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Preview JN104: Hyper Class! VS Dracaena of The Big Four!!

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I would imagine he would also have to knock out Flint out of Masters 8 too though, if he gets to the end of Hyper class he should not be further than rank 9 after all the battles.
It's not possible to battle Trainers outside your own class. Simply advancing to the next class will knock down the lowest-ranked person in that class.
 
^ The PWC has always been bizarre in how it works. For example, see me from about a year ago on the Trade Festival episode...

The PWC Battle with Ash felt very much like padding though. Speaking of, those Rankings continue to make no sense. Kricketina was #895 yet Ash becomes #890 after beating her. What happened to the person previously at that Rank? I would be miffed if I was that person and Ash just leapfrogged me despite only defeating someone below me. :confused:
 
I personally think it's fair that official battles can only happen between members of the same class.
It isn't too problematic that you can't grind your rank on the newbies. We just jneed more context on the rank changes and why battle sizes change
 
^ The PWC has always been bizarre in how it works. For example, see me from about a year ago on the Trade Festival episode...
Or how Flint losing to Leon simply caused him (#7) and the person ranked 8th to switch places
 
PWC Ranking system obviously does not work optimally logic-wise and what is most important - story-wise. The most problematic is that ranking changes rarely make intuitive sense - beating some number around 30. and jumping to 15. maybe explainable by some sophisticated mechanics, but does not work well in narrative. It should be intuitive, but Anime has obviously dropped the ball with that and now it serves probably as deus-ex machina, pulling numbers as needed.

Having concept of classes as parable for leagues (in real world) is IMHO more reasonable.
As FinnishPokéFan92 correctly stated, there are no matches outside class. But that leaves us with one caveat, that was not explained previously and we will see how it will be handled with Master Class. There are, I think, three ways how you could move trainers from one class to another in such systems.

The more logical two are real-world parables - so they have been tested - but Anime seems to have copt-out with the most fuzzy third one.
1. The implicit time-limit and ability to challenge for higher class. Simply, as one finds himself on place 9. or 10. for some time, there should be option after some time to challenge member of Master class currently lowest (8. or 7. e.g.) and directly square-off for the position. Story-wise, there is no need to state exact time, simply when Ash finds himself near the top of Ultra Class, he could challenge the least succesful member of it for direct spot and you have explicit battle to show it. This is also probably the most "fair play" option.
2. The more explicit time option - if change should happen without direct challenge, then you must simply state the exact time when switching places will occur. In real-world it is obviously at the end of the year/season, but since PWC battles seem to be adjusting schedule to current ranking and do not have pre-set programme, this is difficult to communicate in anime.

However Anime has - at least from what we have seen so far in Journeys - chosen the third and most fuzzy option.
3. You simply advance based on some sophisticated inner pointing system (could be some form of ELO rating, but even that I would assume would cause problem with inability to fight between classes on edge cases), which switches you based on the fact that you are impressive (winning in a row ideally) against your class, which indicates that you maybe better than that one guy who is constantly losing in the Master Class.
This does not align with info shared in first PWC episode, that some Battle Commision was making the selection and approving members of Master Class.
But even moving past that, it is not the most fair system and communicating it for 6-12 year old children is hopeless.
Because it would probably mean, that Ash will advance to ranking at least 8. and Master Class, because he has beaten/will beat numbers 30., 27. 12. and maybe 9. (this would be most reasonable, but still), and will replace let's say Flint, because he has been defeated by numbers 1., 2. and maybe 6.?
The point is, that the more the precise ranking is, then it is more likely than even this combination of results does not mean Ash is better than Flint. And even in case he is, the most logical, story-wise straight-forward point is to have them battle it out and have exact result.

But Anime has done this "let's battle inside classes and when someone is having winning streak in lower class and another is losing in higher class, let's make ranking system configured to switch them in one particular moment and see if former will be able to advance more in that higher class or will plummet quickly back to lower class".
 
Although I don't think it'll be likely to happen, I wish Dracovish would get replaced by Greninja. Dracovish-fans, don't be mad at me now but that Pokemon is just too ordinary. (Yes, I know it defeated Iris' Haxorus, but frankly, Iris wasn't that strong in the PWC and apart from that Drcovish hasn't done much so far...)
My point is if Ash really wants to hold his own in the Master Class, he'll need his ultimate all-star team, and that of course includes Greninja, Infernape, Charizard and maybe one of his Alolan Pokemon (Lycanroc/Melmetal/Naganadel) as well.
I'd say that Dracovish is the exact opposite of ordinary, seeing how it's a fossil Pokemon made up of mismatched parts of other extinct mons. And with how highly specific the requirements to get one of these guys is (you need to find Cara Liss, a scientist who is either insane or incompetent enough to resurect long dead Pokemon as barely functional chimeras, on top of finding the right fossil parts), it's not too much of a stretch to assume that Ash probably has the only Dracovish in existence. That's pretty unique if you ask me.

You mean because he was abandoned or treated badly by his former trainer just like the other two?
Yes, Gengar was abandoned by his former trainer. We even saw this in its capture episode.
 
Or how Flint losing to Leon simply caused him (#7) and the person ranked 8th to switch places
Yeah that makes no sense either. I get the points for the person who lost go to the person who won, but Leon is already number 1, so why would Flint lose a point? By that logic if you make it to the Top 8 in the tournament and you're number 8 and you fight again Leon and lose, then that means you dropped to number 9 and another person not in the tournament has to take their place! Or are the places locked by the time of the tournament?

The whole class thing basically punishes you for fighting anyone much higher than you because you gain rank easier fighting people around your level. It can also mean you can end up super high up if a bunch of top ranked trainers keep on losing. This is probably why Ash kept on moving up rank really quickly early on. In the end it's not about your skill, it's about other people making dumb decisions.
 
Do we know if Bonnie/Clemont are in this ep? We've seen no indication they're in more than one episode
 
Do we know if Bonnie/Clemont are in this ep? We've seen no indication they're in more than one episode
I'd bet the ranch they are, considering we all know what city the Kalos League Stadium is in (unless they moved it, but doubtful, it looks almost exactly the same.)
 
Yeah that makes no sense either. I get the points for the person who lost go to the person who won, but Leon is already number 1, so why would Flint lose a point? By that logic if you make it to the Top 8 in the tournament and you're number 8 and you fight again Leon and lose, then that means you dropped to number 9 and another person not in the tournament has to take their place! Or are the places locked by the time of the tournament?

The whole class thing basically punishes you for fighting anyone much higher than you because you gain rank easier fighting people around your level. It can also mean you can end up super high up if a bunch of top ranked trainers keep on losing. This is probably why Ash kept on moving up rank really quickly early on. In the end it's not about your skill, it's about other people making dumb decisions.
I think for the Flint case, 8th was the lowest he could go and he just happened to be 7th
Now if Flint loses again in like a rank down match then maybe something different occurs
As we don’t truly know how the entry to the masters 8 works, like does Ash have to beat 8th (Flint) to get in or once he beats 9th and he gets in and someone from FB Masters 8 is kicked out automatically?

With the Ultra class where Ash entered at the lowest he could be at 99th, so if he lost against Volkner he might of either fell back down to Great or stayed the same (it’s not clear)

Now with the rankings currently
I think (I’m only guessing) after exiting Great Class there hasn’t been enough battles (with significant upsets like lower ranks beating higher ranks) to create much of a change in rankings as once Ash beat Volkner he was well established in the Ultra class (64th) since Volkner was in the 20s

So with someone like Bea, whoever lost against her wouldn't affect Ash as Bea was presumably higher than him before and after and if her opponent dropped to anything above 64th it wouldn’t change Ash’s rank

So yes the system rewards the trainers that can pull off upsets as it tries to keep certain ranks down and others high, which I know is how it works in other ranking systems like if the worst player beats the best player they would get a lot more points in comparison to beating someone closer to their rank and vice versus the higher rank player would lose (or just not gain as much a lot of points for losing to someone much lower

So I think Ash is in a position where other characters having a more neutral record (wins and losses) doesn’t affect him as he’s on a winning streak and has been making upsets happened therefore his fast climb

And with the Great and Normal classes I think there’s a reason we didn’t see his score too consistently as realistically the flux in scores would be confusing for viewers

I hope that makes sense...

Also narratively or maybe even bts of the PWC people you don't have someone like Ash who is on a big winning streak against higher and higher ranked opponents with all this momentum go against someone lower you have them go as high as they can until they hit a wall as if Ash loses he will fall (probably not by much) then you give him a chance to get back up by going against someone lower so if he wins they can try again to go higher or if they lose they keep falling
 
Do we know if Bonnie/Clemont are in this ep? We've seen no indication they're in more than one episode
I would assume so. Clemont specifically is helping Ash train for his battle with Drasna, so why wouldn't he be a part of the second episode of the two-part-special taking place in his city? In which he contributed greatly towards? I'm pretty sure he and Bonnie will join Go in the stands, cheering on Ash as they've done before.

Someone has to provide commentary on Drasna's moves and Pokémon.
 
I just wanted to say, I mentioned in an earlier post in the Anime and Manga general discussion section that I wanted Ash's Dracovish to learn Dragon Rush, and it's happening, which is awesome! :D I also mentioned I wanted Dragon Rush to look more the way it did when Iris's Dragonite used it as opposed to Goh's Flygon, and boy did I get my wish, which is just.......
chef-kiss.gif



Dragon rush.jpg
(It looks amazing!!!! :D)
 
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