1. The service
These terms govern Battle Link, operated by Florian Nitze, c/o Online-Impressum.de#3646, Europaring 90, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany. Contact: service@battlelink.de. Further provider information is in our Legal Notice.
Battle Link helps players find opponents, communicate in match chat, report best-of-three results and view ratings. Battles take place outside Battle Link in the relevant game. We do not run the game, verify gameplay automatically, or act on behalf of its publisher.
The service is currently free. There are no subscriptions, entry fees, cash prizes or purchases through Battle Link. Your own internet connection, hardware and any game access may have separate costs. Any future paid service would require a separate, express agreement; using this free service does not authorize charges.
2. Accounts and agreement
Provide an email address you can access, choose a trainer name and keep your password confidential. Use an alias rather than your full name. Do not impersonate another person, share or sell accounts, or create additional accounts to evade restrictions or manipulate ratings. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been misused.
You can review and correct your entries before submitting registration. By accepting these terms and submitting the form, you request a free account. The agreement takes effect when we activate the account. The contract language is English. The applicable terms are available on this page; you can print or save them. We record the accepted version and time and can provide a copy on request.
3. Minimum age and eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old and have reached the age of legal majority where you live to create or use an account. Battle Link does not offer accounts for minors or a parental-approval exception. Do not create an account for a person who does not meet these requirements.
At registration and when accepting these terms for an existing account, you must confirm your eligibility honestly. We record that declaration and its date; we do not routinely collect a birth date or identity document. This is self-declaration, not verified proof of age. If we receive credible information that an account belongs to an ineligible person, we may restrict access, review the situation proportionately, and close the account and remove unnecessary data. You may contact us to challenge an incorrect restriction. Do not use a false declaration to bypass the age rule.
Availability may be limited by the law applicable where you live. This service is not intended for children. Report suspected underage use or safety concerns to our contact address.
4. Fair play and chat
Be respectful and report results honestly. Do not harass, threaten, discriminate against, sexually exploit or groom others. Do not share unlawful material, another person’s private information, malware, spam, scams or unauthorized advertising. Do not solicit money, passwords, private images or off-platform contact from children.
Do not cheat, collude, deliberately report false results, abuse automatic confirmation, automate abusive activity, bypass access controls, or interfere with the service. Respect the game publisher’s rules and third-party rights. Good-faith security reports are welcome by email; do not access other people’s data or disrupt their use to demonstrate an issue.
5. Matches, confirmation and ratings
A best-of-three match ends when one player has two confirmed wins. Report only a game that has actually finished. Matching reports confirm a game immediately. In Casual, a single report is normally confirmed after 30 seconds. Ranked requires matching reports from both players; silence never awards a ranked win. An unconfirmed report can be withdrawn by its author. The other participant may reject a premature or incorrect report while it remains unconfirmed; this clears the provisional reports and requires both participants to confirm that game, including in Casual. This does not cancel the match or undo a confirmed result. Conflicting reports also disable automatic confirmation for that game. A conflicting or unanswered Ranked result cancels the match without rating changes after 15 minutes from the first report. Conflicting Casual results have the same resolution deadline. Every active match also expires without a result after two hours. Processing may take longer during an interruption.
Ranked matches change an Elo-based rating; casual matches do not. Ratings start at 1500, normally use a factor of 32, and stay between 100 and 4000. Rankings are for recreation and have no cash value. We cannot promise an opponent, a particular waiting time or a particular ranking. We may correct a demonstrably erroneous or manipulated result after a proportionate review and will explain a material correction to an affected user where reasonably possible. Contact us if you dispute a result.
Team sheets, hosting and cancellation
To search, provide a Poképaste link to your open team sheet. Our server imports the paste before matchmaking and fixes a filtered team sheet for the match. Your opponent sees Pokémon, Item, Ability, Nature and moves, but not EVs, IVs, nicknames, notes or your original link. Ensure it describes the team you intend to use and contains no private information. Imports check structure and required fields, not gameplay legality or whether the team actually used matches the sheet. An unavailable or incomplete paste prevents searching. Hosting preferences are optional and are considered when possible; no particular hosting role or waiting time is guaranteed. The assigned host must create the lobby and share its details.
Either player can cancel an active Casual match. An active Ranked match can be cancelled only when both participants agree through the cancellation controls. A request alone does not pause the match or result-confirmation timers. A cancelled match does not count as a win or loss and does not change ratings. A match that has already completed cannot be cancelled through these controls. Match chat closes when the match ends and permits at most 1000 ordinary messages per match. Reports remain available, even if the chat limit has been reached. Email verification is required before matchmaking.
6. Your content
You retain any rights in messages you submit. You grant us only the non-exclusive rights needed to store, transmit and display those messages to the relevant participants and to handle safety reports, subject to the Privacy Policy. This is not a license to sell your content or use it in advertising. The permission ends when the content is deleted, except where lawful retention is necessary. Submit only material you may lawfully share.
7. Reports and restrictions
Send safety, content and account complaints to service@battlelink.de. Include a match reference, an explanation and relevant evidence, while avoiding unnecessary personal data. Reports are reviewed by the operator; there is no automated content moderation or guaranteed round-the-clock response.
Where necessary and proportionate, we may warn a user, remove unlawful or rule-breaking content, restrict a function, or suspend or end an account. Temporary and permanent bans are available; they revoke existing sessions and cancel active matches without an automatic winner. After reviewing evidence, the operator may correct or void a match result. Original reports remain as evidence and changes are recorded. Current-season Ranked Elo is corrected through a compensating adjustment; later matches are not recalculated. Old-season corrections do not change current-season Elo. We consider severity, recurrence, context, the interests of affected users and children’s safety. Urgent safety, security or legal risks may require immediate action; otherwise we normally give an explanation and an opportunity to respond. We provide reasons where required by law and where doing so does not compromise safety or a lawful investigation. You can request a human review by replying to our notice or contacting the email address above. Statutory complaint and appeal rights remain unaffected.
8. Availability and changes to the service
Maintenance, connection problems or failures can interrupt the service. We use reasonable care to operate and secure it but do not promise uninterrupted availability. We may make proportionate technical or security changes. Material reductions or discontinuation will be communicated with reasonable advance notice where practicable; urgent security or legal action may be immediate. Mandatory rights concerning digital services, updates and conformity are not excluded.
9. Ending your account
You may end the free agreement at any time without a cancellation fee by emailing us from your account address. We may verify the request proportionately. Ending the agreement and deletion of personal data are related but distinct; the Privacy Policy explains when limited records may still need to be retained.
We may end the ordinary free service agreement with 30 days’ notice. Termination for an important reason remains possible under applicable law, including serious or repeated violations after any warning required by law. A necessary restriction does not automatically remove your ability to contact us or exercise data protection rights.
10. Liability
We remain liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, culpable injury to life, body or health, fraudulent concealment, expressly assumed guarantees, and liability that cannot be excluded by law, including applicable product liability and data protection liability.
For a slightly negligent breach of an essential contractual obligation, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of agreement, to the extent permitted by law. An essential obligation is one whose performance makes proper provision of the service possible and on which you may normally rely. Liability for other slightly negligent breaches is excluded only to the extent permitted by law. These limits do not override the preceding paragraph or mandatory consumer rights. There is no blanket waiver of liability and no unlimited user indemnity.
11. Privacy
The Privacy Policy explains personal data processing separately from these contractual terms. Accepting the terms is not consent to advertising, tracking or unnecessary processing. No optional marketing consent is required to use the service.
12. Changes to these terms
We will explain proposed material changes and request renewed agreement where required. Silence or continued use alone will not be treated as acceptance of material contractual changes. New charges always require express agreement. If agreement cannot be reached, either party may end the agreement under the rules above. Mandatory legal changes apply according to law.
13. Applicable law and complaints
German law applies. If you are a consumer, this choice does not deprive you of mandatory protection under the law that would otherwise apply, including applicable rules of your habitual residence. The competent courts are determined by law; these terms do not impose an exclusive German venue on consumers.
We do not voluntarily participate in proceedings before a consumer arbitration body. Any statutory obligation to participate remains unaffected. You may contact us directly about a dispute, and your right to go to court is unchanged. If a provision is invalid, statutory law applies in its place; the remaining agreement continues to the extent provided by law.