Okay, my progress so far:
My starter pokémon is Charmander, which I named Diesel. After obtaining pokéballs, I proceeded to catch a Pidgey on route 1 which I called Spitfire. Then I caught a Rattata on route 22 which I gave the name Stuart, caught another Pidgey on route 2 called Morgan and a Caterpie which I named Slimeball was obtained in Viridian Forest. Then I started grinding until I had hyper fang and I oneshotted my rival with it. Then I cleaned out the forest, Brock is next.

Edit: Brock is dead, but so is Diesel. Reckless overconfidence.