After spending a year in this world, Alex understood the difference between the Gyms here, in this world, and the ones in the games very well.
In this world, Gyms are classified by the Alliance in three categories. These categories also determine the highest level of Badge one can get upon successfully passing the Gym challenge.
Unofficial Gyms: These Gyms do not receive any support from the Alliance and cannot give Badges issued by the Alliance.
Official Gyms: These Gyms are supported by the Alliance and can award only B-Badge to the successful challenger.
The Main Gyms: There are only 8 Main Gyms per region, and these are the most important Gyms in a region. Not only do they get massive financial support, but also a great deal of political power in the Alliance. They can award all Badges, B-Badge, A-Badge, and S-Badge, upon the successful challenge.
Badges are also categorized into three ranks to show how much strength the Gym Leader has used in the fight.
B - Badge: A trainer can get this Badge without having to fight the Gym Leader. Often, there is only a fight against a trainee in the Gym who is responsible for rookie trainers. When a trainer challenges the Gym for a B-Badge, the Gym Leader or trainee can use Pokémon only between levels 10-39. But mostly Pokémon with levels, similar to the challenger's Pokémon, are used.
A-Badge: This Badge can only be obtained from a fight against the Gym Leader and usually requires an appointment. These fights are also often broadcasted when a Gym Leader thinks that the battle with the challenger can be interesting & captivating and uses this to increase the popularity of Gym Leaders. In this fight, the Gym Leader will use Pokémon between LV 40 and LV 49.
S-Badge: These Badges are extremely rare, and very few trainers have one or more of these Badges. To get this Gym Badge, you have to win against a Gym Leader who will use his strongest Pokémon. The Gym Leader can choose the format of the fight (1 v/s 1, 2 v/s 2, 3 v/s 3, and so on) and also the arena, which makes the difficulty of this battle—which is already very high—break through the roof.
These three ranks of Badges also have another purpose.
Every year each region holds a tournament which is the most important event in the whole region.
In Kanto, the tournament is called the "Kanto Champion tournament." And as the name suggests, only the strongest trainers are allowed to take part in this tournament.
But in order to participate in this tournament, either one of these conditions must be met.
1: At least 6 B-Badges and 2 A-Badges.
2: At least 3 A-Badge
3: At least 1 S-Badge
In addition, none of the participants must be older than 39 if they want to take part in this tournament.
The 1st requirement for the Badges is, by far, the easiest to meet. But even then, not many trainers are able to fulfil it to qualify for the tournament.
The Kanto Champion tournament is a tournament where ordinary Elite trainers are cannon fodder, and even the trainers who have a Mid-Elite Pokémon are only halfway strong participants.
Because of these high demands, the number of people participates in this tournament per year is much smaller than in the Kanto Rookie tournament.
The top 16 receives generous prizes, so every year, many Elite trainers still take part for a chance to win these prizes or to gain experience.
Tournament winners sometimes get the chance to challenge an Elite Four member to challenge their place.
Alex also had a guess why it is only sometimes and not always. He thought that the Alliance allow trainers to challenge the Elite Four only if they are sure that he or she isn't a spy from Team Rocket or some other underground organization.
Although the Alliance often gave other "official" reasons, Alex believed that was the actual reason.
The Kanto Champion tournament will start in Kanto in 6 months, so Alex had already considered participating there.
He felt that after 6 months, he will probably be strong enough to secure a place in the top 16. Extra money or resources are always appreciated. And even keeping that aside, he can gain a lot of important experience at least.
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Alex knew that a victory is impossible for him. Even with 3 Pokémon at level 50, he is, at most, a top 16 candidate and not a trainer with a chance of winning the tournament.
The last winner was an "old man" with a Champion-level Pokémon and 5 Pokémon on the Late-Elite level. So Alex knew that in this tournament, he needs a strength of at least 6 Late-Elite Pokémon to even reach the final.
This "old man" was only 39 years old. He was called that by all participants because he was the oldest participant.
The age of a trainer is not necessarily equated to strength, but almost every trainer older than 30 is at least not weak, or he would not have survived that long.
Champion-level sounds very impressive, but the Pokémon of the old man only was at level 60 and much weaker than the Champion-level Pokémon of the Elite Four members.
Not to mention, each Elite Four member has at least 3 Champion-level Pokémon and is much younger than the "old man."
Alex had seen the replay of the final on the internet, and he thinks that the old man is not necessarily stronger than a strong Gym Leader.
As far as he knows, Koga and Sabria also have almost 1 Champion-level Pokémon. Plus, they have a lot more Late-Elite Pokémon, with better potential.
Not to speak of Giovanni, who has a similar strength to an Elite Four, at least, according to Alex's assessment.
Alex didn't know the true strength of Giovanni and couldn't find a match online that showcases it. There are fights, but these do not show the full power of Giovanni.
Compared to the Elite Four, Giovanni's strength is much less known, making him much more dangerous to fight
...
Alex switched on the TV and switched to the most famous news channel of Kanto, PokéNews.
Compared to Alex's previous world, there are far fewer channels in the Pokémon world. But that is most likely due to the lesser population and not because of the technical means.
After a few minutes of preface, the program switched to a reporter, standing next to Misty.
The reporter and Misty were both dressed very professionally. Though Alex thought that Misty looked stupid in such clothes.
The female reporter was a beautiful black-haired woman. And her professional suit had somehow increased her charm.
She was obviously taller than Misty. And her wearing high heels made Misty look even more like a child, making it even funnier to Alex.
"Good afternoon, dear viewers. I am standing just in front of the entrance of the Gym arena of Cerulean City, which has received permission from the Alliance to be reopened if Gym Leader Misty wants."
She looked at Misty with a smile and said, "Gym Leader Misty, thank you very much for finding the time for an interview."
Misty looked at the woman and said with a rehearsed smile, "No problem, and welcome to the Cerulean City."
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