If Lance is the champion in GSCHGSS, why do the Kanto gym leaders have stronger Pokemon than him?

Question

Question says it all.

Answer 1

I think it's because you fight him before the Kanto gym leaders so they made the game more of a challenge to the end. It wouldn't really make sense if the Kanto gyms were really easy to beat because it's not really a part of the Postgame, It's still kind of the main storyline.

I also came up with a different explanation, Maybe he was just training a different team as you fought him for the title of the Johto League Champion? It would make sense for him to train new Dragon types since he is a Dragon trainer; And what kind of Dragon trainer wouldn't switch their team up once in a while? And also in Fire Red / Leaf Green, On the Fame Checker's information of him, It says; "I'm considering going back to my hometown. I want to retrain my Dragon-type Pokémon and strengthen them.I'd like to invite you to my hometown someday." So he does want to Re-Train his Dragon types, Maybe he got new ones along the way when he became the Johto Champion?

I hope this explained it in some way!

Answer 2

You fight him before the Kanto gym leaders and it's a video game so that's how it works.

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure it's just because they are encountered further into the game than he is.

Think of leveling up in RPGs as an artificial method of granting the player some form of progress and setting them goals. realistically you don't level up in real life but games would be boring if you had all your abilities right from the beginning and nothing to work towards so they put in the leveling up mechanic to make it so the game's difficulty can scale while everything in the world you encounter would actually be the same "level" just different skill levels.