Board 8 > Fighting the gym leaders out of order in Gen I

(+) Yeah! (+)

Also worth noting is that in Kanto, the only three leaders Ash beat in a legitimate, League-rules Pokemon battle were Surge, Koga, and Blaine.

In Johto, he managed to beat 6 out of 8 leaders conventionally, using bullshit against Whitney, and Pryce forfeited a deadlocked match, determining that Ash had more than proven he was a capable trainer.

ctesjbuvf posted...

I think you're right. Even without trading, you can get HM01 Cut without and leave again without beating Surge, so you just need to beat the Rock Tunnel without using Flash.

People still use flash for rock tunnel?

You also don't need Surge's badge to use Flash, that was Brock

Underleveled posted...

Also worth noting is that in Kanto, the only three leaders Ash beat in a legitimate, League-rules Pokemon battle were Surge, Koga, and Blaine.

There's a fan theory that the reason why Ash's Charizard didn't listen to him was because Ash never legitimately won a Kanto badge which increase the level Pokemon listen to you (Charmander was owned by a different trainer).

This was more of a coincidence, but still fun to think about

I always did sabrina 7th cause psychic types and I always chose squirtle as a kid which made Blaine easy

I always fought Sabrina after Blaine since she was so hard.