Pokemon: Master of tactics

After Alex had "slaughtered" that trainer in the Pokémon fight, he started walking straight to the Gym without speaking anything with him.

The fight with this trainer was such a waste of time that he wanted 15 minutes of his life back. Even his weakest Pokémon was too strong for this trainer.

But through this encounter, Alex understood how fast he was levelling compared to regular trainers.

This not only has to do with the potential of his Pokémon but the fact that he regularly goes to areas where his Pokémon have to fight Pokémon on a level higher than them.

This also explains why Pokémon like Shuppet and Vulpix were levelling up so fast and how Ditto could keep up with them.

It probably has a lot to do with the high level of the Pokémon they always fight against and the level difference between each of them.

When comparing Gardevoir, Scizor and Crobat with them, you realise that although they also fought against Pokémon on a higher level, the level difference was lesser.

As long as the potential of a Pokémon is not hindering their levelling progress—a lower level Pokémon will gain more benefit/experience than a higher level Pokémon upon defeating similar Pokémon.

This will also lead to the level difference between his Pokémon getting only smaller and smaller to the point that all of them will have around the same level. Of course, as long as the potential does not get in the way.

But this will not be the case for too long, since the potential is the most important factor in allowing a Pokémon to quickly level up at a high level. Every pokemon starts to slow down at a certain point due to poor potential.

Alex stood in front of the Pewter City Pokémon Gym, a gigantic architectural structure with several separate buildings attached to the main one.

He had called there yesterday to get an appointment for an A-rank [Boulder Badge], and to his surprise, he got a reservation for the fight for today.

Fortunately, he had decided to arrive half an hour beforehand. So even with his delay, he still arrived 15 minutes early.

Although Alex had also considered registering for an S-rank Badge, he knew that even with the best tactics he could think of, he had no chance of winning against Brock's strongest team. For now, that is.

He had seen only 3 Pokémon of Brock.

Onix: Deep Gold and at LV 53.

Kabutops: S-rank* and at LV 52 (last seen just a year ago.)

Aerodactyl: Gold and at LV 50.

Even if these are Brock's strongest Pokémon, Alex can not be entirely sure about his other Pokémon. (He thinks that Onix is Brock's highest-level Pokémon, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any more Pokémon at level 51, 52 or even 53.)

In comparison, his three strongest Pokémon are at level 47, which is really a big difference.

Alex felt that the level difference was too big, and his fight would end similarly to the fight with Steven's Metagross.

After a certain strength gap, even the best tactics in the world can't do anything.

In comparison, the A-rank fight is much more appropriate.

Alex went to the small building where a staff member was sitting in reception.

As one of Kanto's 8 Main Gyms, lots of people work here in the Gym.

To manage such a big building, you would obviously need staff members to take care of cleaning & orientation work.

In addition, there are a handful of trainees who are not only responsible for the safety of the Gym but also for fighting against the B-rank Badge challengers.

"Hello, I have an appointment today for a fight against the Gym Leader."

The staff member looked briefly at Alex and immediately said, "Ah, you must be Mr Alex Stark, right? Can you please show me your ID card?"

Alex gave the staff member his ID card. Alex got it back after 10 seconds and was taken to the main hall by another staff member.

When Alex entered the main hall, he saw a large arena. With rocky ground and several boulders were distributed throughout the arena field.

You could tell by a glance who owned this arena and what Pokémon types would be used by the Gym Leader.

When he looked around, he found Brock—talking to a trainee.

Alex walked towards Brock with an indifferent expression.

Brock saw Alex and gave a slight smirk when he said, "When I got the message yesterday, I couldn't believe that you really are so stupid. To think, you want to fight against me!"

Alex looked in the eyes of Brock with a scornful look, "Why would I not want to fight you? You're the weakest Gym leader by a decent amount, after all."

The smirk on Brock's face suddenly vanished. "Heh! Have you grown a few balls now to start talking back to me like that?"

A disdainful facial expression could be found on Alex as he said, "Are you stupid? I never feared or even respected you. I was just too lazy to talk to a mentally retarded child."

"YOU BASTARD!!!! You will regret that! I thought of going easy on you. But now you have really pissed me. I can't believe there is someone as arrogant as you in this world. I will broadcast our fight so that the whole world can see how weak and pathetic you are."

Alex, looking at Brock the whole time like he was watching an idiot monkey blabbering, couldn't help but laugh inside his mind when he heard Brock's words.

He felt that Brock really could no longer be saved.

Alex looked calmly at Brock as he said, "Ok, sounds good to me. In which format do you want to fight?"

As a Gym leader, Brock can choose the format of the fight.

But for an A-rank Badge, he can only choose from 1 v/s 1, 2 v/s 2, or a 3 v/s 3 format.

Brock leaned up a bit when he said in a disapproving tone, "Keep pretending to be calm. It won't work for long anyway."

"We're going to fight in a 2 v/s 2 format. Tell me the average level of the two Pokémon you are going to use in this fight so we can fight at a similar level."

Alex knew that Brock wasn't doing this because he wanted to have a fair fight but because it's a rule that all Gym leaders must follow.

For example, if the Pokémon of the challenger's team have an average level is 45 in the battle, the Gym Leader's team's average level must not be higher than 46.

In addition, each Pokémon must be between LV 40 and LV 49 from the Gym leader and challenger in the A-rank Badge battle.

It not only makes sure that the challenger has minimum strength to fight against the Gym Leader for an A-rank Badge—to not waste the time of the Gym Leader—but also prevents the exploitation of the average level rule.

For example, one LV 10 Pokémon and 2 LV 50 Pokémon have an average level of 33. But with the 2 LV 50 Pokémon, any trainer can easily defeat 3 LV 33 Pokémon.

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[EN]: At that time, his system hadn't been updated yet. So he only knows that it was Gold, not sure whether Shallow Gold, Gold, or Deep Gold.

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