Oi!
I'm leaning more towards gyms then contests, but that's basically since I've grown up with Ash doing gyms ever since I was a preteen (I'm in my twenties now), so I still get that feeling of anticipation, although now I can basically guess if he's going to win or not, plus now that I'm reading Japanese episode titles, which are pretty straight forward, nothing really comes as a surprise.. as to when I watched first watched the original Ash vs Misty or Pika vs Raichu for example xD
That being said, I do watch contest episodes, but I usually skip some of the more tedious ones.. I like how the writers are trying to elaborate more on contests in this season, but I have a theory about that (which also is a bit tedious so I'll explain in short at the end of this post)
My favorite girl will have to be.. uhm.. I don't wanna sound like Misty Fanboy, but I've always had crushes on redheads.. so uhm.. yeah.. gonna choose her. I can't pick May since I've missed a lot of episodes concerning her in Hoenn/Kanto BF, since I had no option of watching television in that period of time. I've liked how they developed Dawn, but she's just a bit too cheery for my taste. That doesn't mean that I dislike her, just that I get a 'meh' feeling.. more about that below xD
Team Rocket is another relic from the old days. Episode 2 was one of the greatest episode ever, since they looked truly evil in that episode.. Then Johto came and they're nothing more then Comic Relief, with no form of antagonistic qualities left. I do like that they gave Jessie a contest career, but hate that they leave James and Meowth as spectators.. I've noted, not written on the forums yet, that although recently Jessie has begun to take her contests more seriously, that they've also become more intelligent/'evil'.. *Gible's debut episode is a clear sign, where they outsmarted Ash by presetting a trap for Staraptor. Though, they're still nothing to how they were back in season one.