>>58712405Joey vs Marik worked, because Marik wasn't taking Joey seriously, so he was playing with his food the whole duel, to cause Joey as much suffering as possible, it just backfired on Marik, because it lead to Joey almost beating him
Ash had a lot of plot armor during the Pokemon World Tournament, and he realistically shouldn't have even gotten passed Steven, he barely beat Cynthia, and even with as many things that went his way during the Leon battle (being allowed 3 gimmicks, made into 4 later, Leon's Cinderace who had taken no damage going down in one hit, so they could end the battle on Pikachu vs Charizard without Leon having an extra Pokemon so he'd win by default) Ash still barely defeated Leon, Pikachu passed the fuck out after everything was said and done
