The outcome was decided.
Staring at the glaring red "Defeat" before him, Wallace sat dazed on the sofa, momentarily lost in thought.
When it came to commanding, Qingyu seemed to have completely crushed him...
Against those absurd commands and predictions, even someone who could match Hoenn's Champion blow for blow seemed unable to keep up with Qingyu's pace.
So he really had no excuses for this loss.
Compared to his helplessness against Garganacl last time, he had clearly taken this match much more seriously and tried several times to turn things around.
Unfortunately, even the rain strategy he excelled at was no match for Qingyu.
Wallace sighed inwardly.
"Personally, I think you played very well just now."
Seeing his reaction, Steven promptly reached over and patted Wallace's shoulder, drawing his attention.
"To me, your understanding of rain teams is actually quite similar. You both independently chose Swampert as your core in the Mega format and added tanks and pivots to improve your defensive switching. Those are all excellent ideas."
Was Wallace's studying in Qingyu's livestream paying off, or had his strong comprehension helped him quickly grasp the essentials of rain teams...?
Either way, Steven felt that Wallace had performed far better today than he ever had before.
Even so, beating Qingyu head-on remained rather difficult.
Their Pokémon lineups might have shared certain similarities, both balancing offense and defense without any obvious weaknesses.
But Qingyu's greatest advantage lay in his unique understanding of every type, which allowed him to devise all kinds of outrageous tactics.
Take that Ferrothorn, a veritable god in rain mirror matches. It was clearly Qingyu's answer to a question he had considered beforehand: what would he do if he faced an opponent using the same strategy?
In rain, Grass/Steel-type Ferrothorn no longer had to fear Fire attacks