It was a mess of favoritism against people with the same typing as Ash's team. Some of these were people he already beat, so why waste potential new meat against old meat that'll get forgotten after the episode is over (unless you have a Lucario)? Adding to this, this had the nasty consequence of making Galar trainers unimportant as a whole. Ash only ever fought 4 of ALL the Galar trainers, and one of these four had to be written off quickly, alongside a whole slew of people, when her battle was over.
Ranking up was also a mess. Ash kept ranking up offscreen. Apparently, that was even better than the one-minute Pikachu battles from very early on.
Ash winning all the time (except for his one loss against Bea because he used babies against her adults) was an incredibly stupid decision. Sure, this iteration of Ash is the best, but, he's also the most boring iteration as there was never a point he hit a real low.
Very stupid that not a single native Alolan trainer bothered to participate. Also, I may not remember, but did Ash even fight a Johto trainer?
Why is the Kalos Stadium better designed than the barebones Wyndon Stadium? In fact, why even remove the grass from the Wyndon Stadium?
The Lucario pandering was, as expected, annoying. The thing only got one loss as a Riolu and one loss as a Lucario (AT THE END). Forget Pikachu beating Charizard, Lucario was the real MVP for bad reasons.
Why relegate Hop to a fanboy at the stands rather than making him a participant?
The lack of a real rival pretty much allowed Ash to win it all (you done goofed, Bea). Can anyone imagine if Gladion wasn't a rival in Alola? Ash would have won all his battles all the time (Kukui doesn't count because he was an exhibition trainer).
I didn't feel that importance to beat Cynthia when she and Ash didn't really fight once prior their only fight, not even as a mock battle. Also, girl, what is wrong with you not gearing up your Ground-type dragon with a Ground-type move against a Steel-type? You're supposed to be this smart lady who completely owned Ash at the start of the fight, but then your started being an idiot in the second half.
First Half of the PWC:
lol Gengar
Second Half of the PWC:
lol (lady reveal) Dragonite
The fact that the top 8 were all Champions was perhaps a ridiculous idea, as that devalues any other dark horse trainer in the world from making a name for themselves.
Given how Leon effortlessly defeated the Kalos champions but then got his Champion Time *** handed to Ash makes me believe Leon simply had an easy time fighting the Kalos champions instead of anyone else.
Finale was also a mess. Leon basically told Ash to beat him by using all 3 gimmicks + one extra Dynamax charge. The mere fact that Leon forced Ash to his last Pokemon only tells me that he could have easily beat Ash if he had also used 3 gimmicks as well (note that, to believe this other alternative, this battle had to happen. If this alternative actually happened, I'd probably like this battle).
Oh, and one last thing: all of Ash's companions and his mother should have been at the stands, perhaps regardless of lack of VA availability.
Sooo, yeah, this tourney was a huge mess pandering to Ash. Only thing the PWC was good for was to trick people into the hype, but only be for the hype.
