To make battles and get shinies for doing so, you must first pass some IWATS courses. Let's create some incentive: In January, everyone to pass TIE Mission creation (TM/3) gets a medal, in February it will be X-wing vs TIE Fighter Mission Design (XTM), in March it will be X-wing Alliance Mission Design (XAM), and lastly, in April it's X-wing Mission Design (XMD). In all four months, MCBS (Mission Creation and Beta Testing Standards) will be free game. Passing a course gets you an IS-SR, unless you ace it, in which case the medal will be upgraded to an IS-GR. One medal per course per pilot, course profs cannot take their own courses, but they can take other ppl's courses.
IS-GR/SR
Competition runtime starts on the first day at 00:00:01 UTC, and ends on the last day at 23:59:59 UTC.