CH62 (192), Senior League Tournament (3)

Today was the second day of the main Senior League Tournament and the 64 participants that had reached this stage had the honor to conduct their battles on the Indigo Plateau.

Well, the first two rounds of today were still being simultaneously held in eight "side" stadiums to reduce the time it took to go through all battles. However, since the battles were being held on the Indigo Plateau, it was still considered an honor to reach and battle on this stage.

Those that got through both rounds would enter the Top 16 and would get the honor to have their final battle of the day on Indigo Plateau's "main" stadium.

Unlike the medium-sized, 75.000 seats, stadiums with a 14.400 m² field, the main stadium had a 200.000 seats capacity and the field was 30.000 m² in size.

The terrain was a simple grass field with a stream flowing across parts of the field to allow for the usage of water types without being disadvantaged.

There were a few large stone platforms on the stream to allow for passage across the stream and to give the non-water types the option to get close. Still, that was part of all stream fields, so it was not unexpected.

The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals on the third day were going to be held there as well. Yeah, that stuff really got stuck in my mind after the announcer began introducing/bragging about the venue for the third and final round of the day, once the second round was over.

Mom and dad both won their two battles, dad with more ease than mom, but what mattered was that both made it to the Top 16. We were currently eating lunch together. To be honest, we were eating a bit fast since dad had the dubious honor of participating in the first fight at the "main" stadium.

The battle was scheduled for 1:30 p.m and he had to be in the waiting room 15 minutes before that. It was 12:40 p.m right now, which was why we were a bit in a hurry.

Unlike dad, mom's battle was the fourth one, so she had more than enough time to prepare and get psyched up. This round and the quarterfinals tomorrow were going to be 4-vs-4 battles, so the battles were estimated to take longer than before. On another note, there would still only be one swapping chance.

Anyway, back to dad's fight. I thought that dad's fast eating speed could also partly be due to his opponent. Natalia Mirakova, Dad's opponent, had reached this point using/unveiling only two of her Pokemon. A (mid) gold-stage Zangoose and a (high) gold-stage Walrein.

Both her Pokemon being from Hoenn was no coincidence since she seemed to be from there as well. It just seemed like she wanted to participate in Kanto's Senior League Tournament this time around, and she was not alone in that.

4 others in the Top 16 were from different regions as well, with two of them even being from other continents. Still, I was confident that dad would beat Natalia, he had his (low) dark gold-stage Nidoking and three (high) gold-stage Pokemon as his big guns after all. I did not believe Natalia could keep up in that aspect.

As soon as I thought that I went a bit pale at the realization that I had raised a flag before I released a sigh of relief once I remembered that I had not said that out loud. I mean, it only counted as raising a flag and provoking Murphy when one said stuff like that out loud, right? Right?

Amidst such thoughts, we finished lunch and moved toward the stadium. Dad split from us at the entrance, moving towards the waiting room, after a good luck kiss from mom, and a hug from me.

I followed his back with my eyes until he went around a corner, secretly hoping that I did not make his job harder through some metaphysical bulls**t. Mom seemed to have felt my uneasiness somehow since she grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Anyway, we took our seats in the first row, Natalia, and dad were not yet on the field so, the four big screens were showing the crowd/seats instead of the empty field.

It actually looked like nearly all 200k seats were occupied since I could not see any empty seats while the camera kept shifting its focus. The alliance ought to have made a killing selling the tickets. Anyway, I was not sure if a full house was a good thing or not, from the perspective of a participant.

Hell, the way I saw it, standing on that field with the eyes of 200k people on oneself could be considered a challenge in itself. I'm not counting the millions of people watching the battle on the TV since the people were far away.

However, being directly stared at by 200k people was enough to make most individuals nervous, and nervousness led to mistakes. I mean I could feel the excitement, anticipation, and expectation of the crowd here from my seat, so there was no way the target of all that was not feeling it.

I had witnessed many such examples during the preliminaries where people made simple mistakes due to the pressure they felt from the (large) audience.

While most got used to it after a battle or two, if they managed to advance, the jump from 30-40k to 200k was big enough to still cause tension. As I was wondering how I would deal with the pressure of such a huge audience, Natalia, and dad finally showed up.

The commentator began introducing them while they were walking to their designated spots. The focus turned to the referee who went over the rules and directly shifted to the field after he gave the signal to start the battle.

Duke/Crobat appeared on dad's side, while Zangoose appeared on Natalia's side. The picture of both Pokemon appeared briefly under their respective trainer's names on the screen, before moving to the background for the field. The host immediately began giving his two cents on the match-up.

"Oh, the battle started with a surprisingly even match-up. Zangoose are known for their close combat capabilities. They generally don't learn long-range moves, as long as not specifically taught, which could be a problem for attacking Crobat if that is the case here as well.

On the other hand, Zangoose are generally immune to poison due to their rivalry with Seviper, so that closed a few of Crobat's options. Still, Crobat are infamous for their speed and they have no problem fighting close range or long-range, so this will be interesting to watch." The host finished his statement.

Meanwhile, the two Pokemon on the field already used their opening moves. Zangoose performed a Sword Dance to boost its already impressive strength, while Crobat used a Mean Look to prevent Natalia from swapping out her Pokemon.

After that Crobat began using Screech and Supersonic alternately while keeping his distance. This started a game of cat and mouse between the two that went on for nearly 10 minutes, and in that time Crobat reapplied Mean Look once.

Poor Zangoose could only attack using Thunderbolt during that time since that seemed to be the only long-range move it knew. Unfortunately, for it, Crobat managed to dodge all of them except for the first one that managed to catch it by surprise.

Near the 10-minute mark, dad gave a signal and Crobat attacked Zangoose directly. He dodged two of Zangoose's Slashes that would have hit, and tanked a Crush Claw but hit it with a Supersonic in return.

Afterward, Crobat swiftly began sucking it dry with Leech Life, making use of the reduced defense/endurance caused by Screech. He was recovering from the damage he suffered due to the Thunderbolt and Crush Claw.

Natalia tried to have Zangoose get rid of Crobat but in its confused state, it did not succeed before being rendered unable to battle. Natalia returned her beaten Pokemon and quickly called out her second one, but even after she pocketed her ball her second Pokemon could not be seen anywhere on the field.

The host quickly identifies her second Pokemon as Kecleon, which I obviously immediately thought of. The man wondered out loud how my dad was going to deal with his invisible foe.

Crobat just used Haze and covered a large part of the field in a dark fog. The fog revealed Kecleon's position since it displaces the fog every time it moves. Still, since Crobat had to keep up Haze to track Kecleon, none of the two were able to use any parameter enhancing or diminishing moves.

Kecleon still managed to slip from the Haze-covered parts and make use of its invisibility to hit Crobat with Psybeam or Ancient Power. It proved itself to be at the (high) gold stage through its performance. Crobat meanwhile managed to hit it with Air Slashes, Air Cutters, and Venoshocks.

Still, it quickly became obvious that Kecleon had a slight advantage due to it using its invisibility to its advantage. Dad seemed to have reached the same conclusion and reacted accordingly. He gave a signal and Crobat went full-blown kamikaze on Kecleon.

He forwent any thoughts of defending himself and dive-bombed Kecleon with all four of his wings having a metallic shine. Kecleon tried to dodge and force Crobat to abort through Psybeams, but Crobat took it like a champ and managed to land a double Steel Wing on top of Kecleon.

Together with the damage Crobat delivered in the 8-ish minutes the fight had already gone on, he managed to knock out Kecleon. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue as well due to the damage he suffered especially during his last stunt.

They both recalled their knocked-out Pokemon before releasing their next ones. Dad called out Agni/Arcanine, and Natalia actually used her Walrein, prompting dad to recall Agni.

He actually chose to send in Cell/Magnezone. The reason I was slightly surprised despite knowing that Cell had a type advantage, was that at the (mid) gold stage it was slightly weaker than Walrein.

Still, it seemed dad was confident in their chances, showing once more that differences at the same stage were not insurmountable, at least not for the first 4 to 5 stages.

One of the screens showed a close-up of Natalia so we could see that she seemed to be struggling with something, probably wondering if she should swap her Pokemon as well. This told me that she did not have a Pokemon that straight out countered Cell, or at least it was not strong enough to face Cell.

She came to a decision and recalled her Walrein, swapping it with a Toxicroak. That explained why she struggled, Toxicroak's poison was useless against Cell while its fighting moves were really useful.

In the following minutes, Cell tried to keep Toxicroak at a distance using long-range electric and steel moves. Toxicroak dodged what it could while occasionally blocking the electric moves using Mud-Slap. While it got hit by a Flash Cannon and a Discharge it still managed to get close to Cell.

Cell tried its best to get rid of Toxicroak but that one stubbornly stuck close and attacked using Brick Break. It used Revenge whenever it got hit by Cell's moves. Both Pokemon were equal in strength, so the fight turned into a slugfest with moves being traded.

Cell's Gyro Ball turned out to be his most damaging move against Toxicroak, but the damage it was taking was stacking up as well since it just couldn't get rid of Toxicroak.

It seemed like Toxicroak was going to win if the fight went on like this. Both trainers seemingly came to the same conclusion since Natalia could be seen smiling while dad looked resigned.

He gave a command and before anyone could react a big Explosion shook the field. Once the first cloud settled both Pokemon could be seen on the ground knocked out.

This meant Natalia only had her Walrein left, while dad still had Agni and a Pokemon of his choice. Dad decided to play it safe, he first had Agni cause as much damage as he could, before letting Titan/Nidoking finish the job.

With that victory, dad officially advanced to the quarterfinals. We congratulated dad after he joined us and two hours later it was mom's turn to battle. Her battle was an extremely close affair. Still, she won, even if barely, and thus managed to qualify for the quarterfinals as well.

Nonetheless, even after mom joined us at our seats we stayed to watch the rest of the battles as well. One of the four winners would be a finalist whom they would meet in the finals if mom or dad made it that far.

We ate at the hotel restaurant and afterward both mom and dad started to make plans against all their possible opponents on their own.

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