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From an out of universe standpoint, why do you think Ash won the Alola league?

I actually believe we will see all Galar leaders in the anime. This time Ash won't challenge them for badge, but for the World Championship instead. And it will help promote exclusive leaders for each version much easier.
Or they can have Stow-on-Side and Circhester each have two competing Gyms, and Ash would have to pick whether he challenges Bea or Allister in Stow-on-Side and whether he challenges Gordie or Melony in Circhester.
 
Or they can have Stow-on-Side and Circhester each have two competing Gyms, and Ash would have to pick whether he challenges Bea or Allister in Stow-on-Side and whether he challenges Gordie or Melony in Circhester.
Since Ash doesn’t have to earn gym badges he can battle both to raise his rank now.
 
That does make me ponder. If Ash loses a rank, would he need to beat the same foe(s) twice to earn his rank.
I already explained it in another thread, a headcanon of mine on how the PWC rankings works.

Basically the ranking drop/rise depends on:
  • The ranking difference between the two participants. Larger the difference, more ranks gained/lost for win/loss respectively (it's why Ash literally jumped to 3k something from 11k+) and vice versa for smaller difference.
  • How each participant performed. Perform in a really good manner, battle strategically or bringing down the match to the wire would mean more rankings gained for win or less rank drop if lost. Dunno how a tie would work but if they performed well then they'd most likely stay there unless displaced by other participants from constant rank change.
  • Length and rules of the battle. I have a feeling that more Pokemon used = more chances of ranking up (win side only). Ash's climb for the two 1v1s he won was considerably smaller than the 2v2 (which if you noticed, involved all 4 matchups).
 
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was partly due to the backlash from the Kalos League. I don't think it was the only factor or even necessarily the biggest one, but it is kind of suspicious that they allow Ash to win the Alola League just a few years later after the Kalos League backlash. I don't think it was out of a desire to appeal to older fans exactly. If they cared about that, then Ash would have been replaced at least a decade ago. Maybe they didn't realize just how much people wanted Ash to win a game related region League until the Kalos League finale and decided to give him a victory here. Kids wouldn't be against Ash winning and there would be the added benefit of appealing to long time fans too.

I think it's also just as likely, if not more so, that they just wanted to mirror the Sun/Moon games in where the player character becomes the first Alola Champion. Ash always takes up the role of the player character and they didn't introduce a typical Elite 4 or Champion of Alola beforehand, so Ash was able to take that role from the games in the anime.

The setup for the following series could have also been a factor. They could have done the region hopping setup with Ash going into the World Tournament without the Alola League victory, but it might not have made as much sense without that victory. Or at the very least, I don't think that the audience would expect Ash to have a chance to defeat Leon, let alone make it possible, if they didn't already show him winning the Alola League first.

I think they underestimated the number of people who were brought back to the anime by Pokémon Go. And do they decided to make him win in SM to satisfy both audiences. Because the target one will definitely appreciate Ash winning, especially since he's the protagonist and because you win in the games.
 
I think they underestimated the number of people who were brought back to the anime by Pokémon Go. And do they decided to make him win in SM to satisfy both audiences. Because the target one will definitely appreciate Ash winning, especially since he's the protagonist and because you win in the games.
Even aside from Go the XY anime was garnering attention from former viewers because of the more competent Ash and high quality of animation a lot of the battles had.
It kind of sad 'cause I seriously doubt the anime is going to be able to build another hype train like that again--pretty much everything that could have built hype for the Kalos League happened, and another conscious attempt to get that level of attention again is going to have a lot of "yeah but remember Kalos" going on.
Alola tried to build hype but many people were refusing to bite after last time or just because SuMo's battles were not highly regarded.
 
Even aside from Go the XY anime was garnering attention from former viewers because of the more competent Ash and high quality of animation a lot of the battles had.
It kind of sad 'cause I seriously doubt the anime is going to be able to build another hype train like that again--pretty much everything that could have built hype for the Kalos League happened, and another conscious attempt to get that level of attention again is going to have a lot of "yeah but remember Kalos" going on.
Alola tried to build hype but many people were refusing to bite after last time or just because SuMo's battles were not highly regarded.

I didn't think that SM had that much hype for the Alola League to begin with. There was a bit, but I don't think fans were that into the Alola League initially due to the combination of the setup, SM not having a lot of memorable battles and expecting Ash would lose again. One reason why I was a bit surprised with how much excitement came from Ash winning the Alola League was because I didn't think that it caught much attention. The Kalos League had a lot more hype by comparison and a lot of people were watching just in the hopes to see Ash win it.
 
I didn't think that SM had that much hype for the Alola League to begin with. There was a bit, but I don't think fans were that into the Alola League initially due to the combination of the setup, SM not having a lot of memorable battles and expecting Ash would lose again. One reason why I was a bit surprised with how much excitement came from Ash winning the Alola League was because I didn't think that it caught much attention. The Kalos League had a lot more hype by comparison and a lot of people were watching just in the hopes to see Ash win it.
The Japanese version put in some effort to build hype for the Alola league; they put out a video showcasing previous leagues, had a contest to guess the winner to win a trip to Hawaii, and had an interview with the director where he commented on the fact there would be no "unknown strong trainer to steal the win" (said interview also oddly said Ilma would probably win because he "had experience from the Kalos league", which seems weird when Ash had experience from that and five other leagues, but since Ilma was just there to lose to Guzma it just felt like an attempt to surprise people but everyone knew Ilma wasn't getting past Guzma anyways).
The English twitter also did a countdown to the league, but similar to the "Ash's losses" compilation each post was about the defeat with a question ("what do you think Tobias' other Pokémon were" and "how would you respond to your opponent evololving mid battle" were the two I remember), but it didn't put as much focus as the Japanese version did--I suppose because pretty much everyone already knew.
Ultimately though, as you noted hype was fairly limited, at least in the west, for various reasons.

I was also a bit surprised by how much attention came from the win too, although quite a bit of it seemed to be ex-viewers hearing the news and tweeting about it with current viewers being a bit more ambivalent ("three years late" was a very common sentiment on twitter and some other sites).
 
Honestly, I cared less for the Kalos League. I was at the point where watching weekly no longer made any room from my daily life. So I chose to binge watch the entire XYZ series for 10+ episodes per week after it ended. I also predicted Ash would be at least 2nd place, if they're not having him win. Other than Unova League, Ash has been in the finals from Top 16 and moved up each league, so looked like they did what I thought they would.

When Alola League came around, after my binge watch of Sun and Moon, I had to tune in weekly for that. That series slowly became my 2nd favorite. At least until Journeys (or PKM2019) has something more to offer to make that my 2nd favorite, which I've yet to begin.
 
How does the Pokémon World Tournament work in the anime? I can't watch it until the dub comes on Netflix. But I thought of the bracket from Black 2 and White 2. Pretty sure we only got three rounds in the game's version? Not a good way to show him facing off against all the Gym Leaders. You don't face all the Gym Leaders in the Tournament. It takes you a lot of tries and luck to ever be matched up with all of them. At the minimum, if you are lucky enough to face different opponents in each go, you'd have to participate in a region's bracket three times to fight all eight gym leaders.
 
How does the Pokémon World Tournament work in the anime? I can't watch it until the dub comes on Netflix. But I thought of the bracket from Black 2 and White 2. Pretty sure we only got three rounds in the game's version? Not a good way to show him facing off against all the Gym Leaders. You don't face all the Gym Leaders in the Tournament. It takes you a lot of tries and luck to ever be matched up with all of them. At the minimum, if you are lucky enough to face different opponents in each go, you'd have to participate in a region's bracket three times to fight all eight gym leaders.
There's a ranking system--when you first join you start at the bottom. Winning battles increases your rank based off various factors. There are over 10,000 trainers in it, divided into several "tiers": most are at the bottom, in "normal" rank. Numbers 999-100 are "super" rank, 99-9 are "Ultra" rank, the top 8 are "Master" rank and get to participate in the actual tournament when it's held.
The three we know are currently there are Leon (#1), Lance (#2), and Raihan (#7, I believe).

It would be quite easy to include all the Gym leaders.
 
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It would be quite easy to include all the Gym leaders.
You could include all the Gym Leaders, all Elite 4 members, all Champions, every Frontier Brain, League rival/friend/foe, and basically every battling CotD and still not be able to fill up even 15% of the overall PWC participants.

I'm actually kind of glad that they're rushing through Normal class (who wants to see Ash curbstomping casuals and hobby trainers all day since he outclasses everyone in this category?) and are entering the Super class where hopefully things slow down from now on and we see a lot of returning characters (using CotDs as his opponents is boring, no stakes at all outside of the ranking).
 
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You could include all the Gym Leaders, all Elite 4 members, all Champions, every Frontier Brain, League rival/friend/foe, and basically every battling CotD and still not be able to fill up even 15% of the overall PWC participants.

I'm actually kind of glad that they're rushing through Normal class (who wants to see Ash curbstomping casuals and hobby trainers all day since he outclasses everyone in this category?) and are entering the Super class where hopefully things slow down from now on and we see a lot of returning characters (using CotDs as his opponents is boring, no stakes at all outside of the ranking).

Here's a thought. Any chance the Pokemon themselves be "the trainer"? Most of us know of Mewtwo (from the 1st movie), Sandile, and Malamar as independent Pokemon. How would the Pokemon World Tournament decide, if let's say Mew or Ditto or some transformation or illusion just include themselves?
 
Here's a thought. Any chance the Pokemon themselves be "the trainer"? Most of us know of Mewtwo (from the 1st movie), Sandile, and Malamar as independent Pokemon. How would the Pokemon World Tournament decide, if let's say Mew or Ditto or some transformation or illusion just include themselves?
I've actually wondered that myself (not in regards to the World Championship itself), but realistically the closest I could see is Meowth entering some type of competition in disguise.
 
Really, I chalk it up to A) backlash from the Kalos League and B) story-wise, the games have the PC as the champion and since Ash is a stand-in for the PC, the rest is history.
 
I still would have liked it better if they actually adapted Sword and Shield. This Pokémon World Tournament thing could have been a filler between generations AFTER Ash participates in the Galar league but before the Generation IX games release. He's probably going to lose the PWT isn't he?
 
I still would have liked it better if they actually adapted Sword and Shield. This Pokémon World Tournament thing could have been a filler between generations AFTER Ash participates in the Galar league but before the Generation IX games release.
The World Championship isn't quite the same as the world tournament from the games; the winner is officially named the strongest trainer in the world--making it an in-between filler series would sort of deflate it.
Additionally, let's just say there's clear signs they're not completing ignoring Sword and Shield's story.

He's probably going to lose the PWT isn't he?
We don't know for sure, but I doubt it this time. Leon's already been set up as his "final boss", and being a champion who gets replaced by the player is important to Leon's story (compare him to, say, Cynthia, whose story wouldn't need to change much if she wasn't the last boss in DPP) in a similar way to how becoming Alola's first champion is important to Sun and Moon.
 
Most likely the plans came about when the premise for Journeys was decided. It was decided that Ash would travel the entire world and compete in the World Championships, and they felt that having him win in Alola would be the best way to transition into that.
 
Most likely the plans came about when the premise for Journeys was decided. It was decided that Ash would travel the entire world and compete in the World Championships, and they felt that having him win in Alola would be the best way to transition into that.
Yeah, I suspect the real question is why they decided to go with the "whole world" focus instead of a Galar-only series this time around.
Part of me wonders if it's due to to them changing the series to be more episodic because of the time slot change, but they've already seeded several plots so it's not like we're looking at something as episodic as The Simpsons.
 
This has probably been mentioned before.

But I'm certain that Pokemon World Championships as well as the shake up to status quo is why they allowed Ash to win and even beat Kukui.

I think they had to do that, to progress Ash to the point where he could challenge and potentially win against trainers like Cynthia, Leon, and Raihan, despite Elite four and champions being otherwise unbeatable in past generations. Even Ash didn't exactly lose easily to Leon if Leon was supposed to be unbelievably unbeatable. But then again Ash's Pikachu did fare better against Flint's Infernape than the rest of his team, so who knows what exactly they're going for.

What will really prove this, or help this theory along is if Ash outright beats Korrina. If Ash beats her Mega Lucario again even with Dragonite, I'm assuming, then I really think they really want to show Ash being strong enough to take out champion level Pokemon.

The only other option is that they're nerfing the champions so Ash could beat them. I'd personally prefer the former rather than them being nerfed. But we'll see. I can't expect Ash to win every battle and just lose to Leon when he reaches that point to where maybe Ash needs to beat the other master class to rechallenge Leon. So we'll see how Ash fares against any Elite Four members that show up.

If Ash's Gengar can hypothetically knock out Agatha's Gengar for example, then I think we see that they really do want Ash to be stronger. I don't know if this a situation where the writers/producers finally said "You know, it's about damn time, Ash actually gets to be strong, instead of being nerfed at the beginning of every series" or is it a situation where they were like "We're done with status quo, we really need to shake things up, and the Pokemon World Champions will include Elite trainers, and Ash will need to have that exponential growth."

Or like I said they want to nerf these trainers, as it was perhaps ridiculous of someone like Paul who was kind of like Ash at the time, not even doing any reasonable damage to Cynthia's Garchomp. But of course we have Ash-Greninja vs Diantha's Mega Gardevoir on top of Alain's Mega Charizard taking out Malva's Mega Houndoom in 6th generation. It's hard to know to the exact power scaling in these situations.
 
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