Even more shocking, Professor Oak's cousin, Samson Oak, joined the fight, as well as Team Skull boss Guzma. In addition, other friends Ash met along the series, such as Hau and Lillie, competed. With 151 trainers in the match, several of Ash's rivals over the series appeared to fight - most notably, Gladion, the elder brother of Ash's traveling companion, Lillie. The Manalo Conference, which lasted longer than any Pokémon competition, featured a downright epic roster of characters. That trend continued with with the next two leagues. Tobias is an absurdly powerful trainer who, to the shock of no one, became a Pokémon Master. Tobias beat Ash's team of six Pokémon with only two, but those were the legendary Pokémon Darkrai and Latios. To many fans, Tobias represents the universe's desire to keep Ash from ever winning any competition. RELATED: Pokémon Sword & Shield Reuses Animation (and It Doesn't Matter) Paul remains one of Ash's fiercest rivals, but, in a downright epic final battle, Ash beat him and, at last, got closer than he ever has (until the Manalo Conference) to reaching his dreams of being a Pokémon Master. In Sinnoh, at the Lily of the Valley Conference, Ash competed against several rivals in the finals, such as Conway, Barry and Nando, but the rival fight everyone knew would be the highlight of the League Championship was Ash vs. RELATED: Pokémon Fan Theory: Professor Oak Gave Ash Pikachu for One Important Reason

That rival in Hoenn was Tyson, who would go on to win the League, providing a narrative where Ash just couldn't overcome his rival. That set off a trend the Pokémon anime followed from there on out: Ash would meet a rival, compete against them until they reached the Pokémon League, then confront them again there. Sure, his Charizard later took on legendaries like Entei and Articuno - and beat one of them - but at this stage in his development, Ash didn't have the skills to even direct his Pokémon. That failure to control his Pokémon led Ash to realize he had a lot of skills to learn before he could become a Master. The problem is, Ash's defeat had to do with his skill level as a trainer he lost because his Charizard refused to fight. Gary ranked in the Top 32, while Ash made it as far as the Top 16, only to be beaten by Ritchie. However, despite his hard work, neither he nor his rival, Gary, made it far. RELATED: Admit It, Digimon Is Better Than Pokemon He gathered eight badges, including the Marsh Badge from Sabrina many deemed impossible to earn, to qualify. Ash's goal of becoming a Pokémon Master started in the Kanto Region, where he set off from Pallet Town at age 10 (which, miraculously, he still is despite canonically aging a year reaching the Indigo Plateau Conference).

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