The semifinals had finally drawn to a close. The two contestants advancing to the final were Xia You and Dushe, exactly as people had predicted.
After all, in their respective halves of the bracket, both had stood above the other contestants through sheer strength.
Many Pokémon commentators boasted endlessly about their predictions, praising their own accuracy. Little did they know that even ordinary people who rarely watched matches could have guessed from the contestants' performances beforehand that Xia You and Dushe would reach the final.
Now, seeing these experts holding forth on television with such solemn self-importance, those viewers could not help shaking their heads in amusement.
What experts? Weren't they just like the rest of us?
The upcoming final was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. The date had been set long ago, and it would also be the last battle of this Silver Conference.
Whoever won would be the Champion!
For the audience, a day's break would let their anticipation for the final build even further. For the two competing Pokémon Trainers, it also meant more time to prepare specifically for their last opponent.
Xia You, however, was taking things as they came now. He had already thoroughly studied everything worth studying, so he simply stopped wasting brain cells on it. He only had these few Pokémon anyway. As for which ones he would send out, he would leave Dushe to worry about that.
The Pokémon League stepped up its efforts again for the final, with a flood of advertising and publicity driving public discussion to its peak.
But as people went over the two contestants' performances in detail, Dushe's two losses in the first half of his semifinal ended up at the center of controversy.
Some who had watched the matches believed Dushe could never beat Xia