Your post reminds me of an article on
sonichurricane.com (fighting game blog) that I can't find for the life of me. Allow me to jump into fighter mode here for a bit.
Basically it argued that Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, despite being considered the most balanced game in Capcom's "Vs." series, was also the most boring because there was no crazy broken characters to put it all in perspective. Meanwhile, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (a sequel further down the line) has a definitive top tier that almost play like they're from an entirely different game, but the whole thing ends up being much more fun as a result. You feel like a demigod when you play them, and feel more accomplished when you actually beat them. The hard line between which characters are good, which ones are
really good, and which ones are terrible gives an extra meaning to each victory.
Justin Wong defeating an entire 3-person team with one character at EVO would have been enough to make it a memorable match, but the fact that he did it with Cyclops, a character solidly in the middle, made it an awesome one.
I totally agree, but the way I look at it, all Pokemon should at least have a
chance to shine. Farfetch'd worked perfectly fine within the confines of his debut game - he had craptacular stats, but since he was an in-game trade only, he gained experience faster than anything else on your team to (mostly) make up for it. The problem is that ever since he's just been another run-of-the-mill wild catch with nothing redeeming about him except that he apparently tastes great basted and stuffed with bread crumbs. In other Pokemon media like the anime, manga, and TCG, which aren't limited by parameters like levels and hard stats, all 'mons have the potential to be champs with dedication and sufficient plot armor. I'm not saying they need to do away with any of that stuff, and there should still be different camps of "strong" and "weak" (in fact, I'd encourage that since I tend to flock to the underdogs and frankly a tiny water fowl with a stick should be generally frailer than a hulked-up dragon), but I don't see the need to have some 'mons like Dux be so obviously, unredeemably poopy. Make him able to actually win a fight, but make him work for it.