Ash vs Sawyer or Ash vs Alain?

[HiroHunter]

What do you guys think is the better battle between the two?

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Ash vs Sawyer because it had less resemblance to something on Pokémon Showdown than Ash vs Alain.

 

[Nicolas721]

The first half of Ash vs Alain is actually quite decent, I prefer it to Alain vs nobody Trevor and Tierno vs Sawyer. It has decent strategies and good animation.

However, Ash vs Sawyer is more solid overall. It has a very strong beginning, where we see Hawlucha and Talonflame falling quickly because Sawyer has studied them carefully. The ties were a bit forced but enjoyable. The last battle had good animation, but I still think it should've lasted more.

 

[Gligarman]

I'm gonna go with the Ash/Sawyer fight for the sole reason that in the Japanese version Sawyer has the same voice as Pikachu and TonyTonyChopper! Also he's one of my favorite rivals.

 

[Cresselia92]

Ash vs. Sawyer, definitely. It had better choreography and the two fighters were more on even grounds with all their Pokémon. A lot of Alain's Pokémon seemed more like fodder with the sole purpose of filling teamslots, to be honest.

 

[Sakuraa]

Ash vs. Sawyer. I liked the strategies that both Ash and Sawyer used to get the upper hand against each other; Pikachu vs. Aeigislash being the main example.

 

[Almonds]

I enjoyed both battles thoroughly (except for Ash losing) but Ash vs Sawyer displayed better tactics and I like how they showed the anxiety of battling your rival through Sawyer.

 

[ii kanji]

The Shota battle is the winner in every aspect:

• Climactic battle of a well developed rivalry.
• Well strategised.
• The better animated of the two IMO.
• Also, Satoshi won... not that I cared about that or anything...

 

[Johtohfiller]

Sawyer, he's a more strategic battler.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Ash vs. Sawyer was not only better because Ash won, but some of the battles were more interesting and the climax of the battle was mindblowing.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Out of the two, Ash vs. Sawyer is the better match for me as well. It had a pretty solid start, good strategies on both side and it was a good conclusion to their rivalry. The last match in particular was pretty neat. I don't think it's the best battle of the Kalos League. It's close, but having two draws in a row brought it down for me. It's still an all around solid battle and I can see why people often see it as the best battle of the Kalos League, but two draws in a row just felt too lazy or at least too much of an attempt to rush through the second half of the match. I still like Sawyer vs. Tierno the most. While the match was ultimately a means to hype up Sawyer before he faced off against Ash again, they didn't throw Tierno under a bus like they did with Trevor. Both sides had good strategies and they didn't have Mega Sceptile crush Tierno's entire team.

Despite its controversial conclusion, I don't think that Ash vs. Alain is a bad match. It was still engaging, both sides were pretty even right up until the end and I think Ash put in a good showing all things considered. Alain's team wasn't particularly noteworthy, although part of that also comes from how they overhyped his Charizard for most of the series, and only half of Ash's Pokemon won battles in that match. Having Pikachu defeat two of Alain's Pokemon also felt like a bit much. I'm not sure if Ash winning would have drastically improved the battle, but I also don't think becoming the Kalos League Champion would have significantly improved the arc for me. That being said, I can still understand why people were upset. I just finished the Kalos League on my XY rewatch recently and it really doesn't look like Greninja took nearly as much damage as Charizard did. That might not have been too bad if Charizard still looked exhausted after winning, but it looked completely fine, which just made fans even more upset.

 

[ManUtd22]

I always think that the trio shana trover and Tierno are the best friends and rivals with the millie serena's rival then Sawyer

 

[Camille]

Ash vs Sawyer, although Goodra vs Slurpuff and Noivern vs Salamence were disappointing, Pikachu vs Aegislash made up for them.