The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, a huge crowd rushed toward Spring Lake again. Among them were the 68 people about to battle, the other contestants who had failed at fishing yesterday and lost their eligibility, and plenty of spectators eager to watch. Standing on the stage, Nurse Joy looked down at a dense sea of bobbing heads.
"Everyone, did you sleep well last night?!" Nurse Joy's brief yet exuberant opening marked the start of the contest's Second Stage. "Today is the Second Stage of Mountain Spring Town's Water-type Pokémon Catching Contest-battling! The matches will be one-on-one, and you must use one of the three Pokémon you caught yesterday. As for our battlefields, please look around the stage..."
As Nurse Joy spoke, machinery whirred to life. Battle Platforms rose from the water in eight directions around the stage, forming eight Water Fields in moments.
"There they are! The Water Fields specially prepared for this contest!" Nurse Joy announced loudly. "Today, we'll battle straight through on these Water Fields to decide our champion!"
"That's harsh. Just one day? They must be trying to stop contestants from focusing all their training on just one of their three Pokémon!" Liu Qing said, pursing his lips.
"The referees for all eight Water Fields are in position. Now, the computer will randomly assign matchups for our 68 contestants!" At Nurse Joy's words, the contestants' 68 photographs flipped over on the stage's big screen, shuffled, and rearranged themselves into eight groups. Nurse Joy continued, "Eight fields, eight groups! Fields seven and eight will each have nine matchups, while the others will each have eight, but the rules are the same for everyone! The winner of the first match on each field will face the winner of the second, and the battles will continue