Because of the stupid quote system, these are out of order (or mostly out of order)
The Kalos League was a high bar standard?
We only got to see Ash winning a full battle and then losing a full battle, both being controversial in some way or another. The others he had were skipped.
The Sinnoh League IS the one with a high bar standard.
The Kalos League was set high, because it was the first region, that all of Ash's Pokemon fully evolved, and were able to be used in the league. Unlike say the Sinnoh region, Ash still had Buizel.
And I wasn't necessarily talking about the quality of battles, I was talking about the lead up, given how extremely heavy it was. Sure I'll give you that Sinnoh's bar was set high in pure terms of quality. But I do think the Kalos region (despite the insistance of giving us Tierno vs Sawyer, but hey we also had Paul vs Barry), surpassed it, because the Kalos league was considered an important tournament that Ash was leading up to. Especially with everything going on with Greninja and the whole Ash-Greninja. Infernape kind of falls short of that, if simply because they wrapped that up in the 8th gym for whatever random reason which then led to an amazing battle.
But everything was building up, and from what I understand, Kalos in terms of fans, actually brought in the older fans who were hyped about the possibility of Ash winning a league. We didn't necessarily get that with Sinnoh because of Tobias being the absolute ridiculous wild card he was. So Sinnoh League might have had a little bit more quality, but then we had Team Rocket robbing Ash's battle with Nando, Barry vs Paul, etc, etc, etc.
Sinnoh wasn't MUCH better than Kalos, and could only surpass it SOLELY because of the "rival" aspect, whereas Ash never really had a rival in the Kalos region. ***Which to clarify, its not like Ash's full battle record was any different. Ash vs Paul might've taken three episodes, but that was still ONLY 1 full battle, in which he lost the following episode. At least the combination of Ash vs Sawyer and Ash vs Alain, would be comparable to Ash vs Paul and Ash vs Tobias, in terms of overall quality. Ash vs Paul was GREAT, but Ash vs Tobias was a rushed job, meanwhile Ash had TWO great full battles in Kalos but just didn't have much of a "rivalry" going on like with Paul.
But regardless my point was, the Alolan Pokemon league wasn't going to even come close. It was TOO different. Ash taking the Alolan Grand Trials, never felt like they were building up to something, unlike Kalos and the badges leading to a league.
***NOTE**** I will give you that Sinnoh had the Elite Four Build Up, but I can't remember people being THAT hyped for a league finish like they were with Kalos.
I'm pretty sure Kiawe actually completed Olivia's Grand Trial to receive his grandfather's z-ring.
Edit: They showed Kiawe battling Olivia to receive his grandfather's z-ring in a flashback in SM011
Yes I forgot about that, I apologize, but yes, that was the one exception, that Kiawe DID battle one Grand Trial, but he still would have three others to do if there were qualifications for entering the league.
A Pokemon League focusing only on a few trainers battling each other can absolutely without a doubt work because it has happened before and it's consider by some readers as even better than what the Pokemon anime has to offer. Pokemon Adventures did that and it gave the Pokemon series one of the most amazing, if not the most amazing Pokemon League ever made, a satisfying conclusion to all three main characters. However the problem with the SM anime is that Hau and Gladion, yes even Gladion, lack the proper character development/progression for such a smaller-focused tournament that can potentially bring a satisfying conclusion to the series. Also Ash is undoubtedly going to lose.
I'm not really seeing your point. Sure, Gladion and Hau haven't shown up all that much and sure there will never be a TRULY satisfying conclusion. But the point I was making is that in terms of a Pokemon league, it would be POINTLESS to only have Ash, Gladion, and Hau being the only ones who believable beat all the Grand Trials. That's NOT a tournament it's a weird 1-2 episode battle fest, with what, Ash battling both of them for whatever reason.
It's unrealistic in any sense, to announced FOR THE FIRST TIME a tournament that no ONE is remotely expecting, and expect anyone except the LEAST amount of people to participate in something like that. And from a "marketing" perspective, had there been any requirement or limitation, and only the fewest amount of people were able to participate, the league would end up being a failure, and no one would care. MANY people enter it, and likely fail only to want to try it "next" year. It makes no sense to START for the VERY first time, a Pokemon league, and expect there to be all these rules and prerequisites which no one could reasonably show up for, except for the audience, the three that would be likely to have completed the grand trials (Ash, Hau, Gladion), with everyone else only maybe having ONE grand trial under their belt (Kiawe, and whoever else), but if the requirement was to beat all grand trials, it would only be a tournament with three people.
Why would anyone (from an audience/marketing) Kukui's perspective think that a three person tournament would be a "success" that people would talk about and want to build upon the idea in the future.
It's the equivalent of trying to be a Party Guy, and inviting a select few, and assuming that people who heard about the party (but weren't invited or couldn't) will want to ask you to help organize future parties in the future. Will an audience really care about three random kids entering a tournament enough for it to be a success like the other regions?
Getting technical but my understanding is Guzma did take the island challenge, he just gave up partway through.
However the point was either maybe he beats ONE grand Trial (like Kiawe) or all of them (Ash, Hau, Gladion), but as far as we know Guzma wouldn't be applicable by either requirement. Unless somehow back then, challengers were given something ELSE other than Z-crystals.
And of course strong trainers can exist who haven't got anything official to show for it, but generally if they have such power and a desire to show it to others then they are going to do what gets them recognition for their skill and power. The leagues have always been about giving those trainers a organized way to battle people who have overcome those same challenges. Its what separates a pokemon league from the dozens or hundreds of other battle tournaments offered in the pokemon world.
Which my point is, ONLY works when there's TIME in Advance. The reason it works for other regions, is because they went YEARS through the process, and thus creating Gyms, and Gym Badges. But that didn't just happen overnight, at least almost positive, that a few months (at best) before the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos's first league were to begin they didn't announce "Hey by the way, you aren't aware of this, but there's this tournament, in a few months, but you'll need 8 gym badges, which technically have been around awhile, but no one except the few of you decided to do all the badges"
There was always that problem in the anime. Logistically speaking, there's no way hundreds of trainers can enter a Pokemon league like it shows. Because at best the gym leaders have 365 days (assuming normal year), at best they could only battle 365 trainers at any given time (not accounting for rematches), and that's if they battle EVERY single day. And sure that means 365 trainers could theoretically enter the tournament, but then you start running into the logistical issue and then the whole thing falls apart:
1. Gym Leaders being absent (Biggest example Fantina, second biggest example, Clay)
2. Losses (the 365 hinders that the gym leaders LOSE that much) and let's not forget some trainers lose their matches and have to retry. Even this cuts the number easily in half if everyone loses once, or even half of the 365 loses once.
3. And of course busy times. Such as other challengers, the distance between gyms, the amount of actual gyms, etc, etc.
And while we can all handwave this away and say that its Anime, it's fiction, it doesn't have to be logistical, there is no actual time limit until the episode airs, and someone conveniently lucks out of not being able to enter. It would still be weird to write up a fictional tournament with arbitrary conditions and then just say "Off screen, all of Ash's classmates had their grand trials, winning their own Z-crystals" when at best Kiawe would MAYBE the only one to MAYBE realistically enter outside of the other three which would be more than likely to be the ones that enter.
Considering you could just say "Well we had no plot structure, there's no point in adding it now, as that would be weird, let's have a tournament with everyone joining in, and we'll let the Pokemon battles decide who is strong enough or not.
Because I should point out, just because in OTHER regions you were to have 8 badges, that doesn't necessarily mean you are better than those without badges, it was just the arbitrary requirement, proof that you do deserve to battle.
But what makes it a official pokemon league then? What makes it any different from any previous battle tournament in Alola? I'm not saying its awful they are doing things this way, these are just questions that come to mind when they treat the Alola Pokemon League as a big deal on the one hand, an unprecedented thing for the islands, etc. and yet on the other hand there seems to be nothing different about it from any other tournament they have held there.
There a couple of things to consider.
1. This presumably is the tournament/league to figure out who the champion of the Alola region is, for the "first" time in context to something like this. Hindering a powerful trainer that could be crowned champion by arbitrary rules, that would prevent them from showing up, would be INCREDIBLY weird as the entire point, is to find out who the strongest is. Not the strongest trainer who just so happened to win all grand trials or to win at least one but the strongest of all the trainers within a region.
2. Whether it's 3-4 trainers who initially enter the tournament to 1000 people entering the tournament, it really shouldn't matter. I'm not necessarily sure I understand the problem here. I don't understand how Ash losing to a random nobody is somehow supposed to diminish his Grand Trials, given that completing the Grand Trials doesn't endow Ash with any extraordinary battling power (outside of Z-crystals, but as we've seen they don't require you to beat Grand Trials to use them or even to get them). And if you really think about it, there's nothing Ash could do if he lost to an older looking Sophocles, who just happens to have incredibly strong Pokemon and is a strong trainer in their own right, but decided to lazy around and not do anything relating to the Grand Trials, that doesn't diminish Ash's Grand Trials, because again, they don't endow him with special abilities, and if the so called Sophocles 2.0 had Z-moves themselves well then it wouldn't matter if Ash beat Hala, Olivia, Nanu and Hapu because they aren't necessarily related NOR again endow Ash with any special unique advantage over someone who hadn't defeated the four Kahunas.
3. Finally this is the first Pokemon league, I don't think "official" or non "official" matters here and if it does, the simple fact Kukui, Lusamine, Nanu, Hala, Hapu, and Olivia say that it's official, that should technically be good enough, as their the ones HOSTING the league, they should have every right to call the league official. I don't think it matters if Charles Goodshow has given it his stamp of approval of the idea and therefore can join the ranks of the other leagues. The point could be simply its enough for Alola even if its not enough for the rest of the Pokemon world. Which is kind of the point......though I fail to see the connection with the other leagues to each other, outside of Charles Goodshow, but they technically have no bearing on any of the other regions. Unless somehow you're not supposed to call someone "The Alolan Champion" for whatever weird reason.
