The strong division's knockout rounds began the very next day after the youth division finals. The arenas had been reinforced earlier, and their quality was fairly decent.
Besides, the arenas had been used in rotation throughout the past few days of competition, limiting the damage to each one. As such, there was no day off specifically for arena repairs as there had been before.
Under the tournament organizers' arrangements, the 128 contestants were distributed more or less evenly across eight groups according to their strength, with several seeded contestants in each group.
This essentially ensured that those who reached the finals would be the strongest competitors.
Before the strong division's main tournament began, Charlotte Linlin volunteered Katakuri for the opening match, hoping to give the main tournament a good start with an exciting fight.
For one thing, no one from Charlotte Linlin's Totto Land had competed in the earlier matches, and she was eager to show the outside world Totto Land's strength.
For another, Charlotte Linlin and Katakuri had already spent quite some time on Oran Island.
Having Katakuri finish his match earlier would let him return to the South Blue to oversee things as soon as possible.
Charlotte Linlin's Totto Land did not have the Oran Empire's comprehensive talent system. Much of its work could not do without Katakuri for long, or its operations would run into problems.
With Lind's connections on the tournament side, Katakuri could take a long break after this match, giving him enough time to properly arrange matters in the South Blue.
Under the previous tournament format, Lind might have had reservations and arranged a sacrificial opponent.
Now, however, Lind did not mind finding someone to give Katakuri a proper fight and get a sense of his strength. They would have to fight eventually anyway,