Cough..
Sinnoh League Victors.. And we know how that went.
If a league having a bad start is all it takes for you to be unable to enjoy Ash finally winning one then I have nothing else to say on that, especially when we don't know how good the full battles will be, Alan is a super strong opponent anyway. I don't understand the mind set, but to each their own.
Ash wasn't just "given" a fully evolved team or Ash Greninja, he evolved every Mon himself and he worked to master the special form. May I recommend a nice rewatch?
The point being that in order to get to the Semifinals, one needs to beat 12 pokémon (four rounds of 3vs3 battles). Which by any league-standard is barely anything really. We've seen Ash beat just two pokémon, both in one hit, and he's rushed into the semifinals. That makes his position in this entire league feel incredibly undeserved when looking at what he had to go through in the previous regions to even fail to get to this round. Top8 in Hoenn felt incredibly deserved as Ash fought against many trainers, we saw the battles in full and he had to partake in THREE full battles. In a very large way, that position will feel more deserved than a potential win, but likely runner-up here.
Just saying that Ash is just strong this series doesn't make that less of a problem. It's like skipping Gym 6, 7 and 8, because Ash was already a beast during Gym 5: "He's strong enough, we don't need to see him in the remaining gym battles."
Maybe a Stoutland, his Metagross will also benefit from Sand Stream.
That or an Excadrill or Gigalith. Stunfisk also gets Sand Veil.. but yeah not Alan's type of critter, looking at his current four. I kinda want him with an Archeops.
GenI: Charizard
GenII: Tyranitar
GenIII: Metagross
GenIV: Weavile
GenV: Excadrill/Archeops
GenVI: Dragalge
2 months might be a reach, more like 6-7 episodes or so. Depending on when SM startts exactly and if there are breaks.
Lets look at a pessimistic scenario: Six episodes.
1. ?
2. ?
3. Filler
4. Goodbye Clemont/Bonnie
5. Goodbye Serena
6. Pallet Town?
There's no time left really..