Widdershins

Just wanted to let any nearby Pokémon fans in on good news. We're finally getting the famous Jerk Rival back in our games!

 I know this, because I am psychic. ...and also because of predictable design trends.

 Take a look here at what is confirmed as the starting area in Galar:

The small, country house has been proven to be ours, but note the nearby landmarks.

 Right across from your house is a notably bigger one. Better roofing, loads more windows, payed groundskeeping, heck, even has a specifically designed battlefield for this realm's premier dogfi-*cough* worldwide sport! Somebody nearby has clearly been a Pokémon Trainer long before you ever knew about it & started in on it only now. And this person wants everyone around to know about it too.

 Check Westward. Like, mere meters from your small cottage... there's a wood so dense & untrackable it doesn't show up any better than any of the numerous caves or tunnels in the region. Pretty odd to have something so dangerous right where you start off, mere minutes into the game. Why, even a local would stay away from some place clearly harboring large fauna! ...yet there's a clear path leading right into it.

Because it's the first place you go in the games. Why? Because an event must happen there. You wouldn't go in of your own accord, since its a forest you know like your backyard. ...unless the posh twit next door things yer a bloody pansy & drags you off there on a competition.... exactly like a rich local snob would. What's he got to fear? He's been training for months now with daddy's money behind him! You're just a noob!

 You probably get rescued by the local professor too after things go awry. Because we've seen their lab surrounded in plantlife, so such a scholar would surely know of the local flora enough to be a reliable presence there.

 Which... by merit of design... puts three major plot characters in the same, brooding, antagonistic area! Sun & Moon started off with an escapee being tackled by the local god... and we're starting off here surrounded by antagony! 

 Things look good for our storyline!