Facing Espeon, Xia You did not switch Pokémon, instead keeping Lucario in battle.
In this battle against a fast Psychic-type Pokémon, Lucario continued its dominant performance under Xia You's command. Relying mainly on the Steel-type move Metal Claw, supplemented by Extreme Speed and Feint, it repeatedly baited Espeon into attacking, then spotted openings and used its tremendous speed to weave around Espeon in close combat, exploiting those openings to defeat it easily in the end.
After Espeon, Virgil sent out Umbreon, followed by Vaporeon, which had recovered most of its strength after resting.
Against this succession of opponents, Xia You continued fielding Lucario, whose performance only grew more impressive. Under his command, these two Pokémon of Virgil's followed in the footsteps of the Eevee evolutions before them and were defeated as well.
Only when everything was settled and the referee signaled Xia You's victory did the Pokémon Trainers watching around them recover from their shock.
They let out cries of surprise, all looking at Xia You in disbelief.
Before this, Virgil had proven his strength with over a dozen consecutive victories. No one dared underestimate this Pokémon Trainer with six Eevee evolutions, yet now someone had utterly crushed him, leaving them incredulous at Xia You's strength.
As for Xia You, he had also gotten a measure of this soon-to-be Champion's ability.
He could only call it so-so.
Virgil was stronger than ordinary Pokémon Trainers, and his Eevee evolutions of various types gave him plenty of type variety. Yet having a team made up entirely of Eevee evolutions also limited his growth.
Eevee evolutions could help him win a conference championship and make him stronger than other Pokémon Trainers, but they could not take him any further.
Even with their different types, relying on a single species still came with many