I enjoyed the 3 episode arc for this battle. It didn't seemed rushed or too long. It seemed to be a good balance for the battle as well as making it more exciting as we had to wait through the month for the final part of the battle.
Great battle. Easily better than the lackluster Ash Vs. Gary fight back in the Johto league.
It seemed like Paul left at the end of the episode. There goes the best rival of the show, and he put Gary to shame. I didn't actually realize what a horrible rival Gary was until Paul was introduced. Gary almost looks like a joke now.
Most of the characters from the Kanto/Johto era were handled horribly in the series though, so I can't blame the writers too much for how poorly handled Gary was compared to Paul. They've only gotten better with time, and have learned from the poor treatment of Gary/Misty/Brock/Tracey in the anime.