The Metropolitan Tournament Opens with Special Rules
"Muneyoshi, you're amazing!"
As soon as Saeki Muneyoshi left the court, Duke Watanabe, who had also returned from warming up, gave Muneyoshi a bear hug and a bright smile. ♣☝ 🎀♦
For Duke, Muneyoshi's progress was visible to him, from being a rival to the France genius who had just stepped into the world level in his freshman year.
Now he has truly become a super strong person with strength that is in no way inferior to his.
Every move this prodigy makes brings surprises to him and his boss.
"How about we have a match after Muneyoshi's performance this time?"
"Good."
Muneyoshi's eyes lit up, and he replied succinctly.
"However, we'll have to wait until we beat Greece Team, senior. The rest of the game is up to you!"
"Don't worry Muneyoshi, this victory will belong to us."
Duke took off his jacket, picked up his racket, and walked towards the court.
Japan Team's Singles 2 is about to enter the game.
The outcome of this match is no longer in doubt.
The expedition was long and exhausting.
Under Byōdōin's arrangement, Muneyoshi would play in almost every points match.
As a small part of a long expedition, Muneyoshi's journey took him against opponents including England, Greece, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Denmark.
Although many of the teams that followed were not as strong as England, much less as strong as Greece.
However, through these continuous competitions, Muneyoshi also accumulated competition experience rapidly.
Meanwhile, Muneyoshi also had a friendly sparring match with Duke Watanabe.
Of course, to avoid injury, neither of them used their full strength, and the match was stopped by Byōdōin before it was finished. 💔♤ 🍩♗
Even so, Muneyoshi personally experienced Duke's destructive power and destructive death ray.
Next, Duke will unleash his own Destruction Demon God.
In the final stages of the match, whether or not someone gets injured is truly beyond their control. Byōdōin knew this, which is why he decisively stopped the fight.
Time flew by amidst these competitions, and June arrived.
As the heat of June began to permeate the air, the Tokyo Metropolis Tournament officially commenced.
This year's Tokyo Metropolis Tournament adopted entirely new rules.
Because of the early changes to the rules of world tennis, Mifune Nyudo has enough strength to make adjustments.
The alternating singles and doubles format, which was originally only implemented in the National Tournament in the original work, is now being prepared to be implemented in the prefectural and Metropolitan Tournament.
In addition, Tokyo Metropolis has added a double-elimination format to its tournament today, consisting of a preliminary round and a loser's bracket revival round.
This resulted in a record number of schools participating in the Tokyo Metropolis Metropolitan Tournament; with the support of these special rules, more than one hundred schools participated in this year's tournament.
The first Saturday of June.
Shikinomori Sports Park, Tokyo Metropolis.
Last year, both Fudomine and Seigaku in the Josai district achieved outstanding results.
The organizers moved the venues for the Metropolitan Tournament, which had previously been held at the Nippori Tennis Park and Higashi-Ayase Tennis Park in the east of the city, to the west of the city.
This is also one of the hidden benefits of good school grades.
Today is the day that Fudomine will play his first match in Group C.
Due to rule changes and the increase in the number of schools, this year 'Metropolitan Tournament will likely last a long time, and the Kanto Tournament will start much earlier than last year.
"The annual Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament has finally started! So many new schools have arrived. I really want to capture this tense atmosphere and all the new faces. 💚♝ 🐙💝"
At such important moments, the veteran supporting actor Inoue Mamoru is naturally indispensable, but this year, a beautiful woman named Shiba Saori has joined him.
This was Shiba Saori's first time participating in a competition like the Metropolitan Tournament, and the intense atmosphere around her made her feel a little uncomfortable.
However, as Inoue Mamoru's assistant, she still showed her keen observation skills when she heard her senior say that.
"Please leave this to me, Inoue-senpai!"
Shiba Saori proudly held up her brand-new camera.
"Look, Inoue-senpai, I even bought a new digital camera for today! Just to capture these amazing moments!"
"Oh? Ah Zhi, it seems you're really serious this time."
Inoue Mamoru was also somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Shiba Saori to be so well-prepared. He was quite satisfied with his new assistant.
Although he sometimes seems unreliable and often makes mistakes, his attitude towards learning is commendable.
"Of course, Inoue-senpai, this is the camera with the highest resolution right now, so we can clearly capture Tezuka and Ryoma's faces."
At this point, Shiba Saori became somewhat excited, but after her excitement subsided, she added with a hint of regret, "It's a pity Saeki- kun isn't here, otherwise he would have been one of my subjects."
"..."
Upon hearing Shiba Saori's motives and reasons for buying the camera, Inoue Mamoru was somewhat speechless.
They were legitimate tennis reporters, and out of professional consideration and because of Shiba Saori's advice, he still offered the following words of advice:
"Ah Zhi, you need to get this straight. We're doing tennis reporting, not gossip. Why are you taking pictures of their faces?"
However, Shiba Saori, who was clearly infatuated with Inoue Mamoru, didn't listen to what he was saying.
"Don't worry, Inoue-senpai, it's all fine, it's all the same. But speaking of which, the match is about to start, and Seigaku hasn't even shown up yet?"
Shiba Saori looked left and right but couldn't find any trace of Seigaku, so she asked curiously.
"..."
Inoue Mamoru was speechless once again.
However, he still patiently explained:
"Seigaku were last year's Metropolitan Tournament champions. They had a bye in the first round, so they shouldn't be here yet. These are basic things; a little preparation before an interview will do the trick. How could you forget again?"
Upon hearing this, Shiba Saori blushed, clasped her hands together above her head, and repeatedly apologized to Inoue Mamoru, saying, "I'm sorry, senpai, it was my oversight!"
Inoue Mamoru had no way to deal with this little assistant. He glanced at his watch and said, "The match has started. Let's split up. Azhi, you go to the Hyotei Academy and Yamabuki, I'll go somewhere else!"
After the game started, the crowd gradually dispersed to the various stadiums, and the congestion was relieved.
Before long, the members of Seigaku also arrived at the scene.
Since they had a bye in the first round, they didn't have to compete for the time being, so they started paying attention to other competitions.
The "others" are Hyotei Academy and Fudomine; in Tokyo Metropolis, only these two pose a threat to them.
As the National Tournament champion, Fudomine is undoubtedly the favorite to win this tournament.
However, in the previous preliminary rounds, Seigaku actually defeated Fudomine, and given that they were last year's Metropolitan Tournament champions, they also received a lot of attention.
However, Seigaku had a bye in their first match.
So all the schools that weren't playing came to watch the match at the Fudomine venue, and by the time Inoue Mamoru and Shiba Saori arrived, the place was already packed with people.
"The students from Seigaku are here too."
In the crowd, Mizuki stood with his arms crossed, and beside him was Akazawa Jiro, the minister of St. Rudolph.
"It seems that both Seigaku and Fudomine's top fighters will likely be absent from the earlier matches of this Metropolitan Tournament. This might be our opportunity..."
Mizuki glanced at the blue and white uniformed figures not far away, then looked at the Black Legion on the field, her eyes gleaming.
Through simple data analysis, he was surprised to find that Seigaku and Fudomine were confident in their own strength and focused on training newcomers.
Therefore, he played very boldly in the matches, which gave him an opportunity.
Moreover, he was more concerned about Seigaku Fuji Fudomine, not only because he wanted to compete with the genius Fuji, but also because they would meet in the first four rounds.
He planned to carefully observe Seigaku's matches and then identify Seigaku weaknesses.
"It seems like Fudomine is using mostly newcomers this year?"
"Furthermore, their minister, Saeki Muneyoshi, seems to be absent, and Tachibana Kippei, Keith, and Lin Xiu are also not participating. I heard that Tachibana Kippei didn't even play in the regional qualifiers."
"So what? Fudomine can't possibly lose to you guys. Do you think you're Seigaku?"
Fudomine's first-round opponent was Minami Oguchi, who was very weak, so Tachibana Kippei and Hanamura Aoi fielded a lineup that consisted entirely of training players.
Bang!
"The singles match has ended, with Ishida Tetsu from Fudomine Junior High emerging victorious, with a score of 6-0."
Bang!
"The second singles match has ended, with Kamio Akira from Fudomine Junior High emerging victorious, with a score of 6-0."
Bang!
"The Singles 1 match has ended, with Ibu Shinji from Fudomine Junior High emerging victorious, with a score of 6-0."
The match was very easy; Fudomine easily won the first round of the Metropolitan Tournament with a score of 5-0.
However, none of this concerned Muneyoshi, who was about to head to his next destination.
This is also the last stop of his current qualifying tournament.
France, Paris.