>>48557152This team was designed to stop the Kanto Elite Four. Rock and Steel are strong against Ice, Flying and Fairy are strong against Fighting, Normal is immune to Ghost while Snorlax and Lycanroc have moves SE against Ghost, and Ice and Fairy are strong against Dragon while Steel resists it. Lycanroc is also good against Lance’s abundant Flying types.
The Lycanroc is obviously a callback to the Rockruff he used at the start of the game. The starter was the one you and Hop did not pick. Many of his other captures were from Melemele Island, with most of them located right outside of his lab, and a few others are from Ula’Ula (specifically Mount Lanakila, where the league is hosted). Kukui was involved on both islands: MeleMele, his home turf, and Ula’Ula for league construction.
The most likely answer is that the team was deliberately chosen from the start. Starter and Lycanroc were obvious, Alolan Ninetales is a regional form, Snorlax is from KANTO, Magnezome evolves from something from KANTO, and Braviary is there for Unova favoritism (which becomes especially prominent in Gen 8).
