Ash Ketchum won the Alola Pokémon League, becoming the anime's first regional league champion. The victory occurs in the Sun & Moon series, whose story is set in the Alola region.
Ash defeats Gladion in the championship match shown in the episode “Birth! The Alola Champion!!” The Japanese broadcast aired in 2019. Although Ash had competed in several earlier leagues, he had not won a regional Pokémon League tournament before Alola.
The achievement is often confused with Ash's later World Coronation Series victory, which made him world champion in the Pokémon Journeys storyline. Alola was specifically his first regional league title, not the final global ranking.
Alola's league differs from older regions because it is newly established during the series. Ash's classmates, island trials and the region's guardian Pokémon form the broader setting around the tournament.