The outcome was decided.
Under the eyes of the million viewers in Qingyu's livestream, the special lettering symbolizing victory soon appeared.
Then the victory results screen popped up.
Because of work, Cynthia hadn't had much time to play since the Mega update, so her points weren't particularly high compared with her third-place finish last season.
Still, she sat in the middle of Master Ball Rank, a considerable distance above Qingyu's previous Great Ball standing.
Precisely because of that, this victory against a higher-ranked opponent sent his points climbing, and his ranking began scrolling upward from 105th.
Until...
The leading 1 gradually disappeared, and the number finally settled on 91st.
Once the scrolling numbers stopped, another eye-catching pop-up appeared on countless viewers' screens.
This time, however, it showed the familiar Master Ball, with Qingyu's ladder ranking beneath it.
That also meant-
Despite his lazy approach of playing almost exclusively during his one-hour weekly streams, Qingyu had steadily climbed into Master Ball Rank on the strength of his exceptionally high win rate!
At the sight, plenty of viewers sucked in a breath, making their own small contribution to global warming.
[Hiss-Teacher Yu actually made Master Ball? My youth is back!]
[As a fan of ten years, I'm tearing up. Today's the day!]
[Since you've already reached Master Ball Rank, a little more effort should get you into the Masters Eight, right? You don't get to rest yet, Teacher Yu~ (no mercy)]
The chat remained packed, and viewers sent gifts one after another, until the sheer downpour of gifts even made the stream lag a little.
Among them were quite a few Gym Leaders from other regions, who also cheered Qingyu on for his successful promotion.
Staring at the Master Ball icon on his screen, Qingyu soon fell into thought.
It wasn't about