Johto's new Champion League, absent for many years.
As promotion intensified, not only Johto but also neighboring Kanto and Trainers from several nearby regions learned about it and began discussing it online.
In this world without walls, as long as there was an internet connection, you could learn about anything happening in any region.
Of course, to post on Trainer Forums and similar places in different regions, you needed to register an account, and first register your personal information at the local Association branch's service desk.
For certain anonymous "personal" websites, though, that was unnecessary.
The day before it officially began.
The Johto Pokémon Association released the list of participants.
The moment it was announced.
It immediately caused an uproar.
Because Heiduo's name was not on the list.
It was like an Olympic table tennis competition without Zhang Jike or Ma Long.
People could not help wondering whether there was some sort of hidden agenda behind it.
The discussions online grew increasingly heated.
There was every kind of speculation.
Some people even went to leave comments under Heiduo's forum account. Good comments, bad comments, and downright baffling comments were everywhere.
But Umbreon managed that account. Heiduo hardly ever used it himself.
Umbreon could not be bothered with those comments either. Not one or two of those people had ever been beaten down by reality.
The day Heiduo got a Porygon or Rotom, they would be in for it.
He would show them what it meant to trace the internet cable and come over to beat someone up.
Half an hour after the heated discussion began.
The Association released another announcement, confirming that Heiduo himself had chosen not to participate and that the alarmist claims and conspiracy theories online were complete nonsense.
Seeing this, Umbreon also started a thread on the