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Kalos League Speculation

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ssquaderi

Well-Known Member
Hey people,

With the 8th Gym badge on its way within the next 5-7 episodes, we're nearly on the road to the League and since everyone is now discussing the league, rivals and battles, I thought it would be better to make a separate thread for it... I might also edit this post as we get more information.

For the purposes of this thread (or just my post), I'm going to assume Ash will use reserves as it seems very unlikely Noivern plus new 6th capture or Goodra will be used in most of the battles, also with 3 Pokemon being weak to Electric and Ice types each, his team is at a high disadvantage if he uses just this 6.

I will also assume Alain will NOT be at the League until we get credible reasoning to believe so.

Also, the writers are smart enough to know that Sinnoh League was by far the best, and one of the reasons was we got to see the old guys return. And if they want XY to stand as an amazing arc, they should do the same here, because more often than not, Leagues make or break a series. Most of us hate BW due to the dreadful league and rivals, XY has already done a pretty good job with the rivals, but we do need to see more...

Anyways, the way I see it, first round will be similar to BW, with Ash facing Trevor in 1-on-1, it could be a 3-on-3 like the battle with Nando, but I believe Trevor hasn't got much development, and seeing him with 2 very new Pokemon could be too much.

So, Round 1:
Ash vs Trevor
Talonflame vs Charizard, wins

Round 2:
In Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova, the round 2 opponent was either not shown or only one battle was shown, I believe the same will happen here but with a twist, I see us only seeing the 2nd/3rd part of a 2/3-on-2/3 battle, or a double battle, and I believe we will see either Gible, Totodile, Pignite or Snivy evolve, though the latter two may not appear in the league at all since they are very recent.

Personally, seeing Gible or Totodile evolve would be the most fitting.

Round 3:
Ash vs Tierno, like Sinnoh and Unova, Ash should also be facing a rival here, this battle could either be a double battle or a 2/3-on-2/3.
Interestingly, though I doubt it will happen, I'd like to see Squirtle coming back, for this post, I'll consider Squirtle coming back as we do not know any other Pokemon Tierno's and Ash's have a rivalry with.

For a double battle:
Pikachu and Squirtle vs Raichu and Blastoise
, would be very fun to watch and quite interesting too

For a 2-on-2 or 3-on-3:
Pikachu vs Raichu
, wins
Pikachu vs (Mega) Blastoise, loses
Squirtle vs Mega Blastoise, wins
[Squirtle gets knocked out by a random 3rd, which Goodra finishes off, or Goodra also beats Mega Blastoise if Squirtle cannot]

Final rounds (full battles):
Now, since I believe Ash will minimum get to the semis, possibly final, I don't see top 16 battles happening, as we've only ever had maximum 3 full battles in a league (in Hoenn) and I can definitely not see 4 happening, however if there is a top 16 battle, I believe we'll only see the end of it, and possibly get a sighting of Ash-Greninja so that everyone knows about him and that Ash gets hyped up :p

Top 8 battle:
Unless Ash is destined to lose at the semis while still battling Sawyer, the top 8 battle will NOT be against Sawyer, this will be with a COTD, and we will hopefully see a good battle akin to Ash vs Katie of the Hoenn League

Top 4 battle:
Ash vs Sawyer

I have pretty much figured this battle out and I believe this is very predictable.
Now, I am still unsure as to who will win this match, but I believe it goes 70-30 Ash's way, and this is how I see it going.

Noivern vs Salamence, tie
Hawlucha vs Slurpuff, win, or tie, if it wins, Aegislash will knock it out
Pikachu vs Aegislash, win
Pikachu vs Camerupt, lose
Corphish vs Camerupt, win
Corphish vs Clauncher, during which Corphish evolves, this will either be a win or tie
If Corphish wins, it will then be knocked out by Sceptile
Ash-Greninja vs Mega Sceptile, I believe Greninja will get knocked out leaving Sceptile at 33% health, this will also show how very Sawyer has come, being able to beat the Pokemon he has studied so hard against and kept continuously losing to.
Ash's Sceptile vs Sawyer's Mega Sceptile, though a close battle, Greninja weakened Sceptile too much and Ash's Sceptile is able to finish off his hard work.

Final:
Wow, Ash makes it to a final for the first time, for the sake of preparing for an Elite Four challenge and an epic battle, I hope he uses his best six Pokemon he has, even if he's to lose the match, I have no idea how this battle will go and who will win, but I reallly hope Ash uses these 6 Pokemon:

Charizard
Ash-Greninja
Sceptile
Infernape
Pikachu
Goodra/Snorlax/Krookodile
(whichever one doesn't get to star in the top 16 and top 8 battles)

So, that's it from me, what do you guys think?
 

ssquaderi

Well-Known Member
Sawyer winning a League is just too much, I believe, if Sawyer does win against Ash, it will be in the semis, and he'll then lose to the eventual Champion, he has too little experience to be winning a League, especially when Ash hasn't been able to do it in the last 5 leagues, the world would go crazy if Sawyer beats Ash in the final. I'm all for student beating the teacher, but in no way will I accept him taking home the trophy. Plus, 2/3 COTD trainers in a row, doesnt make much sense if they do face off in the final, we'd need another half-rival like Conway to show up, possibly Sanpei then... and then bump Tierno up to a full battle...
 

yuoke

Treasure huntin'
You know what the writers should do that will keep everyone happy and as well to show how Ash's strength as well is(especially when he is cornering the champion). I would have Ash vs Sawyer as the final match(top 2) of the torunament where Ash and Sawyer give it their all and Sawyer pulls off an amazing(tight)win thanks to his strategies and Mega Sceptile and wins the league but also making Ash the runner-up(similar to Serena) making this his best league overall and also not make Ash look bad.

How awesome would it be to have a "student-teacher" match as the final match of the league, with the student finally surpassing the teacher or Sawyer beating Ash in this case as well as winning the league to go with it.

No, I don't want to see that at all. Sawyer beating ash in the league would honestly be worse than tobias 2.0. Sawyer just started training in the middle of xy, yet we are supposed to believe that he could go from some noob with a treecko to super trainer league champ that beats ash at his highest point so far? I would rather even see alain just secretly have badges and in the league and have him beat ash at least, it would make some more sense. Even cameron had more experience.
 

nickdt

Well-Known Member
Sawyer winning a League is just too much, I believe, if Sawyer does win against Ash, it will be in the semis, and he'll then lose to the eventual Champion, he has too little experience to be winning a League, especially when Ash hasn't been able to do it in the last 5 leagues, the world would go crazy if Sawyer beats Ash in the final. I'm all for student beating the teacher, but in no way will I accept him taking home the trophy. Plus, 2/3 COTD trainers in a row, doesnt make much sense if they do face off in the final, we'd need another half-rival like Conway to show up, possibly Sanpei then... and then bump Tierno up to a full battle...

But the point is: They are setting Ash up to reach the final, so he has to beat Sawyer. But i agree that they are setting Sawyer up to appear in Sun/Moon region and beating Ash in the league there, like Gary-Ash in the Johto League.

The Conway character can be Trevor, since he has the brains to put on a tactical good fight against Ash, rather than sheer power. Trevor knows Ash has speedy mons in his Kalos arsenal, so him putting tanks against him, with high durability is a good tactic. This basically forces Ash to call forth two of his reserve tanks (Torterra and Glalie), while reserving Talonflame to battle Mega Zard Y.
 

RickHoenn

Banned
I see Ash beating Sawyer in the top 8 and then Ash losing in the top 4 to Alain or a league-introduced trainer (A la Tyson, Harrison, Tobias).
 
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Soniman

Break the Limit
I want Trevor vs Tierno because I feel you can get more character drama there then of you just fed Trevor to Ash
 

riceant

Well-Known Member
bruh, Sawyer is definitely not going win the league.
He has a 30% chance of beating Ash in the semifinals (but if he beats Ash at any point before the league, that chance goes down to 0.1%)
If Sawyer faces Ash in the finals, Ash will win 100%.
If Sawyer faces Ash before the semifinals, Ash will also win 100% (because they are not going to make Ash regress or get Ro8 yet again, writers are not that stupid, at least not with his current OP team that they spent so much effort developing and making every single pokemon seem like a powerhouse)
The only chance Sawyer has of actually beating Ash is in the semis, and only with max plothax.

I don't think it's written in stone yet regarding which round the Sawyer match will happen - most likely it will be Ro4 or Ro8, but could be earlier, you never know what hax the writers might pull at the league.

Assuming Alain is at the league:
IMO, Alain is basically a Tobias 2.0, in fact I think Mega Charizard can sweep Tobias's team except for Darkrai, sure it's a mostly unknown team, but as we've seen in the show, Alain's Charizard basically has over 9000 HP, and I don't see it fainting to anything other than Dark Void hax. Anyway that's irrelevant, I just wanted to share my opinion that Tobias is overrated.
While I personally hope that the writers are building up towards a final between Ash and Alain, the match might very well happen in the Ro4, in which Ash would probably lose, because otherwise the final would be totally pointless, what opponent can the writers possibly introduce to top Alain? If Ash gets to the finals, the finals must be the toughest battle, so the only chance of Ash actually beating a hypothetical Alain at the league would be in the finals (even still, chances are not high).

Assuming Alain is not at the league:
Then either Ash loses to Sawyer who loses to the finalist, or, a new character introduced during/just before the league, in the semis or finals. Or Ash just outright wins, but we would probably see that as a complete stomp and people would complain about a boring league if Ash just stomps everyone, especially if he beats a newly introduced rival.

I'm leaning towards an Ash vs Alain finals, which would obviously make Kalos the most epic saga, and honestly I think this scenario would be the only one for Ash to actually win the league. I don't think Ash will win the league over a CotD, it would be underwhelming, and plus he usually loses to those.
 

ssquaderi

Well-Known Member
While Ash vs Alain in the League Final would be a great final, I don't wanna give that as an option quite yet because I really doubt Alain will be in it, if he is though, then I think its 50-50 on who wins, and I wouldn't rule out Ash winning, the 8th gym badge is in May, since Sun&Moon is coming out in December, and if it is Gen 7, the XY anime will end in November, that leaves about 20 episodes between 8th gym and the end, there is possibly time for a Champions Quest, maybe Ash can beat 2 Elite Four members before losing to the 3rd...

The options are limitless, I just mainly hope the League is a let-down, it would really ruin a great saga, the league can definitely make XY the best series so far.

If Ash does face Alain though, I really hope Charizard comes back, it will be a Charizard vs Blaziken 2.0 xD also, it would also be disappointing if Alain clean sweeps or does close to that, I would minimum settle for him using 4 Pokemon...
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
Unless Ash and Sawyer have another match between XYZ26 and the league I say the writers are setting up Ash losing to Sawyer. If not Sawyer than some OP trainer introduced solely for the the purpose of defeating him like Tobias
 

Ashuel

Well-Known Member
I'm 80% Cameron 2.0 is coming.
And if this happen I'm 100% i will leave watch Pokemon Anime. Is so hard made a perfect saga like DP?
 

Shadao

Aim to be a Pokémon Master
Unless Ash and Sawyer have another match between XYZ26 and the league I say the writers are setting up Ash losing to Sawyer. If not Sawyer than some OP trainer introduced solely for the the purpose of defeating him like Tobias

That is of course assuming Sawyer is going to lose in XYZ26. I'm thinking otherwise in regards to that. Mainly because Ash has no surprises for Sawyer in XYZ26, and Sawyer has likely came up with a counter for Ash-Greninja. And something is gonna cause that whole angst arc with Ash and Greninja as promised in the opening. Like say, four consecutive losses.
 

Lunanight

Well-Known Member
Sawyer winning a League is just too much, I believe, if Sawyer does win against Ash, it will be in the semis, and he'll then lose to the eventual Champion, he has too little experience to be winning a League, especially when Ash hasn't been able to do it in the last 5 leagues, the world would go crazy if Sawyer beats Ash in the final. I'm all for student beating the teacher, but in no way will I accept him taking home the trophy. Plus, 2/3 COTD trainers in a row, doesnt make much sense if they do face off in the final, we'd need another half-rival like Conway to show up, possibly Sanpei then... and then bump Tierno up to a full battle...

This is the same franchise where Zoey won the Grand Festival despite it being her first one, along with Dawn being the runner up of said GF... in the same franchise where Ash hasn't even made it to the finals of any Pokemon League. Now granted Dawn and Zoey's thing was the GF while Ash's was the League, but they are basically the equivalent of each other in terms of prestige.

I am not saying that Sawyer will win the League. Based on past Leagues, what I think will happen is that Sawyer will either beat Ash in the top 8/top 4 only to lose the following round (e.g. Kanto and Unova), OR he'll lose to Ash which is the most likely case. Especially since odds are Ash will lose the following round after he's beaten Sawyer. Though if Ash lost in the Kalos League in the finals, it would show Ash's growth significantly. Alternatively, the unlikely option is that Ash actually wins the Kalos League but personally, I feel like Ash vs Diantha reduced Ash's chances of winning the League even lower since Ash got to have a battle with the Champion (unlike in Sinnoh where he never got to battle Cynthia, nor did he battle Steven/Wallace in Hoenn, nor Lance in Kanto or Johto).

I am not saying Sawyer will win the League. What I am saying is that we can't rule out any possibilities considering that Zoey set the precedent in regards to a character winning their very first League/GF they have ever entered. After all, if Ash can lose in the Sinnoh League to a character wielding 2 legendary Pokemon, and lost the Unova League to the most absurdly stupid rival in the Pokemon anime then I don't think anything is really impossible when it comes to who beats Ash in the League. I do hope Ash wins the Kalos League but given the most ridiculous ways Ash lost in DP and BW, the idea of a rookie winning the League is more realistic than the poorly written Tobias and the infinitely worse written Cameron just by comparison.

I just feel I would tolerate Ash losing to Sawyer more than if Ash lost to some League rival who only appeared after Ash got all his badges, especially if the Kalos League rival was just as bad as Tobias or Cameron (especially if they were like Cameron).
 
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yuoke

Treasure huntin'
This is the same franchise where Zoey won the Grand Festival despite it being her first one, along with Dawn being the runner up of said GF... in the same franchise where Ash hasn't even made it to the finals of any Pokemon League. Now granted Dawn and Zoey's thing was the GF while Ash's was the League, but they are basically the equivalent of each other in terms of prestige.

I am not saying that Sawyer will win the League. Based on past Leagues, what I think will happen is that Sawyer will either beat Ash in the top 8/top 4 only to lose the following round (e.g. Kanto and Unova), OR he'll lose to Ash which is the most likely case. Especially since odds are Ash will lose the following round after he's beaten Sawyer. Though if Ash lost in the Kalos League in the finals, it would show Ash's growth significantly. Alternatively, the unlikely option is that Ash actually wins the Kalos League but personally, I feel like Ash vs Diantha reduced Ash's chances of winning the League even lower since Ash got to have a battle with the Champion (unlike in Sinnoh where he never got to battle Cynthia, nor did he battle Steven/Wallace in Hoenn, nor Lance in Kanto or Johto).

I am not saying Sawyer will win the League. What I am saying is that we can't rule out any possibilities considering that Zoey set the precedent in regards to a character winning their very first League/GF they have ever entered. After all, if Ash can lose in the Sinnoh League to a character wielding 2 legendary Pokemon, and lost the Unova League to the most absurdly stupid rival in the Pokemon anime then I don't think anything is really impossible when it comes to who beats Ash in the League. I do hope Ash wins the Kalos League but given the most ridiculous ways Ash lost in DP and BW, the idea of a rookie winning the League is more realistic than the poorly written Tobias and the infinitely worse written Cameron just by comparison.

I just feel I would tolerate Ash losing to Sawyer more than if Ash lost to some League rival who only appeared after Ash got all his badges, especially if the Kalos League rival was just as bad as Tobias or Cameron (especially if they were like Cameron).
So you would tolerate a noob like sawyer more than someone with a team of legendaries? I'm not saying Trollbias wasn't ********, but I could still accept that more because we could at least assume he is a very strong trainer that was able to get legendaries.
 

WaterShuriken

"I..I..Iron Tail, Pikachu."
I want Trevor vs Tierno because I feel you can get more character drama there then of you just fed Trevor to Ash

Oh please no. The last two rival fights we got were pretty bad. I'm talking Paul vs Barry and Cameron vs Bianca.

It would be so nice to see Talonflame vs Charizard. If we are getting a Charizard in the final match-up if Alain is in the league, then I want the species to at least get one loss against Ash.
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
That is of course assuming Sawyer is going to lose in XYZ26. I'm thinking otherwise in regards to that. Mainly because Ash has no surprises for Sawyer in XYZ26, and Sawyer has likely came up with a counter for Ash-Greninja. And something is gonna cause that whole angst arc with Ash and Greninja as promised in the opening. Like say, four consecutive losses.

The counter would be Mega Sceptile, which he currently doesn't have. Also his Sceptile was shown to be knocked out in one of the screenshots for the episode.
 

ShadowForce720

Well-Known Member
The counter would be Mega Sceptile, which he currently doesn't have. Also his Sceptile was shown to be knocked out in one of the screenshots for the episode.

Actually that screenshot that shows Sceptile knocked out is not from Pokémon XY&Z episode 26 it's, the screenshot is from Pokémon XY&Z episode 13. The only screenshots from episode 26 that it actually showed were the Screenshot of Clawitzer, Doublade, and then the screenshot of Sceptile dodge Greninja's attack. The two screenshots above those 3 are from episode 13.
 

Lunanight

Well-Known Member
So you would tolerate a noob like sawyer more than someone with a team of legendaries? I'm not saying Trollbias wasn't ********, but I could still accept that more because we could at least assume he is a very strong trainer that was able to get legendaries.

Tobias came off worse to me simply due to how absurd it was. Sawyer winning a League would be attributed to beginners' luck, unlike Tobias who was so unrealistic and 6-0'd everyone except Ash... who he beat 6-2. Trollbias was a walking Action Replay and a Deus-Ex-Machina who only existed because the writers didn't know how they were going to make Ash lose. If Tobias' only Legendary was Darkrai and the rest of his team were just powerful non-Legendaries then he would have been more tolerable (albeit still pretty bad). If Tobias had appeared earlier (they could have had him debut around Canalave City which IIRC, would put said debut around episode 100-110) on in DP and they explained how he obtained Darkrai and Latios (or hell, even have him capture one/both of them on-screen in DP itself) then Tobias wouldn't have seemed like such a massive DEM on the writer's part. Especially since owning a Legendary in a Pokeball is a major thing in the anime, so Tobias having two Legendaries just screamed Gary Stu. IIRC, only Brandon had owned a Legendary and that was due to him owning them in the games plus him being a Frontier Brain so Brandon having Legendaries was justified due to his game-status.

Sawyer beating Ash would be a really stupid move. Sawyer winning the League would be an even dumber decision.. Neither wouldn't be the dumbest thing the writers could do given how terrible Tobias and Cameron were, but it would still be a really absurd way to have Ash lose the Kalos League. That said I feel like Ash's League loss in Hoenn (and Johto, but especially Hoenn) were done well since in Hoenn, Ash wasn't royally curbstomped by a Gary Stu (Tobias) nor did Ash lose to an idiot that he had no business losing to (Cameron), nor did he lose via a technicality (Ritchie, though I forget how most of the Kanto League went down). Harrison and Tyson struggle and didn't just curbstomp Ash. My only issues with Harrison/Tyson is that they were League rivals and would have been way better if they were actual rivals (e.g. those who debut well before Ash has won his final badge). Though AG's lack of real rivals was one of its flaws IMO.

If Ash had to lose in the League, I'd rather it be to a character that debuted before Ash won his fifth Kalos Badge than a League rival who debuts after Ash already won 8 badges (or worse, the debut is the League itself like with Tobias), ignoring experiences. Likewise, I would rather Ash lose to someone like Sawyer (who we KNOW isn't invincible, who does lose, etc) than someone like Tobias who is unbeatable and a walking DEM. At least with Sawyer, Ash's odds of winning that battle are REALLY high, especially if a League rival is introduced. The most likely outcome of the Kalos League is "Ash beats Sawyer in Top 8/Top 4, loses to League rival in Top 4/Finals". With Tobias, we knew from the moment that episode was announced that Ash was getting curbstomped just for the fact it was a full battle yet was only one episode. The only thing we didn't know was how badly was Ash going to get wrecked by Tobias (e.g. would Ash get swept 6-0, would Ash beat a Pokemon or 2, etc). Tobias never lost or struggled with anything. Darkrai and Latios going down doesn't count since Tobias still won with FOUR Pokemon remaining and had 6-0'd everyone else he ever battled ever. At no point in the Ash vs Tobias battle did anyone think "Ash might make a comeback", not even before Latios was revealed.

Irregardless of how the Kalos League turns out, if Ash and Sawyer battled, I believe I can confidently say that Sawyer would NEVER beat Ash 6-2. He wouldn't even beat Ash the way Cameron did 6-4. Based purely on that alone, Sawyer would be more tolerable than Tobias/Cameron. Either Ash is going to beat Sawyer as we all expect and hope for, or Sawyer will struggle and barely win similarly to Harrison or Tyson (albeit with less experience).

TL;DR: Comparing Sawyer with a League rival (e.g. Tobias/Cameron), Sawyer would be the lesser of two evils purely for debuting much sooner (and in Tobias case, for Sawyer not being absurdly unbeatable). I think Ash's losses to Harrison/Tyson were infinitely better than his losses to Tobias/Cameron. I think Sawyer beating Ash would be better than Tobias/Cameron beating Ash, but Sawyer's win would be too poorly written to be as decent and believable as Ash losing to Harrison/Tyson. I think a League rival written similarly to Harrison/Tyson would be the best way to go.
 
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Shadao

Aim to be a Pokémon Master
The counter would be Mega Sceptile, which he currently doesn't have. Also his Sceptile was shown to be knocked out in one of the screenshots for the episode.

There is no point to Sawyer vs Ash episode if Sawyer doesn't starting living up to the intensity of Greninja trials. Four battles were hyped to be the part of the trials of Ash and Greninja. That means the battles cannot be easily won. Sawyer nearly beats Greninja with Sceptile until Greninja unleashed Ash-Greninja, which catches him by surprise. Now, he is anticipating it and likely found a way to counter it (wouldn't be surprised if their next showdown does show Mega-Sceptile). That's what I'm mean by Ash having no surprises. And like I said, something needs to shake Ash's world for this angst scene in the OP to happen.

And when Ash gets his grove back and master Ash-Greninja, I expect him to be saving his future rematch with Sawyer... at the League itself. And I suspect a few surprises waiting for Sawyer when that happens. After all, Sawyer's fatal flaw is that his method of studying his opponents to devise a counter-stragety does not leave a lot of room for improvising an unexpected situation.
 

Eneci

FrogadierMasterLucas
My predictions:
Trevor vs Sawyer 1st or 2nd Round = Top 64/32 or 32/16 depending on League size.
Sawyer vs Alain Top16

Ash vs Tierno Top 16
Ash vs Alain Top 8
Ash vs Female trainer with Mega Raichu or Mega Dedene or gen 7 poke in the Top4 - I really hope this comes true at least the female trainer part.

Maybe Sanpei appears to loose to Ash or someone.
Can't recall any other recurring trainer.
 
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