Thought I'd leave this stuff here!
-beams-
A tourament is held for trainers with 3 or less badges, winner gets [insert prize here]. Our characters meet at a lunch for the entered trainers. They hit it off and go to catch more Pokemon together and defeat the final gyms.
So we'd have a mix of battling other pokemon (possibly each other if we face each other in the tourament), traveling, catching than fighting the gyms.
-beams-
A tourament is held for trainers with 3 or less badges, winner gets [insert prize here]. Our characters meet at a lunch for the entered trainers. They hit it off and go to catch more Pokemon together and defeat the final gyms.
So we'd have a mix of battling other pokemon (possibly each other if we face each other in the tourament), traveling, catching than fighting the gyms.