Hammerlocke Stadium.
After Ash and Mustard's match,
it was time for another eagerly awaited draw.
The draw would be held separately for the three groups: 2-0, 1-1, and 0-2.
The 2-0 pool contained
Li Wei, Ash, Blue, and Red.
In the 0-2 group, Iris, Wallace, Professor Kukui, and Raihan were teetering on the brink of elimination.
Anyone could see that Ash owed his place in the 2-0 pool partly to luck...
Wallace, whom he had defeated, had fallen to 0-2.
Mustard was also one of the relatively weaker opponents he could have drawn in the 1-0 group.
In other words, whoever drew Ash in the 2-0 group
would have a ticket straight to the top 8.
The other pairing was guaranteed to be a clash of titans.
As for the 1-1 group, the competition was fierce.
Leon and Cynthia stood out in terms of strength.
As long as they weren't drawn against each other,
they were very likely to advance to 2-1.
After the tense draw...
the matchups were soon announced.
[2-0 leading group] Li Wei vs Ash Red vs Blue [1-1 middle group] Lance vs Cynthia Mustard vs Diantha Steven vs Lorelei Leon vs Roland [0-2 last-chance group] Iris vs Wallace Professor Kukui vs Raihan
Li Wei was lucky enough to draw Ash...
It really was a purely random result.
After all, Li Wei wasn't the one running the Master League.
According to Lance and the others,
they had let an AI generate the pairings randomly.
All they had done was set the rules.
Meanwhile, Red and Blue, last year's champion and runner-up,
had met in this year's top 16 advancement round.
"Just what I wanted."
"Beating Red a little earlier sounds good, too."
Li Wei: "..."
Frankly, Li Wei didn't think his chances were very good.