Chapter 451: The Battle of Destiny
The two captains who took the stage exchanged glances, both sharing a silent, wry smile.
Goes to show, sometimes having a rookie who's too strong can be a headache.
When a captain is no longer responsible for the Captain's Match, no matter the reasons or reassurances, it's bound to be a little embarrassing for them personally.
No one had expected the Blaze Team to pull a move like this—front-loading their captain. Not even their own teammates saw it coming.
Back in the Blaze Team's lounge, everyone was staring, eyes wide, at Forrest, who had remained behind.
"Today… you're handling the Captain's Match?" one of his teammates asked, stunned.
Forrest offered a slight smile, his eyes still curved in that perpetually relaxed expression that always seemed inscrutable to his teammates.
"Ah, yes. I just casually suggested it to the head coach, you know, just to see what would happen. I didn't think he'd actually agree," Forrest replied.
A player beside him gave him a thumbs-up. "Dude, that's insane."
You have to understand, this was different from the situation over on the Otter or Starlight and Frost teams. The Blaze Team's captain, a player named Grayson, was an incredibly skilled Trainer in his own right!
Last year, he defeated Roman to win the Best Captain award for the regular season!
While a large part of that was thanks to his team's overall performance, it still proved his individual skills hadn't fallen behind. He only made it to the Top 6 in last year's League Cup Singles Tournament, but that was because he ran into Roman and Leo in the winner's and loser's brackets, respectively.
He was nothing like the Otter Team's captain, a total fraud who couldn't even make it into the Top 8 of a singles tournament.
Objectively speaking, Grayson's individual skill was right on the heels of the league's top-tier players.
And yet, even he couldn't escape the fate of being front-loaded by his coach into the 6v6 singles match.
If there was anyone to blame, it was this year's absurdly talented rookies! The new wave was crashing in, and the old one was getting washed up on the shore. Sigh.
Grayson sighed silently. This world is too cold. The only warmth I can find is by hugging my Gardevoir.
So, in the first round, he decisively sent out his ace Pokémon, Gardevoir.
On Leo's side, however, he had no Pokémon well-suited to handle the Queen of Fairy and Psychic types!
In the end, Leo was swept by Grayson in this front-loaded captain's clash! Grayson's Gardevoir nearly pulled off a clean 3-0 sweep all by itself. Thankfully, Leo managed to fight with everything he had to claw back one win, avoiding the embarrassment of being completely shut out.
He had talked a big game before the match, but in the end, Alex's teasing remark came true: "As long as you don't get shut out, it's a win…"
Still, no one blamed Leo when he came off the stage. After all, probably no one in the entire Kubfu Alliance could confidently claim they could guarantee a win against Grayson. Not even last year's singles champion, Roman, would make such a boast.
"Hey, there's no shame in that loss, Captain," his teammates comforted him.
But at the same time, everyone was starting to sweat for Arthur.
"If a trainer as strong as Grayson is being moved to the opening singles match, just how good is this Forrest guy from the Blaze Team?"
"Arthur, don't feel too much pressure!"
"Arthur, you have to stay steady!"
This year in the Kubfu Alliance Professional League, the lights of Forrest and Arthur shone with equal brilliance!
If Arthur was the miracle boy Starlight and Frost acquired through a stealthy, game-changing trade, then Forrest was the hidden gem the Blaze Team unearthed by betting all their good fortune! Before this season, nobody knew who Forrest was. He had zero prior experience in the professional league.
Where the Blaze Team's manager managed to dig up a player like him remains an unsolved mystery.
But the fact that fans constantly joke that the Blaze Team must have "sacrificed at least ten years of good luck" for this discovery is enough to show just how much of a pleasant surprise Forrest has been.
On all the major social media platforms, in every poll and discussion thread, he's always ranked alongside Arthur. Fans have dubbed them the "once-in-a-century class of insane rookies."
It's just that the Blaze Team was already a powerhouse before Forrest joined—they were a top-tier team and a fixture in the finals—so the legendary aura around him was slightly less pronounced than Arthur's.
After all, the Blaze Team was a league champion before Forrest arrived. Starlight and Frost, on the other hand, was just a playoff gatekeeper before they traded for Arthur this season.
But no matter how strong the opponent, Arthur's nerves were always made of steel. Getting him to feel nervous was an impossible task.
What's the other guy going to do? he thought. Pull out a Legendary or a Champion-level Pokémon?
"Don't worry," he said to his teammates with a reassuring smile. "You guys just play your game. I'll be the backstop."
Soon after, the doubles matches began.
The two teams knew each other inside and out. This was, after all, their third encounter this season. Furthermore, Starlight and Frost's Bella was good friends with Chloe from the Blaze Team, one of their so-called "Four Stooges," ever since their days in the youth academy.
They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. A completely one-sided tactical blowout was nearly impossible.
In the end, neither team attempted any high-risk, experimental strategies. They put their cards on the table and faced each other in two straightforward battles.
Ivy and Bianca won their match against Chloe, who was trying out a new role with a redirection Clefable, and her partner, Rosaline.
In the other match, Bella and Justin unfortunately couldn't overcome the opposing team's Gothitelle with its ace Ability, Shadow Tag, paired with a Mawile. The teamwork between the Gothitelle and the rookie Shawn's Mawile was exceptional. Even though Bella and Justin had learned a painful lesson against them during the regular season, they still hadn't figured out a way to break the Shadow Tag lock and counter the strategy.
In the end, the two teams split the doubles matches, earning two points each. The overall score difference remained unchanged.
Starlight and Frost had successfully defended their two-point lead for Arthur.
During the break, the commentators began their excited analysis.
"And now, we've finally reached the most exciting part of the match—the Captain's Match!"
"That's right! And this Captain's Match is one we've all been waiting for. We have two rookies, both of whom have only just stepped onto the main singles stage this season. One is a second-year pro whose improvement has been nothing short of meteoric! The other is a complete enigma, a man with no prior league history, whose file is a total blank! For the Kubfu Alliance Professional League to be graced by two such breathtakingly brilliant talents in the same year… we must have sacrificed a lot of good fortune for this! Therefore, this next match isn't just the Captain's Match of the playoff finals—it's the Battle of Destiny for the entire Kubfu Alliance this year!!"
"Okay, you're laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?"
While one of the commentators' lines were indeed filled with a cringey, melodramatic flair, he had undeniably done his job, whipping the entire stadium's atmosphere into a frenzy.
And it was undeniable. This was, without a doubt, the most anticipated Captain's Match of the year so far
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