He never was the "model trainer". Instead of catching, he befriends legendaries, he dumps his Pokemon when he moves from region to region, he jumps off cliffs to save his Pokemon when he could just call them back with a pokeball, and in the Univa league which was just last generation, he had the advantage 6 to 5 if I remember correctly when watching it online. He had a Pikachu and was fighting a Samurott but he never used a single electric move