Are there any safeguards for low-level players against being pounded by high-level players?
Not currently. While the page you see when you got to PVP Battles shows you trainers in your approximate level vicinity, anyone can challenge you. Eventually, aside from that you will always be able to decline challenges (unless you are a top ten player, in which case the option to decline challenges is removed for the duration of your time in the top ten), the level of your pokmon and your opponent’s pokmon are not going to be allowed to be too far removed from each other. The exact formula for this has yet to be divulged, but in future, you needn’t fear being unwittingly pitched against someone with a team far superior to yours in level.
