As one of the undisputed pinnacles of the League's tournament circuit, the World Type Expert Tournament had always attracted enormous attention.
This year's Dark-type event, in particular, had been hailed by countless media outlets and spectators as the last grand celebration before the tumultuous League Year 225 drew to a close.
When the dust settled on the first day of competition and the semifinalists were announced, news of the tournament practically monopolized the trending lists on every major social platform.
Several explosive headlines sat high on those lists.
[Breaking! Xia Chi shatters a fifty-three-year-old record! An astonishing one-against-six sweep returns to top-level competition!]
[Dark-type Specialist Tournament semifinalists announced: Xia Chi VS Nanu, Grimsley VS Karen!]
[Dark-type Specialist Tournament champion already decided? Nanu calmly declares in post-match interview: "This old man... is going to win!"]
[Donghuang Region's first world-level title of Year 225 within reach! Data models reveal the biggest favorite is actually him...]
[Some Galar Region viewers jointly report Xia Chi for competing without a Dark-type Pokémon, sparking widespread debate...]
Without question, almost every one of those trending headlines revolved around the name that was now riding an unstoppable wave of fame: Xia Chi!
Granted, before the match, almost every analysis had predicted Xia Chi would win, and win by a substantial margin.
But when the brutal words "one-against-six sweep" appeared before everyone, coupled with the fact that he had used "a recently evolved Dragonite"...
The impact still swept across the world like a tsunami, completely redefining what people thought a genius could achieve.
Yet amid the overwhelming chorus of stunned silence and reverent praise, a few faint but grating voices remained-
Their complaint was that Dragonite, the Pokémon Xia Chi had led with to accomplish his one-against-six sweep in the Dark-type Specialist Tournament, was not a Dark type.
Those