>>18439163except we can't justify Ricardo being there. He fucking steals pokemon, he rides the country side escaping from cops. The league would be quite unlikely to endorse a pokemon thief as champ, and Ricardo's unlikely to settle down long enough to act as champ while still avoiding the police.
The champ will more likely be a Lance/Steven Stone type.
but IMO it makes most sense for the players friend to become champ off screen (having decided to never be weak enough to be taken advantage of in a fight again) so that the first person the player battles ends up being the last person the player battles.
it's like a circle 