What is Ash's worst League lost?

Worst league lost

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HiroHunter

HiroHunter

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What do you guys think is Ash's worst league lost?

My is the Kalos league because out of all the hype the battle got he still lost to Alain in (to my) the most boring way the battle with Ash-Greninja vs MC-X wasen't that good and do to the fact the the league was the B-Plot to the TF Arc makes this mine worst league lost for Ash.

Edit: And you can Pick up to Two Leagues to be your worst.
 
I would say Unova. Very weak writing and a cheap copy of Indigo league. Ash was intentionally drawn out in Kanto as he has almost always been portrayed as naive and poor battle skilled despite of his remarkable successes in his later gym battles and other rivalry battles, but on the core always endearious and inspiring Pokémon Trainer, so it made sense in a way. But in Unova's case, everything was dull and there was basically no hype over the league.
 
Rockapheller said:
A Pokémon was considered defeated for sleeping, but that was not Charizard's case. Ash was declared disqualified because Charizard refused to listen to his commands.
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Oh, right. Haven't watched that episode in...I don't even know how long it's actually been. But still, a very long time, so I don't remember all the details.
 
Definitely Kanto, because Team Rocket's interference resulted in him being forced into a battle with his party already weakened.

Max1996 said:
Wasn't Ash disqualified due to Charizard sleeping?
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Ash himself was not disqualified. Charizard may have been eliminated if that was the case. But Ash was not disqualified.
 
The Kalos League honestly. My biggest problem with his loss at the Kalos League was his opponent and all the build up. Alain was incredibly overpowered and the anime practically shoved it down our throats that he was this unbeatable character. After his loss to Seibold, we never actually saw Alain lose to another trainer. Legendary maybe, but trainer? No. We watched his Charizard OHKO many in the league and we even watched Ash lose to it twice before. The anime hyped up this Mega Charizard X as an unbeatable God-like Pokemon in the League, much similarly to how they did for Tobias' Darkrai.

We watched Ash and his Greninja develop. They lost several in a row and Wulfric hinted that Ash didn't have full faith in Greninja. We saw them repair their bond after and unlock the true potential of Battle Bond. Alain continued to believe he was unbeatable and he'd never lose. I honestly thought that Alain needed to learn that he wasn't unbeatable, and he needed to be knocked down a peg after his endless win streak. The development Alain got after learning of Lysandre's plan and after Ash snapped him out of the guilt didn't teach him that. It just made no sense to me for Ash to lose to Alain after all the development, build up, and the possible development for Alain. On top of all of this, Alain's inclusion in the league felt forced, considering he only just learned about the league through Ash, then had all 8 badges 7 episodes later.

When it all came down to the finale, we watched as that Charizard took a heap of damage from Pikachu and a fully powered Ash-Greninja, only for it to end in yet another lost for Ash. This was the league Ash should have won, or they should have at least let him beat Alain and lose to an opponent like Sawyer. Sawyer was someone who started out slow, but slowly caught up and began to analyze Ash's team well enough to develop proper counters. I would have been much happier with that loss than one to Alain. In the end, it was a cheap cop out to keep a status quo that needs to be broken.

Besides that one, I did think losing to Tobias was a cheap cop out, since Ash was so strong that the writers though that two OP Legendaries were the only way he could lose. Cameron was pretty bad also because he was just incompetent and got a lucky evolution.
 
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The Unova League was still the worst defeat for Ash thus far for me. Cameron was such an annoying trainer who was honestly way too stupid. Despite sending out Pokemon that were at a major disadvantage against Ash's Pokemon, he won because Riolu was the star of his team and it evolved into Lucario during the match. The fact that he won without even knowing anything like what a full battle meant made it even worse. I think Ash getting to the Top 8 of the Unova League made sense given how his Gym battles went, but it was just a really terrible way to handle it. Cameron losing right away to Virgil added salt to the injury too. At least for the previous two Leagues, Ash lost to the trainer who eventually won the tournament, but that wasn't the case here. It was just a terrible end to a terrible League.

The Kalos League defeat would be second. It's mainly due to losing to Alain himself. They had been making Alain ridiculously overpowered ever since the fourth Mega Evolution special. He never lost to anyone outside of the Elite 4 and got all eight Gym badges in a relatively short amount of time. I know time in the Pokemon anime is kind of weird in general, but he started going after Gym badges much later than Ash did and was able to get enough in time for the Kalos League. His inclusion in the Kalos League felt especially forced and I absolutely hated how he only joined to face Ash again. It felt kind of insulting that the trainer who ultimately won the Kalos League wasn't really interested in the competition beyond facing one person, which wouldn't have been that bad if their rivalry started much earlier in the series, and he could have just waited until after the Kalos League was over to battle Ash again.

There was a lot of buildup with Ash and Greninja finally being able to master its new form, but Mega Charizard X still defeated Ash-Greninja. It wasn't even down to the wire. Charizard didn't even look tired after the battle. Alain didn't really learn anything from winning the Kalos League, so it felt like it was done primarily just to keep the status quo. I actually do like the impact it had on Ash. His previous defeat shook him up so much that he isolated himself from his friends and even Pikachu. He was just happy to have a good battle against Alain, which was pretty nice character development for Ash all things considered. If he did lose to someone else besides Alain, I probably wouldn't have minded Ash losing the Kalos League nearly as much.

The Indigo League would be third. Squirtle being considered knocked out for sleeping was cheap, but the Kanto arc isn't known for having the best battles. They weren't even that interested in battles during the Indigo League in general. Charizard being disqualified because it refused to battle made more sense. It's an official tournament battle and if a Pokemon doesn't obey its trainer, the idea that it could cost trainer's the match was reasonable. The main problems it had were being rushed and how Team Rocket played more of a role in Ash's defeat. Because he spent time running away from them, that did weaken his Pokemon. I do think that Charizard ultimately costing Ash the match was fitting though. He didn't really attempt to work on training it, had spent pretty little time training for the Indigo League in the first place and didn't have the best track record for Gym badges during the arc either. Ash's mistakes as a trainer, mainly being so sure of himself without training and relying on Charizard to get him out of a tight jam without proper training, making him lose the Indigo League was fitting. If they didn't devote almost the entire episode to running away from Team Rocket, it might have been handled better.

The Johto League defeat would be fourth. Aside from some of the random order of his Pokemon, Ash did pretty well here and it did come down to Charizard taking a bit more damage. The battle was okay, but it did seem like Ash could have gone further if he had chosen different Pokemon, or at least a better order on when to use them.

The Hoenn League defeat would be fifth. I don't remember if this battle was much better than his last match in the Johto League, but I prefer it because it showed a nice bit of progression for Ash. He relied on just his Hoenn team instead of using his older Pokemon like he had done for the Johto League. Despite getting to the Top 8 again, he lost to the trainer who won the Hoenn League, which made his defeat more reasonable/tolerable.

The Sinnoh League defeat would be sixth, or in this case the best way Ash has been defeated thus far. I know people still find Tobias a cheap way to prevent Ash from winning. Tobias was ridiculously overpowered with his Legendary Pokemon, but I was okay with that because that was the point. Alain bothers me way more because he is like if Tobias was a supporting character in DP and we were supposed to be invested in him. Tobias is there to defeat Ash as the series' League rival, which was fine. After the amazing battle that was Ash vs. Paul Sinnoh League edition, Ash losing to a regular trainer would have been underwhelming. They couldn't have Ash win simply because there wasn't enough time left before they had to move on towards the next series. Plus, Ash went down in a blaze of glory. He was the only one in the Sinnoh League who could defeat Darkrai and tied against his Latios. That was awesome and made him an honorary runner up for the Sinnoh League. All things considered, it was the best way they could have reasonably handled his Sinnoh League defeat. I think it did start the trend of Ash's League defeats becoming more infamous over time. I rarely hear anyone complaining about any of his League losses before Tobias and I still wonder what they'll do with the Alola League whenever SM gets around to it.
 
Unova League was the worst. It's been about 5 years ago since I have watched the Unova League and I don't remember much what happened. I read somewhere Ash got eliminated on the fourth round and the article mentioned that was Ash's biggest fail in a League. The battles were also short and they had no suspense.
 
Unova was bad but I'm still salty about Kanto. He lost because Team Rocket attacked him a million times and Charizard decided to be a douche.
 
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I think that Sinnoh was bad because Tobias was just written in. But by far the one that stands out for me is the Unova League. Ash lost against someone who he should've won against and Cameron had 5 Pokemon. When his Riolu evolved I was like UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH don't do this anime producers. It was a big let down and for me the BW anime in general was a let down so it didn't surprise me that the league was. Kanto was bad too imo. The referee was unforgiving and as a young child it broke my heart :(
 
Even when I first watched Ash vs. Ritchie, I'm pretty sure I was more annoyed with how short the battle was after they spent so much time hyping it up than anything else. I didn't consider it unfair that he lost. He could have used Kingler or Muk, especially when he did rely on his reserved Pokemon a lot during the Indigo League. Plus, getting to the top 16 was the best that Ash could have reasonably done for his first Pokemon League. If he was able to battle Ritchie without Team Rocket tiring out his Pokemon beforehand, maybe he would have been able to win, but I have a hard time seeing Ash making it any higher than the Top 8 given his minimal training throughout the series.
 
In terms of being the worst, the Kanto and Unova Leagues are simply far, far ahead.

Kanto League hardly had any battles which fully imvolved proper KO's. And then their was that utter disgrace of a battle named Ash vs Ritchie which is undisputedly the worst battle in the history of the Pokemon Leagues. Squirtle looses because it fell asleep due to Butterfree's Sleep Powder, Ritchie's Charmander looses because it runs away from Charizard being too scared and Ritchie recalled it, and the battle ends with Charizard taking a nap. That absolute joke of a battle is more that enough to make Kanto League the worst League ever.

Unova League turned a the rivalry climax battle between Ash and Trip(Ash's main Unova rival) into a 1 vs 1, where Pikachu win completely seemed DEM(got pummeled by Serperior in the entire battle and suddenly won out of nowhere with a combo move). An entire day pointlessly wasted with Axew getting lost. And the only full battle we saw in the League was an absurd 5 vs 6, with Ash having 6 Pokemon compared to Cameron's 5, and still suffered and embarrasing loss to that IQ>50, with an sudden evolution DEM from Lucario.

Kalos League might be bad in pacing but the completed battles we got to see there were excellent in terms of being intense and amination. Sawyer vs Tierno was one of the best 3 on 3 non-Ash battles we saw in Leagues, and Ash vs Sawyer/Ash vs Alain both were intense, exciting and amazing battles in terms of choreography, strategy and especially animation(there is hardly any doubt that those two battles were among the best animated battles in the anime).

The reason the Kalos League loss generated such enormous level of disappointment and salt was because of the false hype created by the writers by the misleading previews/titles prior to the Ash/Alain battle. Ash was for the first time in a League final, and for the first time he had a direct chance to win all. Plus that misdleading title of Kalos League Victory! Satoshi's Ultimate Decisive Match!! and that raging Orange Shuriken in the previews looking like the move which will deliver the final blow. After that much false hype created by the preview, it's only logical that the viewers would feel dissapointed/enraged/betrayed/salty after the Ash lost the League. They sensed a realistic chance for the first time that Ash is finally going to win a League and accompolish his primary goal, being mislead by previews/titles, and it all went down the drain.

But if someone successfully manages to recover from the salt from Ash's Kalos League loss, it's easily understandable that Ash's Kanto and Unova League losses were much, much worse. :p
 
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Honestly, I think that Ash vs. Trip coming down to just a one on one match was one of the few good things about the Unova League. Granted, I do remember that the battle was not being particularly good, but I don't think Trip deserved anything more. Despite being Ash's supposed main rival, they really didn't have much impact on each other. We saw Trip lose multiple times to other characters in those tournament arcs and Alder had much more of an influence on him than anything Ash ever did or say. They didn't deserve to have a three on three match, let alone a full battle, and getting rid of Trip as soon as possible was probably the best decision they could have made. Plus, he does get some semblance of closure with his defeat, which is more than I can say for the other rivals/supporting characters of the series or even Iris and Cilan for that matter.

While I agree that the Indigo League was pretty bad, I have a hard time getting that upset over it. It was their first Pokemon League and like I said before, the Kanto arc isn't known for having a lot of good battles. That doesn't make all of their decisions okay, but I am willing to cut it a bit of slack compared to the later Pokemon Leagues when the writers were much more familiar with how to make battles work.
 
Hidden Mew said:
Honestly, I think that Ash vs. Trip coming down to just a one on one match was one of the few good things about the Unova League. Granted, I do remember that the battle was not being particularly good, but I don't think Trip deserved anything more. Despite being Ash's supposed main rival, they really didn't have much impact on each other. We saw Trip lose multiple times to other characters in those tournament arcs and Alder had much more of an influence on him than anything Ash ever did or say. They didn't deserve to have a three on three match, let alone a full battle, and getting rid of Trip as soon as possible was probably the best decision they could have made. Plus, he does get some semblance of closure with his defeat, which is more than I can say for the other rivals/supporting characters of the series or even Iris and Cilan for that matter.

While I agree that the Indigo League was pretty bad, I have a hard time getting that upset over it. It was their first Pokemon League and like I said before, the Kanto arc isn't known for having a lot of good battles. That doesn't make all of their decisions okay, but I am willing to cut it a bit of slack compared to the later Pokemon Leagues when the writers were much more familiar with how to make battles work.
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Have to say that I'll disagree with you here. Trip was Ash's main Unova rival, their rivalry was established since the beginning of the series and Ash lost to Trip quite some times, and that was their rivalry climax battle. More importantly, the writers had already revealed 6 Pokemon of Trip prior to the League, which is enough for a full battle. And still what happens? A 1 vs 1 battle. I'd definitely say Trip deserved a 6 vs 6, or at the very least, a 3 vs 3 battle, and certainly not a 1 vs 1. And not to mention that Pikachu's win was a complete DEM: he got pummeled in the entire battle by Serperior, and suddenly out of nowhere won with a combo move. There writers didn't even make Pikachu slowly claw it's way back into the battle by landing a few hits on Serperior, especially after Pikachu got pummelled so much. Which would've been much more realistic.

And regarding Kanto, I get it that the writers weren't that much familiar with making good battles, but that's no literally no excuse for that absolute joke of a battle named Ash vs Ritchie. At least in a battle there needs to be proper KO's, like there were in Ash vs Mandi, Ash vs Pete and Ash vs Jeanette in the Kanto League. Squirtle looses because it fell asleep due to Butterfree's Sleep Powder, Ritchie's Charmander looses because it runs away from Charizard being too scared and Ritchie recalled it. And ultimately, the battle ends in the most ridiculous and anti-climactic manner: Charizard's disobedience issues come to the forefront and it takes a nap inside the battlefield. There is hardly any way to justify that absolute disgrace of a battle, where there was hardly any legitimate proper KOs and the battle ending with one Pokemon refusing to fight and taking a nap, in the middle of a Pokemon battle, which defeats the very purpose of a Pokemon battle.
 
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