After a flurry of commotion, the regional champions appeared on the podium, and under the filming of numerous camera crews, the opening ceremony officially began.
First on stage was Edward. He stepped up, delivered a single line—"The first Tom Tree Performance Contest has officially begun!"—and then stepped down.
Immediately afterward, Tom and Jerry burst onto the scene, chasing each other in from the entrance of the venue. In front of all the photographers and spectators, they recreated the iconic "Tom splits a tree" moment, much to Edward's private amusement as he watched from the main stage.
This segment had been redesigned after an internal company discussion. The idea was: Tom sees other Pokémon on TV mimicking the infamous crotch-splitting tree move and is utterly shocked, only to be mocked by Jerry.
Determined to prove himself, Tom starts splitting trees—failing with the first two, but succeeding with the third. The entire act was as comical and exaggerated as possible.
From the laughter and cheers echoing from the crowd, Edward could tell the new script was a hit. At the very least, the audience loved it.
As Tom successfully split the third tree and jumped down to take a bow with Jerry—only to be stomped on the foot and resume the chase, knocking over countless props and bursting out of the arena in a puff of smoke—the golden "Tom Tree Performance Contest" logo rose into the sky.
"I gotta say, the league's design team was pretty creative with this one," Edward muttered as he watched Tom and Jerry's chaotic exit and glanced back at the center of the arena.
"Yeah. Super creative," said Lance, who was sitting to Edward's left with a blank expression. On his right were Steven Stone and Cynthia.
Edward let out an awkward cough. Q peeked out from behind him, mostly staring curiously at the Dragonite behind Lance.
"Well, looks like it's our turn now," Steven sighed and rubbed his face.
There was still one part of the opening ceremony left—each champion had to send out a Pokémon to perform a version of the Tom Tree act. At the end, they would strike a collective pose before switching to the regional selection broadcasts.
Next, Lance took a deep breath, plastered on a businesslike smile, and went on stage. The other champions followed one after another. Among them, Diantha seemed the most enthusiastic, her smile genuine.
Considering Diantha was a professional actress, Edward believed her excitement was likely real. After all, this was a great opportunity for exposure.
The second happiest person was Leon.
As soon as he got on stage, he began dramatically flaunting his cape—an absolute mess of sponsor logos that made people's eyes spin.
But when the cameramen quickly skipped over his cape and focused instead on Leon's face, Edward almost couldn't hold back his laughter.
Clearly, the league didn't want free advertising on Leon's cloak.
"Zoroark, how much is the current advertising rate for the Tom Tree Contest?" Edward asked, smacking his lips as he looked at the overwhelming number of ads around the venue.
[Gold Milk – 100% Gold Medal Miltank Milk, protecting your health]
[Silky Hair Shampoo – Get flowing hair like a Primarina's]
These were relatively normal. But then Edward spotted a tiny ad in a very remote corner of the venue. Squinting, he couldn't make it out, so he pulled out a pair of binoculars and finally saw what it said:
[Clobbopus Safety Umbrella – Bringing you the ultimate sense of security]
"...What did Clobbopus ever do to deserve this?" Edward twitched at the corner of his mouth. "The Clobbopus Protection Society should call the police!"
But thinking about Clobbopus's design, he figured maybe it kind of made sense?
In the Pokémon world, nearly every Pokémon's name had been registered as a trademark. However, these names weren't protected by the league, meaning almost any company could use names like Mew for branding—think Mew Mart, Mart Mew, and so on.
But once Mew Mart was in use, others couldn't use that exact name again. Yet switching the order to Mart Mew was still fair game.
Even the standalone name Mew had already been registered—as a brand by the famous Mew Supercar Company.
"Boss, the current rate for an ad billboard at the Tom Tree Contest is three million League dollars per square meter per day," Zoroark reported.
Even Edward, with his deep pockets, pursed his lips at that. Three million per square meter meant that the roughly 15-square-meter Mew Supercar billboard in the center of the venue was raking in 45 million per day for the Hoenn League?
Thankfully, the contest only lasted two days. That's 90 million total. It sounded like a lot, but actually wasn't that outrageous. In his past life, a single 30-second ad slot during a top-tier contest could cost over 50 million yuan. (Nearly 7 million usd so just like a Super Bowl Ad)
So, 45 million for a premium ad slot in the Hoenn region seemed... pretty reasonable.
"TV ads go for 49 million per 30 seconds," Zoroark added.
Edward smacked his lips again. He had a feeling that if this contest ended up a huge success, the Hoenn League might very well turn it into a recurring event.
"Still, I guess it makes sense why that one ad was so tiny. After all, this contest has a lot of young viewers," Edward mused, stroking his chin.
Compared to some real-world opening ceremonies filled with suggestive content, forced political messaging, and eye-searing aesthetics passed off as 'relaxed' or 'romantic', the Pokémon world's ceremonies were refreshingly normal.
At the very least, Edward found himself laughing heartily at the champions' performances.
Especially when his brother used Aggron to split a tree—and the tree almost turned to sawdust. Edward laughed so hard that tears welled up in his eyes.
"Dad's probably still recording this, right?" Edward wiped away his tears and looked around.
There were a few luxury viewing suites in the stadium. Early that morning, his father had skipped work to come see the opening ceremony. According to the old butler, his dad brought a camcorder too.
Edward knew exactly what that old man was thinking.
But then he remembered he himself had been filmed too, and his smile disappeared.
Better not talk about Brother anymore.
(End of Chapter)