It's funny because they root for him to win. In the first episode of Kalos League, they looked concerned when Ash was late to his first League battle and were thrilled when Ash made it in time.
Paul for one probably. I mean he was fighting against him.
Indeed. Shota is much weaker than Alain and Charizard would beat Sceptile pretty easily. As I already mentioned the battle against Shota and his entire character left a bad taste for me. He shouldn't have been so strong rival for Ash. If we look at the finals with cold logic Ash would never win with his Kalos Team. But writers can make an asspull with Greninja.
This battle can go the similar way as it was in Johto when Ash faced Gary. Charizard beat three of Gary pokes and that was when Ash had even Snorlax in his team. Gary was overal better but Ash's Charizard was too strong for him to handle. But this time we can't say that Greninja has any advantage against Alain and the battle between Metang and Noivern showed that Alain is stronger. Kinda hard to imagine Alain will lose four-five pokemon before Ash will be left only with Greninja.
It probably comes from Ash having 44 other badges throughout his previous journeys. Sawyer might have gotten eight Kalos badges before Ash but that's still dwarfed in comparison, which I'll admit contributed to me being rubbed the wrong way when he lucked out a win back in their last battle. Sawyer's been a good rival but I'd prefer Ash to have someone with equal experience dogging his heels next time, like in Sinnoh.
