Leon did handicap himself so it makes sense. There's no changing Ash being the world champ now, but it is still undeserved. Hate all you want to, but I am not changing my opinion. Anyways, I think Ash will go to Paldea with Goh and perhaps Goh progressively leaves in the middle of the series to focus on other vital SV characters.
To be fair its silly to call him "world champion" anyway, since he didn't win a championship that ranked every trainer nor did it take past victories into account to rank everyone accordingly. Look at Paul, he clearly had the strength and skill to be ranked near the top yet wasn't even registered then there is the fact that there could be tons of other powerful characters who joined but simply haven't climbed up yet (even Ash started at the bottom despite being Aloha Champ).
Claiming "strongest in the world" in a ranking system that only incorperated 10704 trainers on a planet where literally every aspect of life revolves around being a trainer in some capacity is just stupid on the writers part and should have been given a different label since calling him world champ makes it seem like there is no opportunity to progress higher
As for Goh, why would he leave mid-series? Seems all companions stick around till (near) the end of a series, even those that tagged along for multiple like Brock. This title does (along with Goh crying) seem to set up a departure, but Brock also showed that they can split up and reunite again (Brock left and returned twice before finally leaving for good afterall). So even if this is a goodbye for a Goh it doesn't have to be a farewell (unless we get a reveal of a new group of companions)
