Iris's battling style was as wild as ever.
From start to finish, she did nothing but attack, pressing her opponent's Pokémon so hard they could barely catch their breath.
Judging by the result, her "strategy" worked perfectly.
Her opponent's Pokémon managed a few moves at the start, then took hit after hit until they were Unable to Battle.
It almost looked as though her opponent had frozen in place.
In reality, her opponent had called out who knew how many commands. The Pokémon simply never got a chance to fight back.
"No wonder she made a beeline for the Champion's seat after her run through Unova."
Baimu had to admire Iris's strength. Not only had her Fraxure evolved into Haxorus, but the Gabite that had evolved right in front of him had since become a Garchomp...
Did he know a few too many trainers with Garchomp?
Ursula, Wally, and now Iris.
This was Hoenn. If anything, there should have been Metagross everywhere.
Iris's Garchomp was probably different from Wally's, though. He looked forward to the day those two faced off for real.
"Iris wins!"
The referee announced the result at the top of his lungs.
The one unabashed show-off on Iris's team, Emolga, gleefully blew kisses at the stands, drawing laughter from the crowd.
The first round of the main tournament's Double Battles had eliminated another 128 competitors.
The atmosphere at the Ever Grande Conference grew more feverish by the day. Spectators discussing the matches could be found everywhere, and Hoenn's battle forums were flooded with discussion threads and match breakdowns.
Baimu was the most famous competitor, so his match received the most analysis.
Many people judged that Xing Bingwei had lost the very second Trick Room went up.
Others couldn't accept that.
One argued that Pokémon battles shouldn't be