3rd Gen Emerald's Champion, Wallace

In Emerald, you probably thought you'd see Steven again as he was the champion in the originals, Ruby/Sapphire. But it's not him this time! The champion is now someone who's a familiar face in the originals!



Yep! It's him, it's Wallace! He's back, and more fabulous then ever! His team is composed of Water Types, unlike Steven, and he's not just got his original team from R/S. He's got an updated team, and his annoying Milotic is still there! You won't meet him as much as Steven, but he's still a pretty important character in the game, as you meet him in the Cave of Origin first.

So, what's your opinion on Wallace? Are you happy that he replaced Steven in Emerald as the champion? Or would you have preferred Steven to stay as the champion? Did you find his battle difficult, and how would you compare it Steven's battle?

Post below! <3

I thought his character was regal and fitting for a Champion demeanor, as some of his dialogue talked about elegance and beauty, which admittedly while not an intimidating one it's still something.

As for his Water-types, I don't think he's quite as easy as people make him out to be. Part of the reason I say that is because a lot of his Pokémon have relatively high Special Defense stats, especially his Milotic, which has both its weaknesses on that note, making it quite a bit harder than the rest of his team. It was nice that they gave his Champion team a re-appearance in the Delta Episode in ORAS.

I didn't like him much. He had a nice design but I highly preferred Steven and felt that Wallace didn't at all have the champion demeanor to him, plus his team was obnoxiously easy to take out. Only Pokemon I had to "watch out" for was Whiscash since it was immune to electric attacks but even then its 4x grass weakness made it very easy to take out.

Sorry, Wallace. Only thing good about you being champion was that Steven ended up as the final boss with high-leveled Pokemon. Glad they included him. :)

Ugh. Cool character but worst champion ever. How did he get past all the other elite members?!
Lets just put it this way, He was all water, and my strongest or one of the strongest Pokemon was Manectric. You do the math.
I dont understand why they put him as a champion, but oh well, made it easier for me.

I prefer Steven, because of his more varied team, but nevertheless it's team is based on ancient and steel Pokémon, still making them fit together quite well. Other thing, maybe the most important one, is that just before the Elite Four another water expert had to be faced. This gives a high chance one of your best Pokémon is strong against water and can easily face the Champion as well later on.

H.A.N. said:

I prefer Steven, because of his more varied team, but nevertheless it's team is based on ancient and steel Pokémon, still making them fit together quite well. Other thing, maybe the most important one, is that just before the Elite Four another water expert had to be faced. This gives a high chance one of your best Pokémon is strong against water and can easily face the Champion as well later on.

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Oh, I forgot about Steven. Now when I think of it, he might have been just a bit harder to beat.
I mean, having a steel and rock team in the region with 99% water? How does that happen lol.
Anyway, I always had a strong water type Pokemon and probably an electric type as well so he wasnt a big deal either lol.

Nah, I don't really like Wallace, because I think he's more suited for Pokemon Contests than battling and that's partially of his sexy ORAS design.

But I never played R/S so I don't what Steven is like. But he is pretty hot (>.<)




........Gawd, I should really stop judging people by hawtness.

I like Wallace, but only as gym leader. I much preferred Steven to be the champion, it was much more rewarding, somehow. In the manga, they do it well however, having Wallace be the old, "true" champion whom Steven recently just beat. Idk if there's some kind of story like that in the games, maybe the other way around since Wallace/Emerald comes after Steven/RS?

I remember in my first playthrough of Emerald, I was actually surprised by Wallace being the champion in the game. I thought i was going to Sweep through most of the champion's lineup with Blaziken as I did the same back in Ruby, but i was wrong.

Contrary to what most would say, I liked Wallace as the champion in Hoenn for one reason: Hoenn is a very aquatic region and Wallace's type specialty is pretty much a great representation of region "too much water". He represented being Hoenn's champion better than Steven did as far as being a symbol is concerned. As far as the in-game things go, I liked how his lineup did its best to actually fight away certain weaknesses or threats such as his pokemon having ice type moves to obviously take care of Grass and Dragon types, and his Gyarados having the awesome Quake-Dance (earthquake + Dragon dance) set up to defeat electric types. I even remember his Ludicolo being the most annoying member on his team because if left unchecked, it would just spam Double Team and take advantage of its fantastic typing and moves. Wallace is the true monotype challenger and he did succeed in being a good monotype trainer.

Him being easier than Steven? Well i couldn't argue with that seeing that I've swept Wallace with my Agility Sceptile in a past playthrough, but as I said before, his lineup in Emerald is still quite competent enough to fight off their weaknesses and checks so i did get caught off-guard but not necessarily lose in my first playthrough.

I prefer Steven as the champion, to be honest. As someone else said, Wallace makes for a better gym leader, in my opinion. I do like his character a lot, but not as the champion. Plus, a Steel type champion is just epic.

I dunno...Wallace was VERY easy for me...

Since in my opinion Steven was a bit harder than Wallace, I'd rather have Wallace as the Champion and Steven as an extra boss kinda like Red in G/S/C/HG/SS.

I love Wallace, because he's fabulous. Although he was much better as a Gym Leader given how many have slammed his difficulty as Champion, although having that cape does show off his fabulousness more. And of course he uses my fave type as well.

He wasn't too difficult for me. The only thing I remember that really got me was his Ludicolo spamming Double Team. Then again I was only using my starter in that game, so if I could beat him with only a Swampert he probably wasn't that tough anyway.

Wallace isn't a complete pushover; however, I do consider him easier to deal with than Steven. Water types are simply too easy to counter. Steven's Metagross alone could potentially sweep Wallace (slight exaggeration).

So I definitely prefer Steven. Wallace is gym leader material.

I'm not a fan of Wallace as the Champion, though they could have very easily made him an elite four member in a way which would have made the update really neat.

Steven and Wallace are established as friends in Ruby/Sapphire, so Wallace could have used his connections to become an additional Elite 4 member in the form of Glacia's Double Battle partner. It's a winning situation in every regard!

Steven remains champion.
A new character is introduced as the new Sootopolis Gym Leader
A bit of variety is added to the elite 4 with a double battle
Glacia and Wallace's teams can be cleaned up a bit to reduce duplicates (Wallace has Milotic, Whiscash, and Seaking, Glacia has Walrein, Glalie and a new extra water type with Ice moves such as Starmie)
Since someone is replacing Wallace, they could have added a much needed Grass type gym with Pokemon like Breloom, Tropius, Roselia, Shiftry, and Ludicolo. They could emphasis the gimmick of the leader covering weaknesses with all dual type Pokemon.

Instead they made Wallace the Champion and not only missed out on all these great opportunities, but got rid of Steven who was an awesome champion. All in all, it was a very poor choice the way they handled it.

Steven's team had more variety, so I think he was the better champion who would've been more challenging. Wallace had the grace and poise of it, I think, but his team was seriously lacking. He was more fitting as a gym leader in Sootopolis, I think, or even just a regular E4 member.

He shouldn't have shown the Cave of Origin before the Elite Four. Outraged the whole goddamn team. Somehow Emerald is still my favourite. Steven was the best for me, I would have liked to see him with his team as the Elite Four Champion, maybe updated levels such as Aggron (his main) sparking the level of about 80? Still Arcanine would take him out, but I think that his team was never really used to it's full potential. A better moveset for all the Pokémon would have been much better too, since that his team couldn't really rely on physical attack, rather using Will-O-Wisp and Toxic to put a status effect on your Pokémon to kill them overtime. It was just too easy, I think if Wallace was the last GYM leader it would have made more sense, because he had the Wailord (I think it was him, my memory is a bit sketchy) which took a bit too long to kill. I guess he was okay, but there was no need to remove Steven entirely out of the equation (no, not entirely, you still saw him at the Battle Frontier and he gives you a Beldum) in battle-terms. The new gym leader was unnessecary, maybe if Wallace played more of a part in the game before just becoming the Elite Four Champion then it could have been accepted as a decent storyline and the logic would be that you get to know him, have a couple battles and then finally fight him at the last gym. I think Steven was more deserving of the place, not as a mere archaeologist or whatever he played.

Nope nope nope nope
Sorry but steven is definately a favorite he had a great team and was challenging!
Wallace was a gym leader already and a contest champion in my opinion he should have stayed there he was kinda a pushover as a champion easily beaten by grass and electric types.
But in all seriousness although it was nice to see steven as a final obstacle he should have stayed champion and let Wallace either stay the gym leader or go to contests he just doesnt have the right attitude for it.

I like Wallace, but I love Steven!

As Dedenne said, Steven provided more challenge than Wallace.

Plus Steven looks dreamy too. lol