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Therefore, as much of a spectacle as the yearly Pokémon World Championship tournaments may be, the battles that take place in those tournaments are actually hardly relevant when it comes to deciding who is better than who at the game, since the proof of skill comes from the countless battles each of the participants of the tournament had to win in order to make it to the tournament in the first place. In other words, there is almost no difference between the amount of skill shown in becoming a World Champion and the amount of skill shown in making it to the World Championship tournament only to be eliminated in the very first round, since the sample size in the World Championship tournament itself is way too small for luck to be evened out, which means that the battles in the tournament cannot be taken seriously as a show of skill or lack thereof.
Now, while winning enough battles in order to make it to the World Championship tournament in the first place may be impressive… at the end of the day, it is a feat that is roughly comparable to peaking a ladder in any real tier—be it Pure Pokémon, Battle Stadium, Global Showdown, or whatever—since the sample size of battles needed to make it to the World Championship tournament is about the same as the sample size of battles needed to peak a ladder. But even if we were to give the World Champions the benefit of the doubt by assuming that each and every single one of them achieved an absolutely amazing win-loss record on his way to the World Championship tournament… at the end of the day, peaking a ladder with an absolutely amazing win-loss record—even being completely undefeated at times—is something I have done countless times across my competitive Pokémon career.
