruitment furore has died down, you can gain XP with the club by showing up for events and meetings (gym battles) and by training your Pokemon the hard way through infodesks. At the end of your first year, if you have enough experience, you can evolve from a cute and adorable Working Committee member to a slightly more ferocious Management Committee member with a bigger fire on your tail. And your starter club is usually the most likely to evolve most easily.

In the Placement Leagues, you’ll be battling your friends. For all you know, you might find people in there with a full restore up their sleeves and defeating them will be no easy task. So ultimately, whichever Pokemon you choose, do remember to go out and meet new trainers- and challenge them. Focus on leveling up what you have more than anything else. In the Battle Arena that Deetee is, sometimes you might even faint and wake up in an unknown Pokemon Centre next to Nurse Joy and discover that you’ve lost a substantial amount of money. But that’s okay. Because it’s your adventure, after all. You’ll end up having so much fun, that you will never be able to forget these four years in the Manipal Region. So go ahead, and catch ’em all. 🙂

-Shriya Atmakuri and Debrup Dutta for MTTN