Noooooo!!
Let's see who dares defend this bullsh*t excuse for a league now...
Okay, I can admit, we should have at least one episode before this to Ash's progress throughout instead of saying, "Hey, he's in the semis now!" while skipping the top 32 and top 64. In fact, I feel like the opening episode had too much crammed in. If we kept all the same elements of last episode and made it longer, say with a cliffhanger of Ash being unable to make his first battle because the Furfrou guy's holding him up, then he'd at least get a decent battle against Tomo or whoever his name was.
What makes a league a league for me is how memorable it becomes. This certainly isn't the case so far.
Here's my headcanon: Squeeze two episodes in between this and last week's episode showing Ash getting to his first match despite being late and have him win pretty easily. Go onto him getting through the top 32 and 16 before going up against Astrid, whom he'll remember from Movie 17. While the first half of the episode focuses more on battles, the second half focuses on character development, with Ash keeping his serious mentality along with everyone else, plus we find out a few things about Team Flare's plan for the future, involving Alain.
Second episode focuses around Ash V. Astrid, which isn't crammed up into a single match. Ash takes out two of her Pokemon with two of his own, but both end up pretty weakened from the battle. He goes to Hawlucha to face Absol, and Astrid makes the serious mistake of underestimating Hawlucha since she remembered defeating it before, and thus decides not to Mega Evolve. Hawlucha is leaving Absol completely helpless to his speed and strength, and Astrid has to evolve him, even though it's a little late for it. This leads to her losing 3-0 to Ash, but they share a nice handshake and wish each other luck. Episode ends with Ash waiting on Sawyer V. Tierno, while Team Flare is plotting in the background of it all.
And before anyone says anything, this is all headcanon. I'm definitely not pleased with how the league episodes are being structured so horrendously. Say what you want about Unova, but at least the episodes seemed more cohesive than this.
Ugh... This is why leagues like Hoenn and Sinnoh are highly regarded. Not only do they give us great battles and nice visuals, but there's also a great sense of a step-by-step scenario when it comes to Ash getting through it. Here, we just saw him leap to the semis, no problem whatsoever. I mean, I want him to win, but I also want him to flesh out more as a character. Come on!
Mega Sceptile VS Raichu! I Received Some EXP!!
