Chapter 369: The Ageless Wind King
Before the captain's battle began, the fans in the Starlight and Frost home stadium were about to explode!
They were furious!
They were cursing!
Cursing at why Arthur wasn't playing!
Cursing at why the commentator was optimistic about them!
The commentator was also feeling wronged. I was optimistic about your home team, and you're still cursing me? My life is so hard…
It wasn't until the roster for the final captain's battle was announced that the fans finally calmed down for the most part.
At least the first reason for their anger was gone—Arthur was finally taking the stage!
Just in a way that no one had expected!
He, an eighteen-year-old in his first year as a main singles player, a rookie who couldn't even fill out a twelve-Pokémon roster, was being sent out as the final gatekeeper for the captain's battle!
It was absurd!
Sage Hwang was also suffering—How was I supposed to guess you guys would pull a stunt like this? I've been watching matches for so many years and I've never seen a scene like this! How am I supposed to commentate on this?! You're just setting me up to be a meme! I can't take the fall for this!
To be fair, this was indeed a low-probability event. When the headmistress-like head coach had formulated today's tactical plan, she had been thinking of taking a risk, of being unpredictable.
But as luck would have it, a series of low-probability events had all been perfectly jinxed by Sage Hwang's mouth.
Perhaps this could only be attributed to fate.
But setting aside this external factor, the current situation for Starlight and Frost was extremely dire.
Before taking the stage, his teammates in the lounge all apologized to Arthur.
Justin kept saying, "I'm sorry, Brother Arthur."
The normally lively younger twin, Bianca, was uncharacteristically red-eyed, unable to look at Arthur.
Everyone's spirits were low.
The original tactical plan for this match had been to use Leo up front to score points early, thinking that all Arthur would have to do was hold the line. As long as he didn't lose by a huge margin, they could win.
But now, not only had they failed to score points early, but by the time the match was handed over to Arthur, they were actually behind.
It was the complete opposite of their original intention!
This put too much pressure on Arthur.
His opponent was Leo!
An All-Star captain, last year's League Cup singles runner-up, a grand slam winner of the domestic league!
He had been a pro for many years. A few years ago, he had already won the professional league championship, the preseason Devon Cup championship, the League Cup singles championship, the All-Star captain's battle championship…
And he had once set a record for an entire undefeated season in the regular league!
He was the most iconic figure in the Kubfu Alliance in the era just a few years ago!
The undisputed demon king of a bygone era!
Just as Leo had the nickname "Dragon Slayer," Leo had also been given a title by his fans—the Ageless Wind King!
It meant that over the many years, as a new generation of players replaced the old in the professional scene, Leo had always remained firmly at the position closest to the peak, as if he had locked in time, ageless and immortal.
He was the player who had participated in the most Champions Cups and World Cups in the entire Kubfu Alliance in the last twenty years.
Although he was often criticized for his poor performance in international competitions, at least within the Kubfu Alliance, Leo had been the undisputed number one player in the league for a very long time!
Even though Arthur's performance since his debut last year had been stunning, repeatedly making people exclaim in wonder, most rational fans still felt that it was too early for him to be challenging Leo.
It was like a hero who had just maxed out his stats in the starting village being sent to face the final boss.
"Sigh, this Starlight and Frost team… they really don't treat their players like humans," a fan in the stands lamented quietly.
It was unclear whether he meant the team wasn't treating Arthur like a human or the opposing Leo.
Or maybe both…
At this moment, Sage Hwang quickly spoke up in defense of the home team, Starlight and Frost.
"Looking at it this way, Starlight and Frost's overall tactical thinking for this match was actually to score points early. By putting their captain up front, they added a stable point-scorer to their singles lineup, hoping to create a point difference early on to relieve the pressure on the rookie who would be playing last."
The moment he saw Arthur take the stage, he could immediately and clearly reconstruct the team's entire strategic thinking. Sage Hwang's professional ability was indeed impeccable.
It was just a shame that at this point, no one was willing to listen to him anymore…
Even his newcomer partner tactfully advised him, "Teacher Hwang, perhaps we should quickly introduce the players and their Pokémon."
The subtext was: Please, just stop talking!
Fortunately, the Pokémon roster Arthur had registered for this match did have many interesting points, which successfully diverted Sage Hwang's attention.
Some of the Starlight and Frost fans in the stadium had already silently made a note of this newcomer commentator—
This guy is good. We can work with him!
"Huh? We see that in Arthur's lineup for this match, there's a third Charizard? Did he have another one hidden away? Why does he have so many Charizard? And why is an Eevee registered? Is it a data entry error? Why not a Leafeon?"
Prompted by the commentator, the fans finally put aside their spamming of Sage Hwang and turned their attention to Arthur's registered lineup.
He hadn't even filled all twelve Pokémon slots…
But this was also to be expected. As a rookie in his first year as a main singles player, for Arthur to be able to register nine Pokémon at once was already far beyond everyone's expectations.
Besides a certain onion-headed Mythical Pokémon that was freeloading at his house and refused to go into a Poké Ball, Arthur had registered all of his Pokémon this time, including Doublade, whose independent combat ability was still a bit lacking.
This was truly bringing the whole family to the fight!
There were many things that outsiders couldn't understand: for example, why are you so fond of Charizard? And where did you hide the Leafeon that you've shown before?!
Leo also frowned slightly as he looked at the revealed lineups.
Some of this information had not been gathered before the match.
But considering that his opponent had a notorious reputation as an "Intelligence Black Hole," he let it go.
It didn't matter. Everything was still under control.
The lineup was revealed. The referee then made a final confirmation with both players: are you ready to begin?
It was worth mentioning that the 12-on-6 rules had another difference from the previous singles matches—
In addition to the initial one-time mid-battle switch, both players could get an additional switch every time they scored their third point.
This extra opportunity to switch Pokémon made the 6v6 matchups even more dynamic!
The variety of tactical changes was also greater.
For a team like the Demon King, which was skilled in tactics and calculation, this was another hidden advantage.
It was almost certain that, even against a rookie like Arthur in a "big-bully-the-small" situation, Leo would not give up on using targeted tactics!
Sure enough, in the first round, the opponent immediately turned up the heat on Arthur!
For his starter, Arthur chose Old Flame.
And on the other side, Leo directly sent out an extremely niche, specialized counter Pokémon: Shuckle!
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