Preparing for the Competition

The atmosphere at the club training grounds was livelier than usual that Saturday.

Ever since learning about the league yesterday, Yan Yang had been unusually excited. His Pokémon had caught the fever too, training with soaring enthusiasm, each of them practically itching for a fight, their eyes gleaming with the desire to take the field in the upcoming competition.

Yan Yang leaned against the railing at the edge of the field, silently calculating the schedule ahead.

If everything went smoothly, they would face at least four important battles: one for the midterm exam against class monitor Ruan Zhu, and three more in different league events.

He had practically taken it for granted that he would sweep all three events and claim all three rewards.

There was less than a week between these two major events, so the preparation time was still fairly ample.

The key issue now was how to allocate his current eleven Pokémon reasonably.

First, the two "sleepyheads"—Abra and Cosmog, who were always asleep—were immediately ruled out. Their current condition truly made them unsuitable for battle.

Larvitar was still at home undergoing Audino's "reeducation," so there was naturally no counting on him either.

That left only eight members he could actually deploy.

If he specifically wanted Grovyle, who had only recently evolved and was currently the star of the team, to gain more experience, then he had a direction for the allocation.

For the battle against the class monitor, perhaps he did not need to send out his strongest lineup. He could let Grovyle, Lycanroc, and Pyroar take the field.

But... on second thought, Yan Yang could not afford to underestimate his opponent. Ruan Zhu was a Trainer who had participated in the League Conference, after all, and he was highly experienced.

As for exactly how to handle