"Naw I get it." replied Gary. "Believe it or not, I lost pretty hard in the Kanto League on my first year. So I spent a whole year just trying to find out who I was. Taking on an entire League can be really, really daunting. Most people realistically don't make it on the first, fifth or even seventh go."

He got a faraway look for a brief moment. "Heck, when I heard Ash Ketchum made it as Alola Champion? Didn't believe it till I read the news."