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Some of the most beloved moments from the franchise are the intense fights between the player and the region's top trainer, the Pokemon Champion. Throughout the many iterations within the franchise, we have been introduced to different Champions, with each member of the community having their favorite.
However, these masters have been known to have teams of varying quality, which may be a bit concerning for fans looking for more of a challenge from their Pokemon experience. Thankfully, there are still many powerful Pokemon Champions that have held up well in the contest against time. Here are the main series' Champions ranked from weakest to strongest.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions. Only champion battles against official League Champions that result in Hall of Fame entries or Champion ribbons are counted.
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Pokemon Champions ranked from weakest to strongest
13) Disqualified: Lance
Lance is a controversial trainer in the franchise due to his team of illegitimate creatures. He sports three Dragonites, each under level 55, which Dragonair needs to reach to evolve into Dragonite. His Aerodactyl also knows Rock Slide, which it could not learn until the fourth generation, so this error was later fixed.
12) Geeta
Geeta, the Pokemon Champion of the Paldea region, was mocked heavily by the community upon the release of Scarlet and Violet due to her terrible team consisting of mid-tier picks and no Pseudo-Legendary. However, her team was fixed in the DLC, making her quite challenging.
11) Trace
Trace, better known by the community as "bargain-bin Blue", is the rival character who replaces Blue in the Let's GO! reimaginings of the Kanto region. While he does possess a Mega Pidgeot, all of his teammates only know three moves instead of the standard four.
10) Wallace
Wallace is the only Pokemon Champion to have all their creatures be the same type. As Wallace only has Water types, players can easily stomp him with as little as a Light Ball Pikachu if they are determined enough. Since he was only the Champion in Pokemon Emerald, players could also just catch the level 70 Rayquaza at Sky Pillar and wipe his team with it.
9) Blue
Blue is a great, well-rounded Pokemon Champion who has only gotten stronger with each of his modern appearances in the franchise. However, when you fight him as the Champion of the Kanto region, he is remarkably weak due to the poor movesets almost every creature had at the time.
8) Nemona
While Nemona was a great character in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, she falls victim, like many modern boss-fight trainers do, to the franchise becoming easier over time. Her team is also incredibly weak to Ground-type attacks, having up to four monsters that can be taken down with an Earthquake if the player chooses Quaxly.
7) Alder
Alder is a very underappreciated Pokemon Champion in the franchise due to challenging him never being required. You do not need to face off against him to be crowned the Champion of the Unova region. He was also replaced for the game's sequel. Nevertheless, Alder sports a very solid team of monsters around level 75, but most are Bug-types.
6) Iris
Iris, originating as a Dragon-type gym leader, carries a lot of Dragon-types into battle, which can be dangerous if the player has a monster with Ice Beam or a Dragon-type of their own. Be that as it may, She does have Aggron, and Dragon-types are consistently better than most Bug-types, so she ends up just barely ahead of Alder.
5) Cynthia
Cynthia is the Pokemon Champion of the Sinnoh region and often the first trainer fans think of when it comes to the best fights in the franchise. While she was definitely challenging for her time, Mega Evolutions not returning to the main series for the Diamond and Pearl remakes greatly bottlenecked her power compared to the other Champions on the list.
4) Leon
Leon was a very disappointing fight for many trainers, mostly due to how much Sword and Shield hypes up his power throughout the story, only for him to be a pushover thanks to the game's overabundance of experience points they gave players. However, his team is made of some excellent picks like Aegislash, Charizard, and Dragapult.
3) Kieran
Kieran is the franchise's most successful rival-to-Champion character, being the Champion of the BB League at Blueberry Academy. This fight was a beautiful response from Game Freak to those who complained that Scarlet and Violet were too easy. Kieran's team even uses hidden abilities like his Incineroar's Intimidate and Politoed's Drizzle.
2) Diantha
Diantha may not be the first Pokemon Champion fans think of when considering the most challenging fights across the games, but she is definitely one of the strongest since she is one of the few who can Mega Evolve their Ace Pokemon. Her team also sports some interesting coverage choices, as well as Goodra, the Pseudo-Legendary of the Kalos region.
1) Steven
Steven is the definitive Hoenn Pokemon Champion in the hearts of many fans. With his team's impressive defense stats and access to stall strategies using Toxic, he could be quite the threat if players came in unprepared, a stark contrast to Wallace. In the remakes, he can also Mega Evolve his Metagross, which was already a Pseudo-Legendary.
