What is the worst way Ash lost a League?

[Sprinter1988]

Couldn't you say the same thing about the Sinnoh League?

Okay, so maybe it was inevitable that Ash would lose in the Sinnoh league as far as the writers not wanting him to win goes. However a win at the Sinnog league would have been, I think, believable, based on the fact that his team was well rounded and he was using his reserves to great effect. Darkrai and Latios were like a concrete wall reinforced with steel bars, electrified chain-link fencing and a massive stop sign plonked in Ash's way deliberately to make sure that he went no further whereas against a trainer with regular pokemon he might have faired better and made it to the final at least.
Ash's Unova team, however, left a lot to be desired, especially Unfezant, Oshawott and Snivy. That he chose not to use his reserves meant that it was blindingly obvious from the get-go that he was not going to win, and pretty much made the entire tournament a waiting game for when he inevitably got knocked out.
Until Tobas was introduced there was always a slight chance that the Sinnoh league was going to be the time Ash got to the final round at least. Unova was not a case of "if" he got knocked out but "when," and that feeling was there from the battle with Roxie, if not before.

 

[Vulpicks]

The only reason the loss against Ritchie bugged me was because Ash was forced to use his disloyal Charizard, iirc. Team Rocket's incessant meddling was what ultimately ruined his chance. I'd say that was the worst. However, I have no problems with him losing because of Charizard. It rightfully made Ash look pathetic, and it showed that he had a very long way to go. After all, he couldn't even get his own Pokemon to obey him.

Ash just wasn't tough enough to best Harrison or Tyson, though he fought hard. I felt that he got better each time.

Yes, Tobias was a total deus ex machina. Ash had an incredible shot at winning that league. The "underdog" vibe the writers love to impose on Ash wasn't very strong during this league, and I liked that. Ash both acted and battled like competent trainer and was a force to be reckoned with. Then came Tobias. I actually didn't mind that lost too much, to be honest. He showed us that legendaries are now fair game, and that while Ash has come very far (Well, at least he did.), he still has a long way too go.

Cameron's situation was funny. Ash has been pathetic ever since BW started, so I'm glad he got beat by such an imbecile. Serves him right. I also like how Ash's league placement regressed. Now that we know he can do worse, there's more suspense.

 

[Zoruagible]

I think the battle with Cameron was the worst. He got a position lower than he did last time.

 

[wobbanut]

Okay, now I've seen the Unova League, but I'm still of the opinion that his loss to Richie was the worst. Cameron's stupidity made the Unova loss a little less hurtful with humor.

 

[Janovy]

Definitely the Unova League situation.

I mean, c'mon! I'd rather lose by defeating 2 legendary Pokémon than by losing to a noob with 5 pokémon.

 

[DuquÊ?]

1. To Cameron

My word, I don't dislike Cameron (that much), because Ash's defeat it's pretty much Ash's fault. It didn't help Pallet Boy the ever good samaritan way of life, dragging Cameron to the registration just in the last second, coping with his scatterbrainish persona and, by the actual battle, going all "You like Battle? I like Battle! Let's Battle 'cause it's fun!". Putting the icing on the cake, Ash remaining plain indifferent to another loss, like this league was an average tournament did not serve him well.

2. To Richie

Richie was boring to the deeps of the Ooze, but, the true fault lies with Team Rocket for exhaust Ash's pokemon, and a half to Ash himself. By that time, he should know better that TR screw the things at worst time possible. Having charizard being a douche that moment it's only because of Ash's poor training with it by the time, plus don't have a support member ready, like kingler, muk or even tauros. Anyway, Indigo was the first league, everything was too green and Ash got some development. It's an okay defeat.

3. To Tobias

Plot device or not, Ash was unprepared against Tobias, that was a fact. Tobias only known pokemon was a demolisher darkrai with a One-Hit-K.O. record. I can't really blame Ash for this. My only complain about that match is that it should have been last league battle. Ash was the unofficial runner up, just for be the only one to make Tobias draw the second (of six...?) legendary.

4. To Harrison

Charizard lose to blaziken was really dumb, but, it wasn't a bad fight as a whole. It was a full battle, Ash only had to lose, Harrison was more bland than Richie. It was an average performance.

5. To Tyson

I can't figure what is the problem with that one. Meowth-in-boots apart, It was a balanced fight, a really good battle and a honored way to get Ash away to the podium. Not a problem at all.

 

[WaterShuriken]

Okay, so maybe it was inevitable that Ash would lose in the Sinnoh league as far as the writers not wanting him to win goes. However a win at the Sinnog league would have been, I think, believable, based on the fact that his team was well rounded and he was using his reserves to great effect. Darkrai and Latios were like a concrete wall reinforced with steel bars, electrified chain-link fencing and a massive stop sign plonked in Ash's way deliberately to make sure that he went no further whereas against a trainer with regular pokemon he might have faired better and made it to the final at least.
Ash's Unova team, however, left a lot to be desired, especially Unfezant, Oshawott and Snivy. That he chose not to use his reserves meant that it was blindingly obvious from the get-go that he was not going to win, and pretty much made the entire tournament a waiting game for when he inevitably got knocked out.
Until Tobas was introduced there was always a slight chance that the Sinnoh league was going to be the time Ash got to the final round at least. Unova was not a case of "if" he got knocked out but "when," and that feeling was there from the battle with Roxie, if not before.

Did you honestly expect Ash to win a game-region league, I mean, at all?
Even in the Sinnoh League it was a matte of when he was knocked out not if due to the nature of the anime.
It just seems that people got their hopes way too high for Sinnoh and when that crashed, they lowered their expectations for Unova.

 

[Everlasting]

I had to say Cameron.
I dislike the battle between Ash and Cameron. Only Pikachu and Pignite managed to shine in this battle, and, to be honest, winning with five Pokémon while Ash got six is just too much. Losing after having a great fight (instead of that turnover where Riolu recovered entirely by evolving and not being knocked out even after being hit at least ten times by Pikachu) would have been great, but this one was just a big fail. I have a lot of respect for Ash's battle with Tobias even if it wasn't very fair, though. Tobias managed to catch a Darkrai and a Latios and trained them as it was normal Pokémon, and Ash defeated both of them while any other trainer did when battling against Tobias. Of course, it's not the best, I bet Tyson's was great (I didn't watched it yet) but Cameron was the worst I've ever seen.

 

[karczx]

Definitely Unova league, especially when he lost to Cameron of all people.

 

[Sprinter1988]

No, I knew that the writers would not want him to win, but it felt like that was a good time to let him win and have it be a convincing win if they wanted to do so. I'd have liked it better if he had lost in a close run battle with another trainer who was just as strong and just happened to beat him. But instead they just shoved in Darkrai and Latios to make sure that he lost. It was cheap and ultimately disrespectful to all the development that the character had gone through, not only in Sinnoh, but through the Battle Frontier, Hoenn and Johto.

 

[PokeMaster366]

No, I knew that the writers would not want him to win, but it felt like that was a good time to let him win and have it be a convincing win if they wanted to do so. I'd have liked it better if he had lost in a close run battle with another trainer who was just as strong and just happened to beat him. But instead they just shoved in Darkrai and Latios to make sure that he lost. It was cheap and ultimately disrespectful to all the development that the character had gone through, not only in Sinnoh, but through the Battle Frontier, Hoenn and Johto.

I have to agree with you with Sinnoh being Ash's worst league loss, but I have gripes with what you said about Darkrai and Latios being cop-outs.

Rather, I think the main reason why Ash lost that one was because of his own stupidity, optimism and lack of knowledge on the opponent. When someone comes in with a Darkrai, it shouldn't be too surprising for that same trainer to have more legendary Pokemon or a team of over-the-top powerful regular Pokemon backing it up. By all rights, Ash had the means to counter Tobias's Pokemon, and even if he was focused on Darkrai alone, he could've just assumed the worst and brought some of his best Pokemon instead. We've already seen that Ash is capable of calling Charizard over all the way from Unova, but no, instead we saw 2 average Pokemon and a throwaway Pokemon get one-shotted by Darkrai alone. The battle itself could have been a callback to some of the previous techniques that Ash learned through his Sinnoh adventures (i.e., counter-shield from the battle with Fantina).

There could be some arguments made that if Ash had beat Tobias and won the league, the series would've been over, but if you ask me, it could've given the writers a chance to either truly start fresh and enforce the whole "new beginnings" theme, or delve into what Ash would be going through after beating the League and Champion in Sinnoh. Even if Ash beat the Champion, he would probably just give the title back to Cynthia and leave for a new adventure; also, being Champion does not mean you've become a Pokemon Master (vague dream as it is), so all this could make Ash begin to question what a Pokemon Master really is. In search for this answer, he could tackle the Unova league and the writers could've really hammered in his "mentor" role through Trip and maybe Iris while still keeping his personality intact.

Well, I've droned on for long enough. I can talk as much as I want about what would be ideal, but odds are, I bet no one's going to even bother to respond to this post.

 

[Sprinter1988]

I have to agree with you with Sinnoh being Ash's worst league loss, but I have gripes with what you said about Darkrai and Latios being cop-outs.

Rather, I think the main reason why Ash lost that one was because of his own stupidity, optimism and lack of knowledge on the opponent. When someone comes in with a Darkrai, it shouldn't be too surprising for that same trainer to have more legendary Pokemon or a team of over-the-top powerful regular Pokemon backing it up. By all rights, Ash had the means to counter Tobias's Pokemon, and even if he was focused on Darkrai alone, he could've just assumed the worst and brought some of his best Pokemon instead. We've already seen that Ash is capable of calling Charizard over all the way from Unova, but no, instead we saw 2 average Pokemon and a throwaway Pokemon get one-shotted by Darkrai alone. The battle itself could have been a callback to some of the previous techniques that Ash learned through his Sinnoh adventures (i.e., counter-shield from the battle with Fantina).

There could be some arguments made that if Ash had beat Tobias and won the league, the series would've been over, but if you ask me, it could've given the writers a chance to either truly start fresh and enforce the whole "new beginnings" theme, or delve into what Ash would be going through after beating the League and Champion in Sinnoh. Even if Ash beat the Champion, he would probably just give the title back to Cynthia and leave for a new adventure; also, being Champion does not mean you've become a Pokemon Master (vague dream as it is), so all this could make Ash begin to question what a Pokemon Master really is. In search for this answer, he could tackle the Unova league and the writers could've really hammered in his "mentor" role through Trip and maybe Iris while still keeping his personality intact.

Well, I've droned on for long enough. I can talk as much as I want about what would be ideal, but odds are, I bet no one's going to even bother to respond to this post.

Ash's Heracross was there to show how strong Darkrai was, Swellow, Torkoal and even Gible were just there to take the hits. It's just another way that the writers copped out on Ash.
I don't think that the series would have had to have ended if Ash had won the league, nor would it have been the end of his role in the show. Instead they could have let him challenge the elite four and maybe the champion, lose, and then gone to Unova and act as a mentor to a new trainer instead of the stupid regression that he went through.

 

[Janovy]

No, I knew that the writers would not want him to win, but it felt like that was a good time to let him win and have it be a convincing win if they wanted to do so. I'd have liked it better if he had lost in a close run battle with another trainer who was just as strong and just happened to beat him. But instead they just shoved in Darkrai and Latios to make sure that he lost. It was cheap and ultimately disrespectful to all the development that the character had gone through, not only in Sinnoh, but through the Battle Frontier, Hoenn and Johto.

He beat two legendary Pokémon, one of which not a single gym leader had managed to beat (Darkrai).

If anything, losing to Cameron was more of a disgrace.

 

[Sprinter1988]

He beat two legendary Pokémon, one of which not a single gym leader had managed to beat (Darkrai).

If anything, losing to Cameron was more of a disgrace.

Losing to Cameron was a disgrace, losing to Tobias was a cop out by the writers.

 

[PokeMaster366]

He beat two legendary Pokémon, one of which not a single gym leader had managed to beat (Darkrai).

If anything, losing to Cameron was more of a disgrace.

We can always say that Ash only lost against Cameron because he refused to use some of his older, more powerful Pokemon. It was still unknown how much Cameron's Unova Pokemon had grown, especially considering how often he would miss Tournaments and Leagues if it weren't for Ash and friends.

 

[JennaJayfeather]

Idk Cameron is some super genius with his headband so not him lol. But Ritchie and Harrison were the losses I didn't like. Idk why with Harrison I guess it made me mad that Ash came so close. >.>

 

[Luthor]

The only thing is, Cameron's last pokemon almost for sire would have been watchog, which is arguably the weakest fully evolved pokemon of the generation, therefore prerty much wouldn't have given ash trouble at all.

which is why they should've left it in. At least that might've given boldore,oshawott or unfeazent a win.

 

[lokoduro]

Cameron.

In the end,it doesn't matter if he had a Hydreigon.He was still quite the duh-duh himself,he didn't even know he had to register for the league.(Implying that he never entered one)
Plus his choices:he seriously suicide-run two of his PKM,showing just how awesome his strategy was.And to finish it all,he forgot a PKM!But not to wrry right?Who said he would need that.So the 4=League veteran lost to a mentally -insert word- person.

As Janovy said,2 legendaries > 4 normal.In fact,I would them to pull off a cliché with another legendary run(3 this time),then making them lose to such a n00b.

Oh well,that's what I get for even giving that League a chance.(At least Kenyan vs Satoshi was ok,to say the least).

 

[LizardonX]

The worst one for me to stomach was meowth. I can take Charizard being too good for Ash because at the time he was. I can take Blaziken and Lucario because those pokemon were cool and badass. I can watch Latios because it shows that there are people who go for the best Pokemon rather than the cutest to win, but meowth? No freaking way.

 

[Luthor]

The worst one for me to stomach was meowth. I can take Charizard being too good for Ash because at the time he was. I can take Blaziken and Lucario because those pokemon were cool and badass. I can watch Latios because it shows that there are people who go for the best Pokemon rather than the cutest to win, but meowth? No freaking way.

I found meowth less problematic only because of metagross. Pikachu was damaged by it(and considering the how much more powerful it was probably tired pika out just to cause it sufficient damage). Then the rest doesn't come down to meowth as much as tyson knowing how to defend against pikachu.