Should handicapping yourself in the league be illegal?

Master Cyrus

Master Cyrus

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In my time here I have seen a lot of hate directed at Ash's top 8 battle in the unova league. They ranged from complaints of recklessness and DEM to everything in between. The worst of it came from people claiming that Cameron forgetting to include a 6th pokemon was cheating and Disqualification worthy. My gripe with this is that this isn't giving cameron an advantage,but rather makes it harder for him to win. I think of it as the guy who brings only 1 pencil to a test and it breaks during the middle of it. Should he fail the test automatically because he didn't bring enough writing implements? I myself don't see the matter in Cameron bringing 5 pokemon with him as the rules say there is a maximum of 6. Besides wouldn't winning with a disadvantage prove yourself to be the better trainer? But still there is the issue of conservation of ninjutsu which is apparent in pokemon so it might not be a handicap at all.

What are your views on this matter?
 
I never understood this complaint at the time and still don't.

The fact that Lucario was still standing when Pikachu fell means he won beyond any doubt - he finished the battle with a Pokemon standing, that's a win. If it was a double knockout, like Ash's loss to Tobias - then you could say there could possibly be something rules wise - perhaps you could say it's a draw on that basis, but even if the rules said "the first to knock out all the other trainer's Pokemon" instead of specifying 6, the first point of a tie breaker would likely be who knocked out more Pokemon.

If it was a problem, Ash couldn't exactly complain about Cameron leaving the battlefield to get a 6th Pokemon considering he swapped Pokemon mid battle to get one of the Gym badges to qualify him for the tournament.
 
I can understand why people would be upset with how Cameron won, but I don't think that winning with only five Pokemon would be something on grounds for disqualification. It isn't against the rules to bring fewer Pokemon to a battle. If a trainer does, then it just puts them at a disadvantage and means that they could lose sooner than they had brought all of the Pokemon allowed for a battle. If Cameron had tried to leave to get a sixth Pokemon in the middle of the battle, then that would be a different story. That's what Ash did in his Nimbasa City Gym battle and that should have disqualified him for leaving the battle field, so if Cameron had done something like that, then he should have been disqualified. Winning with only five Pokemon, on the other hand, isn't really much of a problem in regards to their rules.
 
No, it is not illegal. And shouldn't be by any means.
The real issue people have with Cameron's match is the fact it only served to overglorify his battle skills in comparision to Ash's, because in the end he managed to pull a victory despite the handicap he put himself into. People thought it was cheap way to convince the audience he is awesome (and it was, now everyone just hates him), but saying it is worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
 
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Magma Bomb said:
No, it is not illegal. And shouldn't be by any means.
The real issue people have with Cameron's match is the fact it only served to overglorify his battle skills in comparision to Ash's, because in the end he managed to pull a victory despite the handicap he put himself into. People thought it was cheap way to convince the audience he is awesome (and it was, now everyone just hates him), but saying it is worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
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I'm not sure if winning with a handicap like that over glorified Cameron's battle skills. He made plenty of mistakes to show that he wasn't really that good and it was really because of the strength of his Lucario that he was able to pull out a victory. Maybe the kids watching it would have thought that he is awesome, although I have doubts about that too. Though, I agree that saying that it's worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
 
Hidden Mew said:
Magma Bomb said:
No, it is not illegal. And shouldn't be by any means.
The real issue people have with Cameron's match is the fact it only served to overglorify his battle skills in comparision to Ash's, because in the end he managed to pull a victory despite the handicap he put himself into. People thought it was cheap way to convince the audience he is awesome (and it was, now everyone just hates him), but saying it is worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if winning with a handicap like that over glorified Cameron's battle skills. He made plenty of mistakes to show that he wasn't really that good and it was really because of the strength of his Lucario that he was able to pull out a victory. Maybe the kids watching it would have thought that he is awesome, although I have doubts about that too. Though, I agree that saying that it's worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
Click to expand...
Well, there's a reason I said cheap. Cameron didn't display this level off battle proficiency when he faced Ash, even making stupid mistakes like sending Pokémon with 4x weakness to face the opposition, but the writers seem to want to us to believe he is that competent because they made him defeat Ash using only 5 Pokémon.
 
In the end it is proven that he only needed 2 pokemon to win. So rule of drama maybe? Or more likely the time before pignite vs hydreigon and riolu's entrance was just padding time to make it a 2 parter.
 
Magma Bomb said:
Hidden Mew said:
Magma Bomb said:
No, it is not illegal. And shouldn't be by any means.
The real issue people have with Cameron's match is the fact it only served to overglorify his battle skills in comparision to Ash's, because in the end he managed to pull a victory despite the handicap he put himself into. People thought it was cheap way to convince the audience he is awesome (and it was, now everyone just hates him), but saying it is worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if winning with a handicap like that over glorified Cameron's battle skills. He made plenty of mistakes to show that he wasn't really that good and it was really because of the strength of his Lucario that he was able to pull out a victory. Maybe the kids watching it would have thought that he is awesome, although I have doubts about that too. Though, I agree that saying that it's worth a disqualification is crossing the line.
Click to expand...
Well, there's a reason I said cheap. Cameron didn't display this level off battle proficiency when he faced Ash, even making stupid mistakes like sending Pokémon with 4x weakness to face the opposition, but the writers seem to want to us to believe he is that competent because they made him defeat Ash using only 5 Pokémon.
Click to expand...
From another point of view, it's disrespecting Ash by not battling to his full strength.
 
Magma Bomb said:
Well, there's a reason I said cheap. Cameron didn't display this level off battle proficiency when he faced Ash, even making stupid mistakes like sending Pokémon with 4x weakness to face the opposition, but the writers seem to want to us to believe he is that competent because they made him defeat Ash using only 5 Pokémon.
Click to expand...

I'm still not sure if they wanted the audience to believe that Cameron was competent just because he defeated Ash with using only five Pokemon. The mistakes he made, such as sending out two Pokemon that had four times weakness to Ash's Pokemon, made him look rather incompetent, and the fact that he won with only five Pokemon had more to do with the strength of his Lucario more so than Cameron's skills.
 
I could certainly understand the complaints about Ash performing badly in the league compared to previous ones, but not about Cameron's boneheaded mistakes. If he can win with only five Pokémon against six - and he did - then that would show just how skilled he is as a trainer and that remembering to bring six into the battlefield wouldn't make a difference. And if he loses 5-6, then he's eliminated from the tournament, anyway, and tough break for him; that's the price he pays for his mistake. It really works both ways.
 
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