Okay, Flying-Electric, Bug-Psychic, Steel-Rock, Ice-Fire, and Dragon-Whatever I get, but Normal-Water, Ghost-Grass, and Fighting-Poison? Eh, maybe, but wouldn't Chuck be better matched with Misty, considering his Gym?
...Aside, we don't have a Ghost-Grass (or vice versa) combo yet, do we? Nintendo, fix this.
I think they're supposed to be the order of encounter with the gym leader. -Although Kanto gym leader fighting order is a much more liberal, so that can be contested-
IIRC you first arrive in Kanto by boat in Vermillion City so Lt. Surge would be first and as that's smack dab in the middle you would naturally radiate out into the adjacent towns. This seems accurate enough but I'd have drawn it in the "traditional" order just for clarity's sake.