Ash, Tyson, and Morrison all successfully won their preliminary battles and were now able to participate in the official competition, the real Hoenn Region Ever Grande Conference!
As the last torch runner, it was Ash who climbed onto the torch platform and lit the torch with the flames from a Moltres.
The Hoenn Region Ever Grande Conference officially began!
——
The next morning, in one of the Pokémon Centers dedicated to the competition, Nurse Joy got ready and said, "Now I want to announce to you all the categories and list for this year's Ever Grande Conference's first few rounds!"
As soon as her words fell, all the Pokémon Trainers in the room focused their attention on her, eager to know who their opponent would be in the first round of the tournament and what kind of match it would be.
As Macy said during the group's visit to the Johto Regions Silver Conference, the battle actually starts the moment you know who your opponent is.
"There are 256 of you Pokémon Trainers that will be participating in this round of the tournament. The 32 Pokémon Trainers who manage to win their battles in this stage will get the right to participate in the final tournament!" Nurse Joy announced the rules of the preliminary tournament, which actually surprised Ash a little.
What a cruel competition it will be to select 32 winners from the wave of battles from the current 256 people; Ash liked it this way. Only the strongest being eligible to participate in the battles at the main stadium.
Just like how all things should be, balanced.
"Additionally, as you may have guessed, this stage of the tournament adopts a three-round battle mode, and all of which will be doubles matches!" Since this was something the Hoenn League came up with, it's only natural they will be using it to test the Pokémon Trainers metals.
This is also the only region currently where it is mandatory to have doubles matches; everything said here was included in the official rules for this year's tournament.
Not only that, the early stage of the tournament is also conducted in the form of doubles.
In this way, there will be 14 battles between the four Pokémon on the field. The visibility of the game alone will be much higher than any Ash experienced before, so he was looking forward to it.
"Wow, so they have to have three battles that will all be double battles like those Wolfe videos… I wonder how this will impact those who are just used to the singles format…" Max muttered, letting his inner competitive mind come into play, realizing the hardship and the pressure of this preliminary tournament.
"If it was just that alone, it wouldn't be that bad, but now there is something else to keep in mind, something important." Brock obviously sees it more clearly than Max, "Unlike the previous years one, where you still had a lifeline left in this stage, now once you lose any battles, you are out without a chance to move up."
Although this format seemed very harsh to get in, it was ultimately very simple, only the elites should be allowed to show their capabilities to the world.
The first 256 Pokémon Trainers will battle, then the losers of those said battles will be eliminated, reducing the initial 256 Pokémon Trainers into 128 Pokémon Trainers. Then those 128 Pokémon Trainers will become 64 Pokémon Trainers, and after the third match, there will only be the last 32 Pokémon Trainers left.
Those who have won three consecutive battles, meaning the strongest.
Survival of the fittest.
The harshness of this year for such an early round was unusually high. If one wants to successfully enter the final tournament, they will have to go on a complete winning streak, without a single loss. Before, they could afford a loss or two, but not this year.
Not to mention how to reasonably arrange the order of the Pokémon in your hands to have good synergy is also a major challenge for these mostly inexperienced Pokemon Trainers when it comes down to double battles.
——
"I'm getting more and more excited!" Morrison suddenly jumped up with great fighting spirit from his seat. Ash doubted he even knew what double battles were, and if he also figured the fact of needing synergy when you can't overwhelm your opponents with pure power.
But to Morrisom, Ash, and pretty much everyone else, it was actually very simple, all they had to do was win all the way, just like they hoped it to be.
"Well, everyone, listen up closely! Now I'm about to announce the different matches and locations!" Nurse Joy's words brought all the Trainer's attention to the big announcement screen over her head.
256 Trainer's faces all popped up simultaneously, Ash was assigned to an afternoon match at Stadium C, and Morrison next to the group was assigned to a morning match at Stadium E, so his battle was about to start very soon.
As usual, since Morrison was their friend, the group got ready soon and headed towards Stadium E to watch Morrison's battle.
Just like in the preliminary match, Morrison, who relied on his strength and only knew how to attack without having a single plan in mind, suddenly fell into a tough situation.
His opponent sent out a combination of a Machamp and a Marowak, and both Pokémon were of decent levels when being compared to the most of the other Trainers that made it to the Top 256, but Morrison, who despite going second, still chose to send out his unevolved Growlithe and Gligar to the stage after seeing the opponents Pokémon's types.
Regardless of level or tactics used by the individual Pokémon Trainers, Morrison without a doubt was severely suppressed.
Unexpectedly, despite being at a disadvantage in level and in typing's, Morrison's two Pokémon were able to withstand many attacks and not fall down, they activated their Plot Armor.
On the contrary, Gligar relied on some of its Flying-type attacks to harass and ultimately come out on top of Machamp, who was quite literally all brawns and no brains.
However, Growlithe wasn't fully used to this and was ultimately out of the battle after a solid hit from the opponent Marowaks Headbutt. The field then turned into an one-on-one matchup between Gligar and Marowak, two Ground-type Pokémon's, for the chance to go to the next round of the Ever Grande Conference.
It was obvious that Gligar had already been very injured and was now even more tired, but it still did not hesitate to rush over the Bone Club of Marowak under Morrison's order. Withstanding the attack, it sent Marowak flying with its last Iron Tail, with everything he had left in him.
Finally, Marowak also lost his fighting power, and Morrison won the victory after a hard fight and moved to the next round.
It was obvious that Morrison won mostly because of his bond with Pokémon, not because they were stronger or because they were smarter. In order to help their Trainer achieve his goal, Gligar and Growlithe withstood many attacks that they should not have been able to and still not fall down. In the end, they were able to go through with his orders without any hesitations, because they knew they thought he knew what to do.
This victory was a very hard-won one, but it just further made many people understand the importance of the bond between a Trainer and their Pokémon.
The current version of Morrison was simply too much like the past Ash, having no plans on what to do once the first and only plan, fight with everything you got, didn't go well. He might have the passion that is unmatched by anyone, but the final victory is often the efforts of his Pokémon and has little to do with him other than some unorthodox tactics here and there.
———
Next up was Ash's long awaited match.
"The next battle at Stadium C is between the famous Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town and Dominick from Inua Town!"
Ash had no idea what Inua Town was or where it even was in the Hoenn Region map. He was very sure that the name of the town was not one of the ones that was close to the route he used during his Hoenn trip, so there must have been nothing noteworthy about it.
Ash finally stopped whatever he was thinking about this town and began thinking about the Pokémon he was going to use for this battle, which had already been decided and registered before he met his opponent, "Stand by for battle, Lairon, Phanpy!"
Yep, that's right, Ash sent out his Lairon and Phanpy, who have been training together for a while now, to the field. The two of them have a very good understanding of each other and Ash also knew that the duo can produce something powerful from the very beginning of the battle, like getting control over the field.
Lairon burst out of his Poké Ball and landed on the ground hard, causing the ground it landed on to sink deeply.
Tyson, who had been paying attention to Ash's battles and his known Pokémon's, was shocked to see the Lairon doing all that from just a little landing, "How can a Lairon be so heavy?!"
"Well that's because of its Hidden Ability!" Seeing Tyson's expression of doubt and confusion, Gary explained as the group's resident Pokémon Professor in training, "Ash's Lairon has its rare Hidden Ability, Heavy Metal, which is said to double its weight. Just by looking at it from here, I can already imagine that its weight is over 300 kilograms, more than twice its regular counterparts."
Gary really was talking more and more like someone in the Pokémon research field.
"More than 300 kilograms?" Morrison suddenly exclaimed, "That's like a little less than two of me!"
Seeing Ash sending out these two Pokémon, his opponent, Dominick, on the opposite side looked a little happy but also a little disappointed, but still threw out two Poké Balls, "It's up to you, Tropius, Swalot!"
No wonder he looked so disappointed, Lairon, who has the Steel-type as his primary type, is immune to the Poison-type attacks and status, and Phanpy, as a pure Ground-type, can deal huge amounts of damage to the land-stuck Swalot.
At least his Tropius is going to have a better day, right?
"Let the battle begin!"
As soon as the referee announced the beginning of the battle, Dominick took the lead and ordered, "Tropius, you know what to do! Fly up!"
Tropius is a Pokémon with dual types, Grass-type and Flying-type. Unless provoked, it has a very gentle personality. The fruits that grow around its neck are all said to be very delicious.
However, when it comes to fighting, its movements are very nimble, but not the best unless it's the GOAT, RoyalPear.
The two pairs of banana leaf-shaped wings behind it spread out and it flew into the air with a few flaps.
Obviously Dominick here wants to take advantage of his Flying-type to harass and chip away at his opponents Pokémon's health, but this trick has long been ineffective against someone of Ash's level, or anyone with a calm head.
"Rock Slide!"
However, just when Dominick was thinking of what attack he should go with first, Lairon looked up to the sky and roared, and large pieces of rocks fell from the sky, instantly knocking Tropius down in one fell swoop.
After all, while Tropius' Flying-type does give it a massive advantage against the overall bulky Pokémon that Ash decided to use for this battle, Lairon was a dual Rock-type Pokémon, and his Rock-type attacks were particularly effective against Tropius' part Flying-type.
"How could it be?!" Dominick suddenly began to get overwhelmed by nervousness, unable to think straight.
He knew Ash was a favorite to win the championship and someone who commanded Legendary Pokémon and the previous Champion of the Johto Region Silver Conference, but he thought he had a chance when he saw the Pokémon's Ash sent.
Now his dreams were all falling down on him, like his Tropius.
However, Ash's attack combo was far from over, "Rollout! Metal Sound!"
By the time Tropius fell down, Swalot was hit by Phanpy's Rollout attack, and it just happened it got pushed back to where its partner Tropius crash landed, who had been a little too motionless. Just when it thought they were ready to attack again, Lairon's heavy steel armor began to shine and vibrate, making an extremely harsh metallic sound come out from it.
The harsh screeching sound not only completely suppressed and irritated Swalot and Tropius, but even the audience, protected by high tech barriers, covered their ears from this demonic noise.
The most affected by this was not the audience or the Pokémon's on the field, in fact it was Dominick, he now had no idea how to direct this battle anymore. He knew it was a losing battle, his head simply couldn't think straight.
"Rollout, again!"
Phanpy's huge strength plus the consecutive Rollouts came into play, his Rollout attack this time knocked Tropius away, but this time faced a challenge from Swalot, who used its pretty much signature move, Stockpile, on its own without his Trainers command, just on pure instinct.
Not to mention that Swalot's body was already very elastic, so Phanpy's Rollout did less damage this time and he was forced back.
Lairon's Metal Sound finally stopped, and Dominick finally came back to his senses, only to realize that his Tropius had already lost his ability to fight. He gritted his teeth and said, "Swalot, use Sludge Bomb, now!"
The poisonous ball of sludge hit towards where Phanpy was, but Phanpy easily rolled out to avoid its attack range.
He was trained to dodge such attacks on pure instinct by his parent figures, Tyranitar and Rhyperior, so how could he not dodge such a slow attack?
Ash looked at Swalot's elastic body and smiled slightly, "Heavy Slam!"
"LAIII!"
Lairon's whole body began to shine with the luster of white metal, and now he got ready to use a move that was very much suitable for his Heavy Metal body. This was an attack that becomes more powerful the heavier it is than its opponent.
One can only imagine how terrifying this move will be when Lairon evolves into a full grown Aggron!
——
With a bang, Swalot's elastic body was knocked farther away than anyone thought, only stopping because there was a hard wall and barrier behind it to make sure the audience was safe.
If there were no such thing, Swalot for sure could have gone for another kilometer or so.
This was Ash's second victim that was knocked off by his Pokémon and hit the wall at the Ever Grande Conference.
It was instantly defeated, no chances in making a comeback!
"Swalot loses its ability to fight, meaning the winner of this battle is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!"
Compared to Morrison's hard battle, Ash's victory seemed far more easy and more satisfying to watch.