>>51770987Lance vs. Diantha, and Cynthia vs. Iris; Both are nothing more than stepping stones for Leon and Ash to advance the semi-finals. Winners of those two QF (in this case Diantha and Cynthia) got the privilege of losing to higher champs than them. By grand scope of the entire tournament, all of them are set to lose. Yet you could witness the stark difference of reaction and attitude between aftermath of those two matches.
Finally, Alain is nothing more than forced narrative; Ash's indirect redemption arc as an "apology" for what happened to Ash in Kalos. Alain get thrashed mercilessly by Leon to show the absolute difference in powerlevel between them, in hope that Ash winning against Leon in the final indirectly means he also surpassed Alain.
Also, Steven is the luckiest. He get the least amount of shitflinging.
