The celebration lasted a full three hours. During that time, Sato's Pokémon even sought out Eichi's Pokémon for challenges.
Although they lost in the end, the main purpose had been to build camaraderie.
In the end, everyone left separately, thoroughly satisfied.
The next morning, Eichi and the other four sat in the spectator stands of Area C.
Since the selection matches in Area B had ended, the spectators had poured into the other areas.
Area C had also entered its finals, with both contestants being prominent figures from past years.
Tetsu introduced them from beside him. "The ones battling now are senior student Hong Zi and senior student Xiu Yi."
"Senior student Hong Zi graduated five years ago and placed 5th Place in her class."
"Senior student Xiu Yi graduated four years ago and placed 3rd Place in his class."
"Their strengths are evenly matched, without much of a gap between them. This will be an intense and thrilling battle."
Eichi nodded and began watching the battle. Both sides' Pokémon were at Elite Four level.
Even in the later stages of the battle, neither of their ace Pokémon broke through to Champion level.
Based on that, Eichi made an estimate: the Trainers participating in this qualification selection probably had only one or two Champion-level Pokémon.
From this, he concluded that he was probably the strongest contestant in this selection.
The next day, Eichi, Sato, and the others watched the finals in several other areas and found that it was indeed as he had predicted.
Most of them were around Saito's level, or even weaker than him.
There was only one exception: Namo. He had a Champion-level Gyarados and was exceptionally strong.
It was not just Gyarados—his other Pokémon were also at very high levels.
If Eichi faced him, it probably