What was your favourite League and why?

[Thingamajig]

I'd have to go with the Hoenn League. I think it would've been even more interesting if Ash had used some of his older Pokemon (even just for the prelims) but it was good how many battles there were, all 3 of the full battles were pretty good. Oh, and it could've used a region-wide rival for Ash... but the league itself was still good.

Whereas to me, the Sinnoh League just felt like it was Ash vs. Paul sandwiched between some other insignificant battles. Even the format was boring, it was just a straight-up single elimination tournament the whole way through.

 

[Cybersai]

I can't get over the fact that we only had 2 different 6 on 6 matches in the Sinnoh league, and the Tobias one was obviously just a rush job.

I can't believe the writers hyped us up about Ash's Glalie, Muk and the Johto starters returning and they don't even get any battles. That pissed me off beyond belief.

 

[Chronos]

I liked the Hoenn League the most. I don't remember what happened in the Johto League, and the Indigo League was just "blah" to me. I would've liked the Sinnoh League more if it weren't for that haxorific battle between Ash and Tobias. I was pretty annoyed that he had Darkrai, but to have Latios too? What the hell were the writers thinking making a cheap ass way for Ash to lose like that? That was totally out of left field and really, really stupid. I hope they don't pull crap like that in the Unova League.

The Hoenn League seemed like the least rushed one IMO, which is why I enjoyed it the most. Ash vs. Katie was a pretty good battle. Too bad she wasn't his main rival in AG; I think it would've be cool to see how her team progressed.

 

[Cybersai]

The Johto league was actually really good for what it was, nobody got screwed over aside from Kingler, who got the Whirl Cup anyway.

Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charizard finally get the epic matches they *didn't* get back in the Indigo league. Snorlax becomes a powerhouse for the first time. Bayleef and Totodile get used twice and win some matches, Cynda unfortunately doesn't do much. Phanpy wins a match, Muk is used for the last time (sadly), both Tauros and Heracross are used.

The only problem with the Johto league is Noctowl gets a 10 second battle where it goes down in one hit to Harrisson's Steelix. Other than Noctowl getting royally screwed and Kingler getting no match, the Johto league was pretty good.

 

[CrazySillyMan]

The only problem with the Johto league is Noctowl gets a 10 second battle where it goes down in one hit to Harrisson's Steelix. Other than Noctowl getting royally screwed and Kingler getting no match, the Johto league was pretty good.

To be fair, Kingler not only has the privelege to be called Ash's first Pokemon to evolve in a League, but to be used in a League period, as well as his first besides his usual 6. With the Whirl Cup as well, and the Johto League being the next League right after Indigo, Kingler was handled fine....until many years later.

Noctowl got redeemed in Sinnoh, so it's really water under the bridge.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

I think Quilava's 10 second battle was the biggest fuck up of an evo I'd ever seen.

Come on, they had already messed up the Johto Pokemon before. So what's the big deal anyways? We'll have to put up with them not playing a major role anymore in the future. And admittedly, just like the Unova starters, I couldn't get to like the Johto starters and their design either. So, I'm fine with the whole situation, I guess.

 

[Grave-E]

For all the critisisms it recieved, I think the Sinnoh league was the only one that provided us with consistantly good battles, with as little useless fluff inbetween all the important stuff as possible. The whole series had built up to this one, and although a bit patchy in places, pulled things off well in the end.
The majority of Nando's match was undoubtedly dire, but when all is said and done, Heracross vs. Kricketune was really good stuff. Brilliant animation, great tactics from Ash, and some excellent aerial action with a few fisticuffs thrown in for good measure.
Barry vs. Paul suffers from similar problems, and again, it came down to two 'mons making it a really stand-out match. Qualms with it robbing us of another Ash fight aside, Hitmonlee fighting Ursaring was a quality brawl, and Barry's fanboying over Paul was something that needed to be wrapped up at some point.
Then you've got both Conway and Paul's matches, which I think most will agree were all round excellent battles, with the latter being quite possibly the best in the series.
And while I agree that the sudden introduction of Takuto and his legendary team was indeed iffy...well, it turned out to be a pretty decent match, for what it was.

Earlier leagues definately have their moments, but I personally found myself being completely satisfied with little more than a lone match in each. Example? Well, Houen league's Katie goes down as an all-time fave of mine, what with her unorthadox roster of 'mons and strategies not unlike those one would expect from the video games. This one was a great showcase of Corphish, Grovyle and Swellow's strengths, and was kind enough to provide a few laughs in with all the action.
Others would have 'that one clash' that stood out, but that was all. Glalie taking out Charizard and the famous Blaziken battle are ones that come to mind.

The 'important' battles Ash had in each didn't do much for me, though I feel the Johto league was the biggest let-down in that regard. For something that had been built up to for years, vs. Gary really got the short end of the stick. The absolute worst animation director working on it AND littered with quick KOs? Blech. That said, Heracross owning Magmar was brilliant stuff.

 

[Cybersai]

Come on, they had already messed up the Johto Pokemon before. So what's the big deal anyways? We'll have to put up with them not playing a major role anymore in the future. And admittedly, just like the Unova starters, I couldn't get to like the Johto starters and their design either. So, I'm fine with the whole situation, I guess.

My point was this was the perfect time to make the Johto starters prove their worth. Noctowl got a pretty good battle, and Heracross/Donphan were always pretty decent battlers, but I would have liked to see the Johto starters redeem themselves.

Everyone wanted Ash with a Quilava for years. We waited 10 years for it to evolve, and its battle is literally 10 seconds? Not to mention seeing a Bayleef/Totodile fight outside of TR would have been nice.

 

[GreatLiver]

Yeah, the Sinnoh league could have easily redeemed the Johto starters, which are arguably the weakest of Ash's starters, but they gave them all of zero time. Huge let down.

 

[Cybersai]

Yeah, the Sinnoh league could have easily redeemed the Johto starters, which are arguably the weakest of Ash's starters, but they gave them all of zero time. Huge let down.

The problem is we only saw Ash battle 4 people. When you only battle Nando, Conway, Paul and Tobias...with some pokemon being used twice, (Pikachu, Heracross and Staraptor oddly enough), that's what happens.

The whole Sinnoh league was the first time I had ever been truly disappointed in a league ender. Yeah the Paul match was fantastic and the best of the series, but I wanted more than just, "epic Paul battle."

Its not just the Johto starters. Why in the world were Glalie and Muk brought back? To get one still-screen? Seriously, WTF?

I can accept Corphish not battling as we already saw it do a ton in the past, I just liked seeing it for comic relief.

 

[El_]

Johto got trolled :/

But anywho: For me its either Hoenn's or Sinnoh's Conference that was the best hands down.

Hoenn's Conference was "balanced" and while its only main problem was seeing the Hoenn team over and over that was also its greatest strength, as everybody recieved equal amounts of time to shine. Also unique adversaries like Katie and Morrison made it fun. Tyson was ok I think.

Sinnoh's Conference was EPIC.. even getting trolled to hell by Tobias was epic. No Conference had such a combo of good battle and absolutely "trollish" moments.

Ash vs Nando was good, and Paul vs Barry was also good. Ash vs Conway was awesome and fun and Ash vs Paul is a legendary classic.

Tobias the troll, was also very epic in his own way. From the start, he conquered Sinnoh with only Darkrai. This is a feat that noone in the pokemon world may be capable of normally *obviously*, which shows the type of "extremes" the anime team took near the end. (Rushing it)

I never, and I mean NEVER thought I'd see the day when the only way the writers could successfully and quickly defeat Ash Ketchem was to use legendary and uber pokemon. That shows that Ash had indeed come a long ways. If it had been "Cynthia" the Champion herself that defeated Ash, then I would have no problems with what happened.(But as said before, rushed ending was rushed)

The only things that I remember from Johto was Ash vs Gary (and Harrison), which was very good even though the Johto pokemon were shafted the Kanto ones finally got to really shine. (Aside from the filler Orange League before)

I remember the etire Kanto/Indigo Conference only because it was the first season of pokemon... aside from that imma pull a Charizard and take a nap.

Summing it up:

Hoenn's was balanced.

Sinnoh's was very good but it COULD have been the best had it not been hurt by the trolls of Tobias and the zero time given to some of Ash's pokemon that were only briefly seen.

Johto's was mainly memorable for a few epic battles like Gary & Harrison.

Indigo is memorable for being the first.

Overtime, you can see that the writers gradually have improved in all areas, including trolling when it counts.

 

[CommanderPigg]

I never, and I mean NEVER thought I'd see the day when the only way the writers could successfully and quickly defeat Ash Ketchem was to use legendary and uber pokemon. That shows that Ash had indeed come a long ways. If it had been "Cynthia" the Champion herself that defeated Ash, then I would have no problems with what happened.(But as said before, rushed ending was rushed)

Overtime, you can see that the writers gradually have improved in all areas, including trolling when it counts.

Oh geez, I couldn't agree with you more!

I didn't really mind that Ash's old pokemon weren't used that much though. I mean, Sinnoh did put heavy emphasis on individual pokemon development, and I guess they wanted to justify it in the end by giving them ample screen time? I'm hoping that the same will happen in the BW league too *dodges tomoatoes*

 

[GreatLiver]

Well AG had an opportunity for the non Hoenn team to actually do stuff, with the BF and what have you. Was that used to its full extent, not really, but it was nice especially to see Phanpy come back and get major development. Sinnoh didn't have that luxury, which is probably why they thought they'd need to bring back the older pokemon.

It is weird though how there are certain pokemon that get a lot more focus than others, usually pokemon that weren't really main cast pokemon. It's funny though because like the Johto starters and the like were on his team the entirety of Johto, but then it's pokemon like Heracross that consistently get brought back for battles in the BF and Suzuran conference. Heracross was dropped mid-Johto, but being brought back relatively often has pretty much made up for that. Johto starters are at the other end of the spectrum, where they sat around for ages but didn't really do much that was memorable, and haven't really been heard from since.

It's nice that pokemon like Heracross, Snorlax, and Tauros get a considerable amount of appearances now compared to what they had around the time they were first captured, it's just a shame Muk and some others can't get that same treatment.

 

[Cybersai]

I find it bizarre Muk wasn't used in BF, or in the league. Its one of the most unique Pokemon Ash has yet the writers never have it do anything more than slime all over Prof. Oak.

I can understand Kingler's shafting because Ash has too many water types, but Muk is one you'd think the writers would want to use again but never did.

 

[BlazeMaster]

Kanto league battles were just all on all brawls. Nothing interesting there.

In Johto the battles were pretty good all round.

In Hoenn there was a great mix of bizarre CotDs (yes, I'm talking to you Clark) and tense battles like Katie and Meowth vs Pikachu. However I was kinda let down by the general Corphish blasting everything followed by Stellix wooping Pikachu and Torkoal in Morrison's match.

Sinnoh was my favourite though because we had loads of thought through strategies, tense fights and big explosions. It was disappointing seeing Ash use crappy team members against Tobias though with only one simple strategy in mind. But before then the Tournement was great, but missing the vital CotDs

 

[Aestivate]

Moving this to the GF. Even if there are no polls there are only so many choices. Just as a heads-up everybody needs to state their reasoning for their choices now.

 

[Yankees4life]

I think for me it was the Johto League!! Despite the saga itself being bad, we got to see Ash "retire" Gary Oak!!!

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

The Lily of the Valley Conference is my overall favourite, but Tobias was nearly enough to sway it.

The Indigo League is definitely the worst, but it was before they knew how to properly write battles. Most of Ash's battles were either ridiculous or they didn't even bother to show them in their entirety. It was kinda cool to watch Krabby/Kinger sweep through the first opponent's team, but it hadn't received any prior experience or training, so it wasn't believable in the slightest. Battles two and three was rushed and almost completely skipped, and whilst Battle four was a slight improvement, Bulbasaur defeated Beedrill and Scyther too easily and the overpowered Bellspout was silly. Ash's loss against Richtie was extremely annoying; It wasn't because Charizard refused to obey Ash, and I didn't really mind Ritchie. It's because the stupid ref declared Ash's Squirtle as unable to battle, even though it had only been put to sleep. What bullshit. Good thing the writers learnt from this mistake by the time Ash vs Nando arrived.

The Silver Conference and its battles were a massive improvement, but I can barely remember anything about it. All I cared about seeing was the epic 6-vs-6 Ash & Gary Showdown I'd been eagerly waiting for since the beginning of the show, and it didn't disappoint; it's still one of my favourite battles in the series. Very odd that Ash didn't use Pikachu and Gary didn't use Umbreon, though - I was expecting to see Pikachu to get revenge after its loss against Eevee, but no matter. Ash's battle and loss to Harrison was much more enjoyable and tolerable than the end of Ash's Indigo League challenge, and it was good way to inspire Ash to travel to Hoenn, but I'm a little bitter Ash didn't win the championship after watching so many dull filler episodes.

The Ever Grande Conference was nearly my choice. From what I remember, none of the battles felt cheap or were done badly, and Morrison and Tyson were great characters - I wish they had both appeared earlier in the Hoenn series. It's annoying Ash finished in the same position he did in The Silver Conference, but in a way, it's the closest he's gotten to winning yet. Tyson was league winner, and he barely defeated Ash. Special mention of the hysterical Morrison vs Jump battle. Really, Morrsion? Of all the Pokemon in the world, you decided to use a Beldum - who can learn only Take Down - in an important league battle? I laughed my ass off.

Finally, The Lily of the Valley Conference, my favourite. The best collection of battles in the series thus far - Ash vs Conway, Barry vs Paul, Ash vs Paul and even Ash vs Nando were incredible. The writers had come a lot way since the bad ref decisions and skipped battles of The Indigo League. It was all so good until Tobias and his legendaries had to rear their ugly heads. At least all of Ash's other league defeats were close; this loss made him feel further away from winning than ever. I can only hope Ash will get revenge on Tobias later on in the series. The quality of the previous battles were enough for The Lily of the Valley Conference to remain my favourite, but only just.

 

[Caseydia]

The Hoenn one by far was the best. The battles felt as though it was a struggle but managed to turn out good with skill.
The DP one was good because of the power in them but it felt so short. And there really wasn no need for a three on three with Paul and Ash. I felt it could have been done in two episodes if some certain people weren't yapping their mouths and the pauses in between the battles weren't so Naruto long. You guys know what I'm talkin' about!

 

[Ambipom666]

The Sinnoh League. It had hands down one of the series' greatest battles. All of the experience Ash has (or rather had), it all came together here, against smart, calculating titans such as Conway and Paul. And even against Godhax Trollbias. It's tragic the Sinnoh League (and Diamond and Pearl as a whole, on a smaller scale) suffered so much from the Cosmic Deadline of the anime series (Although, I suppose you could say the same of Johto's League; not so sure about Kanto's or Hoenn's since those were succeeded by filler arcs)