This was an amusing episode, if also a filler.
Ash officially has inherited Iris' reflexes. In spite of his usual butt monkey antics, he was able to keep up with the Passimian throughout the whole thing. It seems he's found a sport he's good at....whatever it is.
Some nitpicks, well, I admit the plot is a bit hard to grasp due to how the game is depicted without much context, at one point the other Passimian seem to cheat outright (even if the villain ones invited it originally) and the game is won at some random point when they have the fruit....but it's not Tuesday, Patrick!
I admit maybe the narrative felt a bit too melodramatic considering this, and not in a deliberate parody way either. I get the bigger Passimian were menaces, but they still seemed like petty bully antagonists who deciding things through this ball game, not really much for a sinister undertone.
Still I did like the premise, another case Ash has to do something unique to save the day instead of a one minute battle or TR interference. The ending was funny as well, wonder if Ash will steal TR's catchphrase in the dub as well. XD
The other students were expectedly mere spectators, though I liked that the girls got some involvement by coming up with the costume.
One detail I liked is how they managed to diverge nearly all the Passimian by just mild tweaks in proportion and detail. I don't think a single one looked the exact same.
Other stuff; as mentioned the market lady seeing Torracat was cute, and I liked Mallow getting another fruit to an indignant Rowlet after Ash stole his first, getting a bit too committed to character throughout the episode. I do wonder how Ash's Poke-speak ended up, did he master the language or did he spend the whole match telling them to go fly a polkadot scented dishwater next century? XD