After the preliminary rounds ended, there was still a short buffer period before the main stage of the Sprout Cup officially began.
This gap was meant to give rookie Trainers—and their starter Pokémon—a chance to properly adjust their condition.
As for the small commotion Serena's Gible had caused outside Shanghai University's stadium, it quickly died down as well.
Nothing escalated further, and no serious conflict followed.
"..."
Feeling a little conflicted by how unexpectedly peaceful everything turned out, Serena returned to the dormitory and once again started her PokéTV livestream.
Compared to her very first broadcast—when she was clearly inexperienced and awkward—Serena had now grown far more familiar with Pokémon Masters EX.
From battle flow to team editing, she had already adapted with impressive speed.
After all, before transmigrating, she had been "that friend" who helped competitive Pokémon players custom-build and optimize teams.
When it came to team composition and structure, Serena truly had her own insights.
For many Trainers who lacked patience, things like natures, abilities, movepools, EVs, IVs, and held items were nothing but incomprehensible numbers.
They didn't want to understand them—and didn't want to bother.
Let alone slowly grinding out a perfectly trained competitive Pokémon like farming artifacts in a gacha game.
Even if you handed them a fully built rental team, most still wouldn't understand what those values meant—or how to actually use the team effectively.
Serena was different.
You may not have eaten Porky Pig's meat,
but you've at least seen a pig run before, right?
Before starting the stream, Serena edited her room title.
[Today We're Playing a Snow Team]
No more gimmicks like "Dragon Dance Gible" for clickbait.
This time, she planned to grind ranked seriously—and show her real understanding of competitive team building.
As long as her rating went up, the match quality, watchability, and overall stream entertainment value would naturally follow.
Viewers—and support—would come sooner or later.
"In competitive Pokémon battling," Serena explained to her stream,
"there are four major weather team archetypes."
"Among them, Snow teams are the rarest."
At the top of the popularity ladder were always Sun teams and Rain teams—the evergreen pillars of competitive play.
Sun teams were led by the famous 'Can't Fly' Groudon,
while Rain teams revolved around the 'Big-Headed Fish' Kyogre.
From these two cores emerged countless powerful Pokémon—
mockingly referred to as the Sun Brothers and Rain Brothers.
Examples included Torkoal, Ninetales, Venusaur,
and Pelipper, Politoed, Kingdra, among many others.
Their numbers were so large and their strength so high that people joked about them forming entire "brotherhoods."
Below them came Sandstorm teams, slightly weaker in comparison.
Famous setters included Tyranitar and Hippowdon,
as well as the true cornerstone of Sandstorm teams—
The so-called "Mouse-Head Ground Dragon", Excadrill,
with its signature ability Sand Rush.
Compared to these three well-known weather teams,
the fourth member of the "weather quartet"—the Snow team—always felt underwhelming.
The first Pokémon with the Snow Warning ability appeared very late: Abomasnow from the Sinnoh region.
Even though Abomasnow could Mega Evolve, it never gained much popularity—
a classic case of potential wasted.
Later Snow Warning users like Vanilluxe and Aurorus didn't help much either.
None of them were both strong and cool enough to rival Pokémon like Groudon, Kyogre, or Tyranitar.
As a result, Snow teams lacked both strength and star power.
Everything changed in Generation VII, in the Alola region.
The true soul of Snow teams was finally born.
Alolan Ninetales.
"Any weather team," Serena continued,
"needs more than just a weather setter."
"You also need Pokémon that can truly shine under that weather."
"And this time, the main damage dealer of our Snow team is—"
She dragged a Pokémon that looked suspiciously like a mini Godzilla from her BOX into the team editor.
"Baxcalibur!"
Discovered in the snowy mountains of the Paldea region,
this Generation IX pseudo-legendary Pokémon was named for the blade-like ridges along its back—
resembling a halberd.
Of course, among players, it was more commonly called
'JJ Dragon' or 'Kunkun Dragon'.
"As a late-blooming pseudo-legendary," Serena said,
"Baxcalibur's raw stats are already excellent."
"When combined with Alolan Ninetales' near-perfect support,
the final piece of the Snow team puzzle is finally complete."
"If Snow teams are ever going to reclaim their former glory,"
"it all depends on Alolan Ninetales and Baxcalibur."
As she explained the team's logic and strength, Serena clicked Start Matchmaking in Pokémon Masters EX.
Words meant nothing without results.
Only real matches could prove real power.
Pokémon Masters EX—launch!
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