Theory on Things: Elite Four and Champions

[Pokémon Master Red]

You all know what the Elite Four and Champions are right? OK. Have you ever wondered what the Champions were before you challenged the Elite Four? Well, here's my theory: Most Elite Four were previous Champions! Yeah! When a new Champ arrived, the previous Champ moves down. A Elite Four member drops out, who now can be a gym leader or a wandering traveler. (I guess if nobody wants to drop out, the last Elite Four has to drop out by default.) But some were not. For example, Will and Koga weren't Champions, as they replaced the previous Elite Four.

OK, so following that, here is my timeline of Champions:

Indigo: Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, Lance, Blue, Red, (Theory: Red stays Champion, Red leaves for Mt. Silver) Blue, (Blue becomes Viridian Gym Leader) Lance, Ethan/Lyra (From this point on, Main Character is only Champion for a short while, then refuses to continue, that is how the post-story happens), Lance

Hoenn: Sidney, Phoebe, Glacia, Drake, Steven, Wallace, Brendan/May, Wallace

Sinnoh: Aaron, Bertha, Flint, Lucian, Cynthia, Lucas/Dawn, Cynthia

Unova: (Now, I think this league's a little different, since it's farther away from the other regions. I think that they just choose the Elite Four and Champion, and stay that way. So yeah. When they give the title of Champion, it's unofficial.) Alder

If you want to post a theory, that's fine. If you have any objections go ahead. I hope you enjoy this article. Thank you for reading!

 

[Baron Dante]

Hmm. It would make kind of sense. They could ofcourse be challengers of the champion (Pitted against E4 first), that lost. (Either against champion or E4). they would become one, and the weakest one would drop out (Ignoring Unova)

As far as Unova goes, I think it works the same way, but there are no real "rankings" between the E4.

 

[hurristat]

I've always thought that was the case. It makes sense.

 

[HexagonStephen]

This makes sense, but I still wonder about the Gym Leaders. How are they chosen? And how, in the case of Koga and Blue, are they chosen for those positions?

 

[hurristat]

This makes sense, but I still wonder about the Gym Leaders. How are they chosen? And how, in the case of Koga and Blue, are they chosen for those positions?

I think that the Gym Leaders are chosen as above-average trainers, but not great. If they were weak, everyone could beat them, if they were too strong, no one would beat all of them. The E4 does want challengers. So they're going to pick strong, but not too strong Gym Leaders, so they can separate the wheat from the chaff and battle the strongest trainers in the land.

 

[Fair Verona]

I have always had a similar theory. Pretty much when you challenge the league, you are given a choice. To become part of the elite four, or give up your position and keep going until you are the champion.

I have always imagined gym leaders either as the elite four members kicked out. Or, the more underwhelming answer is that they simply apply, and if the league feels they are strong enough, they get to open a gym.

 

[Data_Error]

It makes sense, though my personal theory (sorta fueled by Koga and Caitlin getting promotions) was that once one of the Elite Four positions is vacated for whatever reason, there's a selection process among current top trainers (Frontier Brains, Gym Leaders, etc.) and the top candidates are put through some kind of test to decide who will fill the position. The champion, I've always thought, is appointed by the previous Champion when he steps down, but needs the approval of the other members of the Elite Four. The base level, Gym Leaders, are typically chosen from current Gym trainers or others elected by the Leader to be replaced. In the case that any of these League-sanctioned trainers are unable to appoint a successor, the current Elite Four and Champion will make a decision instead. All of these positions have elected "candidate pools" - unless you've been appointed as a potential choice for a new Gym Leader/E4/Champion by a current holder of the position, you can't even be chosen to fill said position. Most of these candidates are supposed to be trainers with a certain type specialty, save for the Champion. It's all a very internal process - darned if I know how they decided on the first members.

Alternatively, they're appointed by some kind of oversight committee. Or a combination of the two. I've only got this mostly thought out.

 

[Hector]

I think similarly to Chromas on this.

When a spot opens up anywhere in the hierarchy (Gym leader spot, E4 spot or even a champion spot), I always liked to think that anyone who was interested applied for the position and entered a tournament where the winner got the position.

In the case of a gym spot, the gym could either be passed down by the leader (like Koga to his daughter in the games or how Flannery was given her gym by her grandfather) or there would be a tournament where everyone uses the gym's type and the winner gets the gym.

For the E4 spot, I think that there's a tournament where everyone uses a mono-type team of their choice and the winner gets the spot.

And for the champion, another tournament where the winner gets the bid (this is what I think happened for the Indigo league when Red leaves to train in Mt. Silver. Lance won the tournament and Blue came in second, which led to Blue being given the also vacant Viridian Gym (the league's most challenging gym) and also the right to use any types he wanted in the gym).

 

[bigv]

Hmm, don't you become champion when you beat the champion? I think I remember the game saying that. I always assumed that whoever beats the champion becomes the new one, and that Game Freak just didn't want to force you to stand in a room for eternity after you beat the main game.

 

[Gama]

Hmm, don't you become champion when you beat the champion? I think I remember the game saying that. I always assumed that whoever beats the champion becomes the new one, and that Game Freak just didn't want to force you to stand in a room for eternity after you beat the main game.

Yeah, I agree. I'm pretty sure they say in RBYFRLG that if you beat the Champion you become the Champion and that the only reason you don't is so that you're not just wandering around training your Pokemon to level 100 against wild pokemon because you've beaten every trainer in the game/standing in a room waiting for no one to come and challenge you.

Other than the appointment of the Champion, though, I agree with Chromas and HiPS. The OP's suggestion of a kind of backwards promotion doesn't make too much sense to me - there's not a lot of evidence for it tbh and, as Chromas said, the existence of promotions kinda shows that it doesn't make sense.

 

[turtlekid]

For Alder at least this is how I envison it. When he was younger like he somehow won the positiion. Maybe a huge tournament to determin the champion? With trainers from all over the region. Maybe something huge like a 500 person bracket or who knows what.

 

[Baron Dante]

Doesn't the original games (And their remakes say something about Gym Leaders? Particularly comes to mind is Saffron, since there were 2 gyms, but since Sabrina's was stronger, the other one became unofficial.

 

[turtlekid]

Doesn't the original games (And their remakes say something about Gym Leaders? Particularly comes to mind is Saffron, since there were 2 gyms, but since Sabrina's was stronger, the other one became unofficial.

Yes that is mention in gen I. I believe his name is Kyo ans Sabrina both were considered gyms at one point but argued over which was the "true gym" they had a battle to determine the winner and because of Sabrina's type advantage she won also with the title of Gym Leader.

 

[hurristat]

For Alder at least this is how I envison it. When he was younger like he somehow won the positiion. Maybe a huge tournament to determin the champion? With trainers from all over the region. Maybe something huge like a 500 person bracket or who knows what.

A 512-person bracket (2^9) would take forever to complete.

They probably hand-picked him from all the applicants based on his record or something.

 

[sharktooth162]

There is one glaring hole in the backwards promotion thing which is with certain teams it would be imposible for the previous champ. An example is drake and Glacia where Glacia could probably one shot all drakes dragons with her ice types.

 

[hurristat]

There is one glaring hole in the backwards promotion thing which is with certain teams it would be imposible for the previous champ. An example is drake and Glacia where Glacia could probably one shot all drakes dragons with her ice types.

Not if Drake's dragons were faster and knew fire-type moves.

It's possible to beat people to whom you have a weakness. I remember rolling through Juan with a Blaziken.