In the fifth, sixth and seventh games, Xinhai didn't put much effort into it.
Most of the opponent's Pokémon is at the mid-to-high level of Elite level. Facing Gym level's Blaziken, whether it is speed, power or skill release accuracy, it is a whole level lower.
Blaziken didn't even use his full strength, just relying on basic speed and Fighting type skills were enough to cope.
The chatter in the audience gradually increased, and many people began to pay attention to the young trainer at the third venue in the East District who won every game with an overwhelming advantage.
A few spectators holding Pokédex were looking at the player information on the conference website and discussing something in low voices.
In the eighth game, the opponent is a Pidgeot.
The Pidgeot is not small in size, with a wingspan of over five meters. Its beige feathers glow with a warm luster in the sun, and its flying posture is steady and calm.
Its trainer is a young man in his early twenties, and his command style tends to be conservative and steady. At the beginning, he asked Pidgeot to raise its altitude and used Air Slash to remotely restrain it.
"Blaziken, throw rock."
Hearing this, Blaziken used the Rock Slide skill to form a large rock around him.
It bent down and picked up a fist-sized piece of Rock Smash from the ground. It weighed it, and then pulled back its right arm. A faint layer of Dark type and Rock type energy condensed on the arm, wrapping the piece of Rock Smash in it.
He exerted force on his waist and abdomen and threw his arms forward suddenly. Rock Smash was like a cannonball thrown by a trebuchet, hitting Pidgeot in the air.
The Pidgeot in the air subconsciously dodged sideways, and the piece of Rock Smash flew past its wings.
But Blaziken didn't stop. It continuously picked up gravel from the ground and threw it into the air one after another. Each piece was accurately sealed on Pidgeot's dodge route.
The first block forces it to the right, the second block forces it upward, the third block blocks its retreat, and the fourth block forces it to slow down and turn.
Pidgeot in the air was forced to dodge in all directions by these rocks, its flight path became more and more chaotic, and the rhythm of its wings flapping was also disrupted.
The fifth piece Rock Smash hit the left wing of Pidgeot, knocking the beige wings downward and causing the whole body to tilt in the air.
Blaziken seized this moment, suddenly Splash from the ground, gathered Fighting type energy in his right leg, and Jump Kick kicked Pidgeot in the abdomen.
Pidgeot let out a short cry of pain, and its entire body fell from the air, smashing a cloud of dust on the rock slab. It struggled and flapped its wings twice, but ultimately failed to fly again.
"Pidgeot loses the ability to fight, Blaziken wins, Xinhai Bai Mu of Verdanturf Town advances!"
After leaving the arena, it was already past noon outside, and the sun shone down from the west position overhead, heating the streets.
Xinhai found a bench on the side of the road and sat down. He took out the water bottle from Spatial Backpack and took two sips. He also poured some water into Eevee's small bowl and let him lick it.
He took out Pokédex and turned to the knockout list that had just been refreshed on the official website of the conference.
256 names are densely arranged on the screen, and behind each one is marked the record of the qualifiers and the region it belongs to.
"I have to ask Brawly later to see if there are any worthy opponents." Xinhai put Pokédex into his pocket, stood up and patted the dust on his pants, "Let's go back to Pokémon Center."
After returning to the room, Xinhai let his friends out one by one and let them move freely in the room. He sat at the desk, opened his laptop, and logged in to the player information page of the official website of the conference.
The official website has the basic information of 256 players - age, place of origin, number of Gym Badge, qualifying time, and partially disclosed Pokémon lineup.
Although this information is not comprehensive, it has considerable research value when taken together.
After opening the player strength evaluation page, Xinhai saw that the people most likely to win the championship were listed separately at the top of the page.
There are eight people in total, and the top eight are officially ranked based on their performance in the qualifiers and past records.
Xinhai clicked on the first name and looked at it carefully.
Each of these eight people has more than six Gym level Pokémon, six of them are children of Hoenn's major families, and two are from common people.
The three most promising ones are all children of big families. They participated in Ever Grande Conference last year, but they did not win the championship in the end. They came to this competition again this year.
Xinhai clicked on the name ranked first - Hayato Kiyotaka, born Sootopolis City Kiyotaka Family, there are eight participating Pokémon in the public lineup, all of which are Gym level, seven of which had appearance records in last year's Ever Grande Conference.
The qualifying round was extremely short, and the opponent could hardly cause any effective damage to his Pokémon.
"Kiyotaka Family." Xinhai recited the name of this family silently in his heart and recalled the information about this family.
Kiyotaka Family is a large family of Sootopolis City. It has a very deep foundation in the field of Water-type Pokémon training of Hoenn Region. The trainers in the family have used Water-type Pokémon as the main force for generations, and they have won many rankings in major League competitions.
He clicked on the second person - Akane Hayama, born Mt. Chimney Hayama Family, there are eight Gym level Fire-type Pokémon in the public lineup, and one Gym level is average.
Last year's Ever Grande Conference stopped in the top 16. This year's qualifying performance was more stable than last year, and they played very cleanly in several games.
The third name is Ryo Kaneshiro, from a mixed team of Slateport City Kaneshiro Family, Steel type and Electric type, six Gym level Pokémon. This person reached the top 16 stage in last year's conference.
He scanned the remaining names one by one - some were from the Mossdeep City Psychic-type family, some were from Dewford Town Fighting Dojo background, and there were two trainers who were from civilian backgrounds but performed very well in the qualifying rounds.
Xinhai read everyone's public information, and went through those Pokémon's Type combinations and possible tactical styles in his mind.
He looked at this information and made quick calculations in his mind. With his current lineup of four Gym level and five level 49s, the odds of winning against any of these eight people were not high.
Especially the top three, with six or seven Gym level as the base. This kind of lineup thickness is almost a hard threshold in the six-on-six finals.
Just when he was looking at the screen, Pokédex suddenly shook.
Xinhai picked it up and looked at it. It was a message from Ryosuke Onodera.
"Xinhai, congratulations on advancing to the knockout round."
Xinhai curled up his mouth when he saw this message.
The last time I met Ryosuke Onodera on Sea Emperor, the two of them had a pretty good chat, and even after they got off the boat, they kept in touch.
At the beginning of the conference, the other party also contacted Xinhai, but he and Ryosuke Onodera were competing in different places, so they did not meet during this period.
He clicked on the dialog box and tapped the screen a few times with his finger. "Thanks. You should have been promoted at that time! How was it? Did the battle go well?"