Once he confirmed that his opponent was Wallace, Qingyu knew he had to take this match seriously.
Thinking about it, aside from Cynthia, who often hopped on voice chat to play games with him at night, wasn't this his first time being matched against a Champion-level opponent?
As a region's foremost representative, the title of Champion represented the greatest strength that region had to offer.
Even Raihan, known in Galar as the "strongest Gym Leader" and "second only to Leon," wouldn't dare claim to possess a Champion's strength before actually beating Leon.
Wallace was different.
Although his official position was only that of the Hoenn League's Water-type Gym Leader, he was roughly evenly matched with Steven in strength. In one particular timeline-Pokémon Emerald-he had even taken over as Champion.
Even if he wasn't a member of the Elite Four yet, Wallace would still have an answer if someone asked, "What are you Champion of?"
"I'm a three-time world champion in Pokémon Contests!"
"Do the Champions of all nine of your regions combined have as many Master Rank Pokémon Contest trophies as I do?"
Matched against an opponent like this, Qingyu couldn't afford to keep joking around with chat. He quickly found his rhythm and devoted himself fully to the battle.
He was also genuinely curious:
If we're only comparing command skills, just how far am I behind this world's Champions?
Qingyu turned his attention to Wallace's lineup.
Milotic, Gyarados, Seaking, Ludicolo, Tentacruel, and Politoed.
It was a very standard rain team, though ordinarily it should have included some Electric-type attackers and Pokémon that could cover its Grass-type weakness.
Still, it was certainly more sound than Nessa's lineup.
"An entire team of Water-type Pokémon... is that actually good news for my lineup?"
In theory, Garganacl posed an enormous threat to them,