The next day, two vans pulled up one after the other outside the main entrance of the Tianfu Arena Center.
Old Liu was no longer staying behind at the hotel. He had come with the others to familiarize himself with the stadium's battlefields. They also needed to register the competitors and draw their fields.
"An open-air arena?"
The stadium was circular overall, and from the outside, it looked very much like an open Poké Ball.
Xin Mu examined both sides. The roof did not appear to have any way to close.
"Most large arenas built by the League are like this. They're open-air so weather setters and Flying-type Pokémon aren't restricted by the venue. I've already checked tomorrow's forecast. It'll be sunny all day, which works in our favor."
Once the date of a major tournament was set, it would not be changed unless an unavoidable natural disaster struck.
That made weather another factor affecting the matches. Weather setters could change it briefly, but the overall weather conditions would remain the same.
Just as racing teams used weather forecasts to decide whether to switch to rain tires, a team's data analyst had to monitor the weather before a major Pokémon tournament and adjust the lineup accordingly.
But that was not what they had come to familiarize themselves with. What they needed to get to know was the field beneath their feet.
"I'll go over it again. Tianfu Arena covers roughly twenty-one acres and holds forty thousand spectators. The battle area is divided into four sections, with battlefield environments including grassland, rock, ocean, and the Steel Jungle.
"Each section can switch freely between environments, and they'll be combined into one big battlefield for the finals. As for which environment we'll randomly get when the matches start tomorrow, I have no idea."
Li Han held a tablet containing all the information about the venue.
They had already seen the place on video, but this was their first visit in person.
"Sounds expensive to build."
"Of course. This arena is much more complicated than it looks. What we see is just the surface. To allow the fields to switch, there's a very complex structure underneath, too. Building it took a lot of work."
"Do Academy Cup tickets sell well?"
"They sold out last month. Tickets for the good seats have been marked up like crazy. They even caught a bunch of scalpers a few days ago."
Unlike ordinary sporting events, where a soccer match might have completely empty stands, high-quality Pokémon battles never lacked spectators.
Besides the Trainers who participated in battles, plenty of people were passionate about watching them. Tickets like these generally had no trouble selling. After all, competing here required a certain level of ability.
In addition to hosting various major tournaments and exhibition events, stadiums like this were also used for Gym battles, depending on the challenger's level.
Only challengers who already held seven Badges would have their Gym battles in venues like this. Ticket sales still had to be taken into account.
Two rookies flailing at each other would never make it into a place like this, while Trainers with eight Badges were already considered experienced.
They were strong enough to compete against contestants from across the region at a regional tournament, so challenges for the final Badge were more entertaining to watch.
Explanations like these were mostly for Xin Mu alone. Even if the others were competing for the first time, they knew at least a little about the local situation. Xin Mu was the only complete novice.
Still, that hardly mattered. His Meowscarada was strong enough to make up for it.
There was nothing particularly special about the grassland and rock fields. They were mostly flat, just with some low vegetation or stone pillars added.
The Steel Jungle was clearly an exaggerated name. Xin Mu felt that calling it an Urban Combat Field would have made more sense. Special materials had been used to construct a map like those used in live-action Counter-Strike games. He had no idea what the map's designer had been thinking.
The ocean field, on the other hand, was nothing like the simple pool with a couple of wooden platforms floating on it that Xin Mu had imagined.
This arena in an inland region actually had equipment to simulate waves, which was hardly friendly to Pokémon that were not Water-types.
"Do we have to draw a new field every round in the individual one-on-one matches?"
He could deal with the other fields, but Xin Mu really felt that the ocean field would be a nuisance.
"No. Under the rules, each team has to enter six people in the individual competition, too. With that many competitors, switching fields for every match would drag the tournament out indefinitely.
"Whatever field you draw at the start is where you'll keep battling. The fields will be joined together for the semifinals, and only then will they change.
"But you don't need to worry about that. Before the competition starts, teammates can trade fields. We'll swap yours for the one that suits you best. Surely all six of us won't... mmph, mmph, mmph..."
Before Li Han could finish, two female teammates suddenly rushed over and covered her mouth, refusing to let her get the words out.
"Ahem. You wouldn't know this, but Han has a bit of a jinxed tongue. Her good predictions never come true, but the bad ones always do. Things would get interesting if we really drew six ocean fields."
Nurse Joy explained to Xin Mu why the other teammates had reacted so strongly. At this point, everyone on the school team firmly believed that unless some divine punishment struck, Meownei simply could not lose.
Just then, Coach Jia walked over with a rather grim expression.
"Coach, what's wrong?"
"I saw the kid surnamed Ding. He's still competing this year."
He had just left Li Han and Nurse Joy to familiarize themselves with things here while he went to the registration desk. They were not the only school team visiting to get to know the fields, so Jia Qiong had spotted a familiar face from last year at registration.
Having coached teams through several tournaments, Jia Qiong knew which opponents would be troublesome. The "kid surnamed Ding" he mentioned was last year's individual champion.
"Shouldn't he be graduating from his third year of grad school this year? I heard he got an offer from the Devon Corporation."
"What else could it be? He delayed his graduation. Who knows what terms his school offered him to make him give up an offer he already had and choose to delay graduation two years running."
The Devon Corporation was a company based in the Hoenn Region. It had once been a small business that mined iron ore and refined steel, but it had since grown into a giant.
Machines that generated energy using magma as fuel, fossil restoration projects, all kinds of Poké Balls, and items for Trainers were all part of the Devon Corporation's operations. It could now rival Silph Co., one of the leaders in manufacturing.
"His ace is an Aggron that can undergo Mega Evolution..."
"Don't worry, Coach. You need to have faith in Meownei."
"That's not the only issue. If you faced him directly in a one-on-one battle, you'd definitely be fine. But there are no breaks during the one-on-one format. You have to battle from start to finish. His five teammates are pretty strong, too, and their Pokémon... all know Explosion.
"If their analyst realizes how difficult you are to deal with, and you run into them partway through the competition, they'll wear down your Pokémon's stamina at any cost to give that Aggron a guaranteed path to victory..."
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