But it doesn't make much sense, is my point. I suppose it's an important part of her development as a character, but for May to have beaten Zoey made Dawn's victory feel more like luck than skill. Zoey was always the better co-ordinator, after all.
I quite liked that Jessie got as far as she did, too. Although I suppose there weren't too many rivals for Dawn (thank god, RS's rivals were awful!) so they needed to fill the spots out for the Grand Festival somehow. Although that never stopped them just adding random people into the league for Ash to lose against...