After the opening ceremony ended, the contestants took a short break to rest and adjust, and the tournament soon officially began before the eagerly waiting audience.
Today's matches were elimination rounds, but they would not determine the champion right away. Instead, the 64 contestants would go through round after round of elimination until the final four remained. Tomorrow morning, those four would be whittled down to two, and the Cup Tournament champion would then be decided between those two.
Erika and Brock sat in the spectator stands once again, unable to cheer the others on from nearby. Since they had bought their tickets so late, they could only sit in the seats farthest away.
Just like in the preliminaries, each Pokémon Trainer could use only one Pokémon in the elimination rounds. This forced the Trainers to bring out their strongest Pokémon and perform at their best. Although it would not showcase their full abilities, it would undoubtedly make the tournament move much faster, taking only two days to produce a final result.
Although this was not conducive to tourism, it could not have been better for Xia You and the others, since it would not delay their travels.
Of the three, Ash's match began first. His opponent was a boy even younger than him, holding a fishing rod. For his opening match, Ash sent out his Totodile, while the little boy flicked his rod. As a Poké Ball flew out, a Kingdra appeared on the water.
Since it was not yet their turn to compete, Xia You and Misty sat in the contestants' waiting area, both focusing on Ash's match.
In terms of typing, Totodile was a pure Water-type, while Kingdra was a Dragon- and Water-type. Kingdra's quadruple resistance to water left Totodile's Water-type moves with no real use, while