The Pokémon Leagues
Throughout the course of the Pokémon TV series, there have been seven major leagues that Ash Ketchum has competed in. Each of the first seven regions having their own league that he has competed in.
Well, it's time to rank them in order from worst to best based on quite a few things, such as episode build-up, entertainment, and the way Ash performed. This list is completely based on the episodes of the league and has nothing to do with what the leagues were like in the games.
Now, before I begin, I'll get a disclaimer out of the way: this list is just my own opinions and thoughts about the leagues. I'll explain why I placed each league in the order that I did. Also, I know a lot of these leagues aired over a decade ago, but there will be spoilers here for those of you that haven't watched them yet.
Anyway, let's begin the list.
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7: The Indigo League.
I found this league to be quite a slog. I get this was the first time writing league episodes, but so many things were done wrong. Firstly, some parts of Ash's battles were skipped (his second and third to be precise) in favour of replacing them with filler episode plots. I also thought the way Ash lost was awful. As the episode where he has his last 16 trainer battle with Ritchie was completely ruined by Team Rocket, who kidnapped Ash, and spent all but the last five minutes of the episode trying to stop him reaching the stadium where his battle against Ritchie is meant to take place.
Then, once the battle against Ritchie does start, the battle is rushed and finishes with Ash's Charizard being sent out, then refusing to battle Ritchie's Pikachu, meaning Ritchie won the match.
6. The Unova League.
Now, unlike the Indigo League, this league has doesn't have rush the final Ash battle of the league, or have Team Rocket interupt it, so that's a significant step-up, in my opinion. However, I thought it still had multiple problems.
Firstly, Ash's main rival of the series (Trip) faces Ash in the first round of the league. And that battle is just a one vs one. That just seems strange to make Ash's main rival face him in a one vs one battle in the first round. Anyways, Pikachu wins that battle. Then in the second round of the league, that battle is skipped, instead focussing on an entire filler episode about an Axew getting lost, meaning Ash and his Unova friends have to go and search for it. (This takes up the whole episode) Then, in the following episode where the league action restarts, Ash wins his last 16 battle against a friend of his. I found this to be the only good battle of the league. But the following episode has Ash lose to trainer named Cameron. Now, here is a few mistakes that Cameron was seen making:
- Cameron only brought 5 Pokemon to the 6 vs 6 battle with Ash.
- Threw out a Ferrathorn to face against Ash's Pignite.
- Threw out a Swanna to face Ash's Pikachu.
- Didn't realise you had to register for the league, until Ash tolf him and helped him get registered with seconds to spare.
Now, you'd think this would be an easy win for Ash, right? Well, no, as Cameron somehow beats Ash despite all these things. This is an embarrassing loss for Ash, and a significant step down from his Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh league losses. Not just in terms of him going from the last 4 of a league to last 8, but losing to someone who made basic mistakes like Cameron. The reason I ranked this league above Indigo, was because at least Ash's losing battle was shown fully with no interuptions.
5. The Kalos League.
After the Unova League, this league felt like a breath of fresh air. I liked how great the action was built up in this league, and all the build-up Ash-Greninja got. And I thought Ash's semi-final battle had some great stratagies used, as well as an amazing final battle between Greninja and Sceptile.
So, why do I rank this league so low? Well, it' because as much as I enjoyed the semi-final battle and action, the journey there is rushed. This being the fact that in the second episode of the league, it skipped straight to the semi-final round. Literally, the first episode of this league finished with Ash in the middle of his first round battle, then the second episode starts with it being announced Ash is in the semi-final round. I feel it would have been nice to see at least two of Ash's earlier battles, as skipping them makes the league feel rushed to me.
Furthermore, all the build-up Ash got acting like he was going to win. Well, he ended up losing in the final. His Greninja, despite landing several attacks on Mega Charizard X (and having Ash's Pikachu use a couple of super-effective moves on it too before it mega evolved) and only taking a few back, lost to a regular Blast Burn attack of all moves.
4. The Hoenn League.
Now, this league did so much right. I liked how it showed all of Ash's battles and didn't skip any. There were some amazing strategies used by Ash in the league, - with my favourite being when Swellow stopped an opponent's Donphan from using Rollout, then picking it up and tossing it into rocks. Not to mention there were three six vs six battles, as well as a couple of other battles.
However, I found this league to have two flaws, with those being:
1. Ash only uses his Hoenn team in this league, meaning he's never rotating his team in the 6 vs 6 battles. Not to mention the Hoenn team felt a bit restricted it terms of moves Ash could use.
2. In Ash's quater-final defeat, the final match-up is Piakchu vs a Meowth. Yet, somehow, Pikachu loses to a Meowth of all Pokémon, to seal Ash's defeat. First of all, Pikachu is constantly beating a Meowth all the time, yet he couldn't do it in the league, where it mattered the most. If Ash and Pikachu were going to lose that match, then make them lose to a strong Pokémon, not an average Meowth.
But other than those two issues, I thought this league was fantastic and found it super enjoyable to watch. And the trainer Ash lost to ended up winning the who league, showing Ash did well to get as far as he did in that league with a restricted team.
3. The Johto League.
I found this league to be a bit more exciting than Hoenn due to Ash using a mixture of both his new and old Pokémon. As well as the fact his last 16 battle was hugely built up since it was agaisnt his long-term rival Gary. I found it better that Ash used a mix of Pokémon, as it meant you never knew who he'd choose to use in a battle until the start. And this time battles weren't interupted with Team Rocket or boring filler.
As for the battle agaisnt Gary, this episode was built-up well the previous episode, and we saw an anticipated return of Charizard, menaing you knew Ash was about to get serious. The battle itself looked bad for Ash when Gary had three Pokémon remaing to Ash's one (Not to mention two of Gary's remaining Pokémon had type advantages to Ash's Charizard) but Ash and Charizard made a great comeback to win the match and advance to the next round.
2. The Alola League.
Now, firstly, here is the main reason why I placed this league in second... Ash won! Fianlly, after seven tries and twenty two seasons, he finally won a league. Not just that, but not one part of the league was rushed, all battles were shown fully, and then after Ash officially wins the league, he has a 6 vs 6 battle against Kuki, which lasts four episodes, and ends in an Ash win, showing his league win is no fluke.
Now, the reaosn this is in second is because of one reason:
2. Ash only uses his Alola team. Although, since only one battle was 6 vs 6, it meant he rotated his team lots in the earlier rounds, so it's not too big of a problem.
1. The Lily Of The Valley Conference (That's its official name in the show) :P
This league did so much right.
Firstly, Ash used a mixture of new and old Pokémon, which kept each battle fresh.
Secondly, the action in each battle was just so superb and we got to see Ash use new and un-used strategies that he'd never used before.
Thirdly, the build-up to his quater-final battle was so intense. Since it was against his season-long rival, Paul, it was always going to be intense. But the battle lasted three episodes and had so much at stake. Not to mention Ash's Infernape had previously been released by Paul, so it meant a lot for Infernape to win the battle. The league, was tense all the way through; it had triumphant victories, and oppitunities for most of Ash's old team to show what they could do.
Finally, each episode had good build-up where Ash was seen training his Pokémon and deciding tactics with his companions, Dawn and Brock.
I found this league to have one major flaw, though. With that being the way Ash lost.
For those of you that don't know, Ash loses to a trainer (Tobius) with a Darkrai in the semi-final round. The semi-final battle was the only battle to have no build-up, with the previous episode ending with Ash celebrating his win over Paul, then the semi-final battle episode immediately starting with Ash and the mysterious trainer sending out their first Pokémon. Not only that, but the trainer Ash lost to was only breifly mentioned in the last few episodes, with practically nothing said about him, other than the fact he used a Darkrai. The battle itself is rushed, with Ash losing 6 - 2. Once Ash does manage to take out the Drakrai, he immediatly finds out the next Pokémon he has to face is Latios. Pikachu and Latios both take each other out in the final round of the battle, then once Ash shakes hands with Tobias, the episode cuts to Tobias being announced as the league's winner. Then, after a bit of a chat between Ash and Dawn, the episode ends. That final episode just seemed so rushed and just a cheap excuse for Ash to lose the league. Surley Ash could have just lost to a different trainer with a strong, but possible to beat, team. Along with a semi-final that was properly built-up.
Despite this huge flaw, though, I still found this league to be the best, for the reasons mentioned above.
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Anyway, those are my own personal rankings of the seven main leagues.
Page created 14/12/21.