Ball Guy

Ball Guy
Species	Human
Hair color	Unknown
Eye color	Unknown
Voiced by	Kellen Goff (2023)
Debut	Pokémon Sword/Shield

Ball Guy is a supporting character appearing in Pokémon Sword and Shield. They act as a lively mascot character and wear a giant, smiling Poké Ball mask that covers their features.

Background

The Ball Guy was a fan who dressed up as the official mascot character for the Pokémon League of Galar, despite not actually being affiliated with or recognized by the Pokémon League. They were known for their energetic and friendly disposition. The Ball Guy could be found by every stadium of Galar's major league gym leaders. When first encountered at each stadium, they would give out a different type of Poké Ball and sometimes would provide advice or a saying related to that Poké Ball. It was a mystery where they got many of those rare types of Poké Balls from, or where they kept them.

After Victor/Gloria became champion, they could talk to the Ball Guy at Motostoke Stadium to receive a League Card about Ball Guy. They insisted that the card was a super-rare collector's item, even if it was crumpled and looked more like a common card. The Ball Guy hoped that by becoming friends with the champion, they could become the official mascot of the Gym Challenge. The Ball Guy would also appear whenever Victor/Gloria won a tournament at Wyndon Stadium and reward them with a valuable gift. The initial gift was a Wishing Piece, and potential later gifts included various types of Poké Balls (including 100 of the normal Poké Balls) and other valuable items such as Nuggets and Big Nuggets.

Gifts

The following are the stadiums that Ball Guy appears in and the Poké Ball that he bestows at that location:

• Motostoke Stadium: Poké Ball
• Turffield Stadium: Friend Ball
• Hulbury Stadium: Lure Ball
• Hammerlocke Stadium: Level Ball
• Stow-on-Side Stadium: Heavy Ball
• Ballonlea Stadium: Love Ball
• Circhester Stadium: Moon Ball
• Wyndon Stadium: Dream Ball

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Ball Guy appeared with an Amoonguss as a playable sync pair that could be unlocked at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature after being added to the game in March 2023. They were shown to be fond of Amoonguss due to its resemblance to a Poké Ball. Ball Guy starred in the Story Event "Galar's Poké Ball Enthusiast", in which they had just "rolled into" Pasio and sought to make a name for themself so that they could become an official mascot. They ended up having a breakdown after they found out that their preferred gifts of Poké Balls were useless on Pasio, as it was an artificial island that did not contain any normal Pokémon. Ball Guy tried to think of a different way to cheer on Pasio's trainers, and they decided to do it through battle. Inspired by seeing Brycen in a play, they decided to act like a villain to draw more attention and caused scenes with a group of Pokémon that they had obtained from Colress through his new Colress Machine. The Pokémon used by Ball Guy in these confrontations were an Electrode and three Voltorb, both Pokémon known for their resemblance to Poké Balls, and they had the Pokémon constantly explode. Ball Guy was eventually cornered by Looker and the others, who forced them to stop acting villainously. Victor was sympathetic to Ball Guy and convinced them to cheer them on by competing as a sync pair with their Amoonguss. Ball Guy did so and started to befriend various trainers. They were seen cohosting an event with Lisia and giving her a Love Ball, as well as preparing a Poké Ball Curry with a group of trainers that turned out to be too spicy. Ball Guy also starred in the "Search for the Ball Pokémon!" Expedition Event, where they went searching for Sophocles's ten missing Voltorb for him and Molayne.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Ball Guy made minor appearances in the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Sword/Shield arc. Casey Shield was shown to be a fan of Ball Guy and wore a Ball Guy mask to scare Henry Shield with early in the arc.
• In the Pokémon: Twilight Wings anime shorts, an unmasked Ball Guy was seen from behind while eating in one episode, and Ball Guy was also seen outside Wyndon Stadium in the series' bonus episode.
• In the first episode of the Pokémon Evolutions anime, Ball Guy appeared dancing at Wyndon Stadium prior to Victor and Leon's match.

Trivia

• According to the Ball Guy's League Card, their name, age and gender are all unknown. The Ball Guy's League Card seems unsure about which gender pronouns to use (saying "his", followed by "her?" in parenthesis and then doing the reverse later on), while in Pokémon Masters EX, everyone exclusively refers to Ball Guy with gender-neutral "they/them" pronouns.
• Spikemuth is the only gym town in Galar's major league where Ball Guy does not appear. This may have to do with town being the only one to lack a stadium.
• The Ball Guy was also used for an event giveaway, where they took over an official Pokémon twitter and gave away Mystery Gift codes that could be used to gain several of the different types of Poké Balls for free.
• In Pokémon Masters EX, Ball Guy mentions knowing a secret technique for getting rid of small trees, in reference to the Secret Techniques from the Let's Go!, specifically the Chop Down technique that acts as a replacement for the Cut HM move. This has been the only reference to the Secret Techniques being used outside of those original games and in their original intended in-game application of being used by humans.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, a woman will give the player a Ball Guy-themed Rotom Phone cover if the game is played on a Nintendo Switch that has Sword or Shield save data on it.