People who participate in Pokemon Contests are called Pokemon Coordinators. This is in contrast to Pokemon Trainers, who train pokemon to battle. A Coordinator enters a Pokémon in one of five categories: Coolness, Beauty, Cuteness, Cleverness, or Toughness and compete against three other Coordinators in two rounds.
In the first round, the four Pokémon are rated based on their condition. The audience votes on the Pokémon that looks the coolest, most beautiful, cutest, most clever, or toughest, depending on the category of the contest. Condition stats that are liked by the audience and the Pokémon's sheen also beneficially influence the votes. To raise a Pokémon's condition, Coordinators prepare Pokéblocks of specific colors and feed them to their Pokémon, think vitamins to help improve the health and look of a dog for dog shows. how well a Pokémon does in this phase is shown by the number of hearts that appear over the the pokemons' heads (representative of how many votes that pokemon received from the crowd during its turn).
In the secondary judging, the four Pokémon take turns appealing (i.e. using certain moves in front of an appointed judge). They are able to affect the performances of each other. Effects on other Pokémon include reducing their number of hearts, making them nervous, and so forth. Moves that are of the same category as the contest the user is competing in may excite the audience, and if the audience becomes extremely excited, the Pokémon scores extra hearts. Each appeal heart earned in this round has the same effect as 20 points in the previous round. Move combinations also score extra hearts. Using a move repeatedly (unless the move's effect specifically mentions otherwise) will bore the audience in the hall, resulting in point deduction, and preventing the excitement from increasing even if the move is of the correct type. the Pokémon will lose two hearts the first time a move is repeated, three hearts the second time, and so on.
After the second round, the four Pokémon's results are shown. Here, stars represent how well the Pokémon did in the primary judging, while hearts indicate how well the Pokémon did in the secondary judging; both fill up the four Pokémon's meters. The pokemon with the highest meter is crowned the winner.