How would you rank the Unova league in comparison with past leagues?

[knux-the-killer]

The final league episode aired and you know what? I went EXACTLY as we feared.
Dumb trainer beat Ash, Dumb trainer lost against Eeveelution Geek.
Eeeveelution Geek won the league. Further offense: he used Eevee as last glory.

Pfahahahahaha, derp.

Glad it's finally over. Remember to evolve your party next time, Ash.
Will he EVER learn? I mean, that's exactly why he keeps losing! In a league with a Snivy, Oshawott and Scraggy. DERP!

How the animation team is not sick of him already? IT WAS BEEN FRIGGIN 15 YEARS!!!

Whatever, at least now Team Plasma is getting the spotlight that deserves. Generation VI may overshadow it but I don't care.

[BlueDragonfangirl]

Now that the league is over, in my opinion worst league ever! Even worse than Kanto, Virgil was pretty much the most pointless league rival. Ash got beaten by a kid who I'm not even sure has an IQ at this point, just gets by with luck. Ash's main rivals got knocked out early while all these random unknown rivals get to the top??? What the heck was Pokemon thinking when making this league? I don't understand why they can't give the league more episodes? Did they know way a head of time that they'd be making the N arc after the league? Even so, they still could have given it more episodes >>

edit;

Oh yah, what was with the Axew filler? A lot of us didn't like it the first time he got lost, what makes you people think we want to see it again and this time in the legaue of all places?? Why they didn't think showing some of Ash's battles in the league on screen was important was beyond me.

[PAndrews]

This League was by far the worst

It had a random filler episode to interupt it, skipped and rushed battles, no full battles, Eevee winning the damn thing and so on

Ash lost to an absolutely incompent trainer who didn't even know the basic rules. Came in missing a pokemon, sent in wrong type match-ups and Ash showed little to no strategy. The battle was also basically Pikachu & Pignite vs Hydreigon & Lucario, since everyone else were just fallguys

The only way this could have been redeemed is if:
Ash vs Trip was 3v3
Ash vs Stephan was 6v6
Ash had beaten Lucario, but then forfeited since he realized Pikachu was in no shape to battle a 6th Pokemon and winning this battle like that (Kotetsu being stupid and forgetting his last pokemon) didn't feel like he earned it. Showing a sign of maturity.

Or let Ash lose to Virgil in the finals if they are so bent on him never winning. There's no new game for another 10 months, nor a reason to rush this league, it could have easily stretched another 3-4 episodes

[charizardu]

I think Jhoto was the best even though we didn't see Charzard's victory againts blazikan

I'm sick of those little unenvolved pokemon of ash....

[Cresselia92]

It was already clear in the last episode, but after the one aired today I can confirm that: worst… League… to date! Not even the Kanto League or the Sinnoh one (that are the most criticized) were that bad. The only good match for me was Ash vs Stephan and I liked the clash between Lucario and Pikachu but the rest was rather meh. Here hoping that the next League will be better than that.

Take note, writers. The Unova League is how a League should't be written. Remember!

[BlueDragonfangirl]

It was already clear in the last episode, but after the one aired today I can confirm that: worst… League… to date! Not even the Kanto League or the Sinnoh one (that are the most criticized) were that bad. The only good match for me was Ash vs Stephan and I liked the clash between Lucario and Pikachu but the rest was rather meh. Here hoping that the next League will be better than that.

Yah, lets hope they do a better job over all with the next series, in my opinion it wasn't just the league that was horrible but it didn't help things.

[Nacreous]

The League and the whole Best Wishes was terrible...they didn't manage to make me feel anything...like root for Ash or be sad that he lost.Not even he was sad that he lost.God,it's just horrible.Ash is a robot.

[Almighty Zard]

this is just a sugarcoated bash fest/venting thread--;

[pokeaussie37]

I believe the Unova League was inferior to Sinnoh and Hoenn, due to my belief that the victors of both previous leagues had stronger teams, and whom also had stronger competition.

I don't mean to deride the Unova Saga, but it seems like overall the people their have inferior teams. Gym Leaders and trainers from Unova in my opinion would struggle to compete with their equivalents from the other regions. So much for 'the boonies' being inferior, eh Trip? Just overall a weak region, not a shot at the actual saga itself.

Edit: To be fair, I don't particularly care. The strength of the league is not my main reason for watching Pokemon, so I'm not going to stop watching because I thought a league was lame, but no doubt many people will be let down.

[Almighty Zard]

I don't mean to deride the Unova Saga, but it seems like overall the people their have inferior teams. Gym Leaders and trainers from Unova in my opinion would struggle to compete with their equivalents from the other regions. So much for 'the boonies' being inferior, eh Trip? Just overall a weak region, not a shot at the actual saga itself.

And that is why Trip got eliminated early on :P

Something I enjoyed since it was a nice plot twist, and other than Conkeldurr none of Trip's other pokemon stuck out besides it and Serperior...which Trip didn't raise well defensive wise

[pokeaussie37]

And that is why Trip got eliminated early on :P

Something I enjoyed since it was a nice plot twist, and other than Conkeldurr none of Trip's other pokemon stuck out besides it and Serperior...which Trip didn't raise well defensive wise

Baha yes, I thoroughly enjoyed both that, and Serperior being OHKO'd by Bouffalant. I almost completely agree, except that I would call Conkeldurr sticking out because it wasn't very good, unless you implied that. My belief is that Trip was kind of like your novice Pokemon gamer, training his starter and not really anything else.

That was for me the one part of the League that was good, mixing it up a bit so Trip was put back in his place a bit. At the expense of a potential 6v6 battle maybe, but I think either way they went, it could expose the inferiority of the rest of his team.

[OceanicLanturn]

Unova League is the worst league IMO to date. I'm not even going to lie, but even the Kanto league was better. I'm not a nostalgic person, and the Kanto league wasn't so horrible since it was the first league. Unova? Can't say the same. After three awesome leagues in Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, the writers decided to throw us by what's by far the worst league in pokemon history, not even having one proper battle and the battles were horribly distributed in terms of screentime. Main rivals (Bianca and Trip) were knocked out early, basically throwing away what the writers had been building for the entire saga. The league didn't even have a good full battle. Ash losing to a guy with an IQ of a rock was depressing enough. Now add a horrible distributed battle screentime. Stephan was okay (still sore that Leavanny didn't even get a win), but Kotetsu. That battle was terrible. It was reduced into a Pignite and Pikachu vs Hydreigon and Lucario battle, as if those two weren't glorified enough already.

So yeah, worst league ever. To date. Hopefully X and Y will have better leagues. This league was a huge disappointment for me: Leavanny not getting a win, Bianca not even getting a battle with Ash, Katherine not winning or not appearing on screen... The only thing I decently enjoyed was the filler episode. Bianca and Virgil moments were really cute. :3 I hope those two show up more.

[Almighty Zard]

Baha yes, I thoroughly enjoyed both that, and Serperior being OHKO'd by Bouffalant. I almost completely agree, except that I would call Conkeldurr sticking out because it wasn't very good, unless you implied that. My belief is that Trip was kind of like your novice Pokemon gamer, training his starter and not really anything else.

That was for me the one part of the League that was good, mixing it up a bit so Trip was put back in his place a bit. At the expense of a potential 6v6 battle maybe, but I think either way they went, it could expose the inferiority of the rest of his team.

I mean that Conkeldurr was the only other pokemon Trip owned that got more attention (therefore getting focus) than the rest of his pokemon did besides Serperior, yes it lost all three times he used it, but the fact remains he still used it and Serperior more than anything else he had.

[pokeaussie37]

I mean that Conkeldurr was the only other pokemon Trip owned that got more attention (therefore getting focus) than the rest of his pokemon did besides Serperior, yes it lost all three times he used it, but the fact remains he still used it and Serperior more than anything else he had.

Ah well yes, either way the point stands, it does stick out, which I agree with. He used everything else once after all, they were basically nondescript. He had a Frillish and a Lampent? Oh yeah!

Back on topic: I also believe that this was more of a league where someone (aka Virgil) had to win it, rather than someone had to lose it. If my memory serves Virgil was considered as one of the big contenders. That says to me that there were no outstanding candidates.

[fer92]

The Unova League wasn't horrible. But was a clear case of bad writing and I think that some people around the anime agree with me.*

Why? Because Ash was only got 3 battles, we don't have enough opportunities for all his pokemon, half of his team don't get wins ro defeats and the league will need at least one episode. The problem is that you add the Ash vs Virgil battle in one episode in the Top 8 and suddenly I don't have any problem with it.

*I think that TV Tokyo, the magazines, etc. that aren't neutral (like Dengeki) tried to promote the League at the minimum possible. Only Pokemon Fan heavily promoted the people. That combined with the fact that during a big part of the League, TV Tokyo showed previews of Episode N. "The only special preview that the league had was a 20-second preview on 29th November, nothing more.

And we are waiting to the episode to finally air, we found about the International Pokemin Direct with a lot of information to take a distraction from the anime (and mainly for the league).

[Locormus]

So yeah:

1. Kanto: NOSTALGIA, hate me.. Kingler was awesome, Muk was awesome, Bulbasaur vs. Scyther was awesome, Squirtle ramming Nidorino into a wall, awesome! Good memories.
2. Sinnoh: I thought it was good. Quilava shouldn't have been skipped, and the writers deserve major props for Conway. Tobias didn't bother me, made me happy that Ash was unofficially second best.
3. Johto: Good battles, two nice full battles, although it was the Snorlax/Charizard-show.
4. Hoenn: Because I just don't have many memories off it. Had plenty battles, but I can't recall most as vividly, it's a personal thing as I didn't watch AG as vividly, not hate.
5. Unova: Because nothing happened? Two rounds were skipped, and Ash looked like a tool.

[gliscor&yanmega]

1)All leagues.

Not much into the whole comparing things that I like, and I like all the leagues. Unova may have not had that many battles which was something I was a little disappointed with, but it went ahead and broke patterns and whatnot, and I found it more realistic then other leagues. I only would have wanted a little more out of Kotetsu vs Ash, I would have wanted a 6 vs 6 with some wins for a few others then just Pikachu and Pignite, but even still I liked the league.

[Mew2]

Yah, lets hope they do a better job over all with the next series, in my opinion it wasn't just the league that was horrible but it didn't help things.

You're right, it wasn't just the League. But the Unova League is the thing that everyone will use for evidence in how bad the Unova Saga was, that and the Roxie Gym battle. The whole main story (4th Gym and beyond, especially Roxie's Gym) seemed to be subpar, with this league being the worst, and I've seen all four previous leagues. The league is basically a snapshot of Ash for the entire region and his regression. In addition, and I'm not the only one to note this, it seemed as if the league participants were not nearly as strong as participants in leagues past. I think that if trainers like Katie, Paul, Conway, Harrison, Gary, Nando, AG/Sinnoh Ash would have steamrolled the Unova League mercilessly (and that's not counting the champions Tyson and Tobias). It just seemed as if everyone in Unova was just that much weaker than the competitors in the previous leagues. Virgil did not seem like an unbeatable beast. Cameron had the tools to win and could have been unbeatable if he was smarter, but his stupidity greatly held him back. Looking back on it, I'm not sure I would say that any of the Gym Leaders were all that impressive, either. This saga has just been so disappointing, and the fact that it got off to such a good start and everyone had such high hopes for it just makes it all that much sadder.

[ShinyCharyZard]

I actually really hope that the next league involves reserves again.. Many of them need the battles, especially the Johto and Unova teams.. and Torkoal too, if it doesn't go to France for an evolution anyway.

[ludiloco]

1)Hoenn: Even though Ash didn't use reserves, his team was decent, his only unevolved pokemon was Corphish but has decent bulk, Grovyle was ok with his good speed and Swellow and Glalie were murder machines. Also Ash had most full-battles here.

2)Johto: This was better than Sinnoh for me because he used all the pokemon he had at that time and the main reason was Ash vs Gary.

3)Sinnoh: If someone complains that Johto was a Charizard/Snorlax fest, Sinnoh was an Infernape fest, Ash vs Shinji was 3-episodes-long!!!, they could've cut one episode of another full-battle.

4)Kanto: Kanto is only down compared to Sinnoh because of the animation and the ending. The preliminar matches were amazing, the cotd's were more impressive than most of the current rivals, and Ash lost because of his inexperience, not because he was an idiot (see Unova).

5)Unova: Bad matches, bad rivals, bad ending, bad team (bar Krookodile) and bad Ash. I liked Kotetsu but his battle with Ash was awful and got outclassed by Virgil.