Skipping a fair amount of reviews to come here. Jumping from dp 6 to dp 12 (wow). But many of the episodes in between are pretty generic to me, and I don't have too many memorable scenes in them. dp 7, 9, 10 focused on Dawn and her team, with Piplup receiving an episode, Dawn catching Buneary, and then an episode where Dawn learned to connect with her pokemon. dp 8 was Brock catching Croagunk. So since dp 6 and his battle with Paul, Ash has taken a bit of a backseat in the story.
I had a review for dp 11, but unfortunately lost it (still think I can fit what I want to in here, so no problem). dp 11 was the beginning of this contest, and introduced Zoey as the cool, in control rival for Dawn (who was being "annoyingly" nervous last episode). Ash is also competing in this contest, so he does have something meaningful to do.
And he lets that be known rather quickly in this episode as he says he's aiming to win this contest and then his 1st gym badge, getting a derisive rebuke from Zoey. This is probably a good thing from Zoey's viewpoint, maybe, since it gives her some sort of character besides perfect coordinator. But the problem, or better expression may be tension killer, is that Ash doesn't really get bothered by that at all. Even when he loses to Zoey, he takes it pretty much in stride. Zoey compliments Ash's skill as a trainer right after the battle as she realizes how close she was to losing, and Ash laughs a bit sheepishly at getting a compliment (I'm sure there haven't been too many of those). The thing is, Ash understood from the beginning that his place was gym battles, and he needed to be persuaded by Dawn, Aipom, and Brock to take part in the contest in the first place. This is more Zoey's problem, and it's hard to appreciate that on a first viewing, since Zoey is so new. Even knowing Zoey's result at the grand festival and trying to understand her character as a result of that, it's still maybe pretty tough. Zoey and Ash have some interesting interactions in this series, in that Zoey freely gives her opinion of Ash while Ash doesn't seem to mind too much.
Oh yeah, this is a contest! What about Dawn? Well, predictably she loses to Zoey in the semis. I said Dawn was "annoyingly" insecure this contest, and she is. Despite her show of nerves, she expects to win, and it's hard to sympathize with that. But that does change in future contests, and that storyline is one of the real masterful ones in the general Sinnoh plot.
Finally, Zoey faces Jessie in the final. If you're watching this series for the first time, this is a bit of a filler final; there's no way Zoey can lose. And maybe in retrospect, this is still a bit of a filler final; but you definitely take Jessie much more seriously. Regardless, Zoey wins the contest for her 2nd ribbon.