March 1.
Over the previous two weeks of matches, Li Wei had shown just how dominant he could be.
In his four home matches at the Jubilife Sky Arena,
Li Wei had used twelve different Pokémon in total, winning all four matches 3-0.
His opponents had been Flint, Byron, Chuck, and a Master Division wild-card entrant named Sasuke.
Sasuke was quite famous himself. He had a Cobalion, one of the legendary Swords of Justice from the Unova Region.
Like Li Wei's Lucario, it was a Fighting- and Steel-type Pokémon.
Li Wei had used Lucario to defeat Cobalion head-on.
Despite Cobalion being one of the legendary Swords of Justice, Lucario had proven stronger. Li Wei had not even used Mega Evolution.
This stood in stark contrast to Akin, whose record so far was two wins and two losses.
After winning his opening match, Akin had suffered crushing defeats against his next two challengers.
This had come as no surprise to anyone, as both Trainers who defeated Akin were well-known Gym Leaders.
One was Brawly from the Hoenn Region, Bruno's junior fellow disciple, who had mastered the Softness Secret.
As for Akin's second loss, there had been little he could do about it.
His opponent had been Norman, who had reached the top sixteen in last year's Master League.
Akin's Typhlosion had narrowly lost to Norman's Slaking, leaving him defeated 3-2.
Another formidable competitor had joined the Master League this year: Tobias, a semifinalist at last year's Lily of the Valley Conference.
Although he had only reached the semifinals, Tobias's strength had been clear for all to see.
Since many people were curious whether Tobias or the Elite Four were stronger,
both to make the show more exciting and to give the audience the matches they wanted to see,
Lucian had proposed