Contests
Pokemon Contests are held all over Hoenn in different Pokemon Contest Halls. Contest Halls are distinctive red houses with flat gray roofs with little indentations in them. The door is blue and has a white Pokeball with a red ribbon printed on it.
First things first though, you have to get a Contest Pass to be able to compete, so go to Verdanturf Town and proceed to the Contest Hall. Once you're there, stop and talk to the lady behind the counter and answer yes to whatever she says and she'll explain the rules of the Pokemon Contests to you. There are 2 stages to the Contest, in which you compete with 3 other trainers to win.
Preliminary: In this round, you show your Pokemon to the audience and based on the number of hearts you see popping up from the audience, your Pokemon gets a better rating. The Pokemon with the best rating is declared the winner.
Round 1: This is the main part of the competition. Choose your moves accordingly; don't choose a Cute attack when in a Tough competition. Going by how many hearts appear after you show off your move, the scale underneath goes up. To see how many hearts a move will make, check the 4th page of the Pokemon status page. Black hearts indicate that the moves will also have a downside effect to other opponents. Some move like Destiny Bond have a side-effect to your Pokemon as well. By using Destiny Bond, your Pokemon would not be able to do any more moves for the rest of the Contest. The same goes for Explosion, which produces 8 hearts, so it is logical to use it at the end of the Pokemon Contest.
Don't use the same attack twice in a row because you'll lose hearts. A red-highlighted move means that you get twice as many hearts as you usually would for that move. Also take into account that each move has a type, so if you use a move that matches the Contest you're in, you'll get a lot of hearts. The blue-highlighted little panel displays your Pokemon's information and status in the competition. The competition will continue until a Pokemon manages to reach the target set by the judges.
You can show off your Pokemon's moves 5 times and after that they will add the results and you will come to a screen where they will list each Pokemon. They will start by showing the results of the 1st stage on a bar. Then they will add on the results of the 2nd stage and the Pokemon who has shown-off the best wins the Contest. You will then go up to one of the judges and receive a Ribbon for your Pokemon. On the walls of the Contest Halls they will show the latest winners of Contests. Your Pokemon's picture will be displayed if it's the latest winner. After you fill the second floor (win all Contests at master level) you will receive the glass ornament from the art director.
PokeBlocks
There are five different stats for your Pokemon to be judged on: Cool, Smart, Cute, Beauty and Tough. To improve your chances of winning you will have to use Pokeblocks for the corresponding stat that it is being judged on. Each Contest Hall contains two different Berry Blenders. The blank one is for playing/mixing with a friend and the other one is for playing/mixing with the trainers at the table. You can only play if you have talked to the little girl in the Slateport City Contest House and received the Pokeblock Case from her.
When you go to the Berry Blender and answer yes to all the things, the screen will change to the list of Berries you have. Choose a Berry and put it in. The other trainers will then put in their Berries, and then the Berry Blender will start after a short countdown. The dial in the middle will start spinning, and every time it goes near the dial where your name (in red) is, press A. If a red circle pops up, that means you have hit near your name. If a blue X pops up, you've hit too far from your name. If you see a red and yellow bull's-eye popup, you hit right on target. When you get red circles the machine goes faster and your Pokeblock is mixed faster. The numbers at the bottom is the speed of the Berry Blender. Bull's-eyes means it goes even faster.
When the machine has finished mixing your Berries, they will show statistics of how many circles, bull's-eyes and X's each person has. After that they will show each person's name and what Berry they put in, and then you will receive your Pokeblock! There is a little yellow plaque on the wall of every Contest House that shows the fastest speed ever in each Contest house.
To see how many Pokeblocks your Pokemon has had, go to your Pokemon's Contest Stats by going to your Pokenavi, then the second option and then the first option. If you haven't fed your Pokemon any Pokeblocks or only like one or two, there is only one little twinkling star above its head. As the number of Pokeblocks you feed it increases, the number of stars increases and it grows closer to its limit for Pokeblocks, meaning you won't be able to feed it any at one point. When your Pokemon can't be fed anymore, twinkling stars will surround it.
After you have won the Contest in Verdanturf Town (beginner), you will be able to compete in other Contests in different locations all over Hoenn. The only catch is that you must do the Contests in the correct order or you won't be able to enter all of them. The order is:
Normal: Verdanturf Town
Super: Fallarbor Town
Hyper: Slateport City
Master: Lilycove City
My suggestion to you is that you have Pokemon just for Pokemon Contests and nothing more, since they wouldn't be that useful to have on your team with a moveset for Contests. Just try and match the types of moves on your Pokemon with the type of Contest you're in and you'll be fine.
Attached Items
There are 5 kinds of scarfs that when attached to a Pokemon make it do better in the corresponding Contest.
Green Scarf: Smart Contest
Blue Scarf: Beauty Contest
Red Scarf: Cool Contest
Yellow Scarf: Tough Contest
Pink Scarf: Cute Contest
Contest Emphasis/Moves Not To Use
Cool Contest: Don't use Beauty or Tough moves
Beauty Contest: Don't use Cool or Cute moves
Cute Contest: Don't use Beauty or Smart moves
Smart Contest: Don't use Cute or Tough moves
Tough Contest: Don't use Cool or Smart moves
Moves Affects on Crowd Excitement
Cool Contest: Cool +1, Cute -1, Smart -1
Beauty Contest: Beauty +1, Smart -1, Tough -1
Cute Contest: Cute +1, Cool -1, Tough -1
Smart Contest: Smart +1, Cool -1, Beauty -1
Tough Contest: Tough +1, Beauty -1, Cute -1
Contest Moves
Move: Move Name
JP: Jam Points
Type: Contest Type
Effect: Extra effects
AP: Appeal Points
TD: Target of disturbance
Target of Disturbance
A: Disturbs 1 Pokemon who appealed before you
B: Disturbs all Pokemon after you
C: Disturbs all Pokemon before you
D: Disturbs certain Pokemon before you
Pokemon Emerald
Pokemon Contests were introduced back in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. There are still the five categories as well as four different ranks. Unlike the past games, all the Contests have been moved and now are held in Lilycove City in the Contest Hall. All the rules from before still apply as well as PokeBlocks. PokeBlocks now are all blended in the Contest Hall.
There are some new things introduced. There are a few new coordinators as well as new Pokemon. There is also the Berry Master; he now can blend berries with you and apparently he's the best in all of Hoenn. He uses berries like Pamtre Berry, which means that his PokeBlocks are always going to be on a high level. This is very helpful in Contests.