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Mega Evolutions in Pokemon GO allow trainers to supercharge certain Pokemon for a short time, massively increasing their battle power and occasionally changing their elemental typing. This makes Mega Evolved Pokemon incredibly useful for taking down high-level raids, but can they be used in GO Battle League PvP as well? In the majority of cases, the answer is no, but there are certain caveats.
By and large, the GO Battle League doesn't permit Mega Evolutions in Pokemon GO, likely because they would easily overtake the meta of the Master League and beat out several legendary Pokemon that trainers worked quite hard for. However, some circumstances permit Mega Evolutions in a small capacity, but only within specialty PvP formats.
Explaining why Mega Evolutions aren't usually available in Pokemon GO PvP
It's likely that the Pokemon GO Battle League's Great, Ultra, and Master Leagues ban Mega Evolutions for a reason. For starters, Mega Evolutions completely dwarf the CP limits for the Great and Ultra League, and their presence in the Master League can heavily disrupt the overall balance of the meta and the competitive PvP aspects of the league.
Considering Mega Evolutions have better stats, moves, and CP than many of Pokemon GO's legendary monsters, most trainers in competitive PvP would likely spend less time catching other Pokemon and simply farm Mega Energy for their creatures. This would likely not only throw off competitive balance but also go against Niantic's desire for trainers to catch legendaries and other Pokemon.
However, there are rare moments where Niantic lifts the Mega Evolution ban in PvP during certain specialty PvP formats. For example, the Mega Master League in Pokemon GO allowed trainers to use one Mega Pokemon on their team, but this specialty cup only ran for a short time.
There's also another caveat that allows players to use Mega Evolutions in PvP. Although they can't be used in the standard GO Battle League, it's possible to challenge other trainers in private battles and use Mega Evolutions. These battles don't provide rankings or rewards like they do in GO Battle League PvP.
Overall, Mega Evolutions may never be fully permitted in the standard PvP Battle League, but at least opportunities avail themselves every so often in specialty cups and they can always be used in trainer battles outside of GBL. Hopefully, Niantic will introduce more specialty cups in the future so players can use their Mega Evolved Pokemon for more than PvE gameplay in Pokemon GO.
