Amid the attention of millions, the World Youth Championship's preliminary rounds finally began today at the Kangaskhan Stadium in Maplia.
The Kangaskhan Stadium had thirty sub-venues, allowing sixty national teams to compete simultaneously. As a result, the preliminary rounds would be concluded in just two days.
Julian had already drawn lots yesterday and was assigned to Sub-Venue 10, with his opponent hailing from a small country in East Africa.
East Africa gave people the first impression of backwardness, poverty, and conflict.
So, for a team from this region to participate in the competition was remarkable and also suggested that the country must have considerable strength.
At the very least, that was the case within East Africa.
After all, without some level of capability, a country plagued by internal disorder wouldn't have had the time to participate in such events.
The match was scheduled for 9:00 AM.
Each sub-venue could accommodate 100,000 spectators, and they were already packed, with the majority of the audience being from Drakoria.
Many had traveled from Drakoria specifically for the event, while others were students or workers living in Maplia. A smaller portion consisted of local Maplians and citizens of the East African nation.
The current time was 8:50 AM.
While the East African national team was busy strategizing, their expressions tense and serious, Julian's side was much more relaxed.
"Ian, Noah, you two will take the stage in that order."
"Ian, you'd better sweep all ten of them. If you can't, you'll be having a one-on-one session with Kartana tonight," Julian said calmly.
The other team was nothing more than a weak opponent. If they couldn't achieve a clean sweep against such a team, it would mean Ian hadn't been training hard enough.
The preliminaries were 1-vs-1 matches between national teams.
So as long as you had the strength, a one-vs-ten was possible.
Ian shuddered at Julian's words. Over the past month, they had improved significantly, but they had also witnessed firsthand how ruthless Kartana could be as a training partner.
Every strike aimed at vital points—either the head or the neck.
Thankfully, it was just training; otherwise, their Pokémon would have been sliced to pieces by Kartana.
As for why Metagross wasn't the training partner, Julian made it clear that they weren't worthy of it yet.
"Don't worry, Coach. I'll take down all ten of them by myself."
Ian, the first to step onto the field, was brimming with confidence. While he might be the cautious one within the team, he was ready to unleash his full force against external opponents.
Soon, the match began. Ian and the first competitor from the other national team stood at opposite ends of the arena.
The large screens beside the arena displayed the competitors' countries, ages, and the types of Pokémon they specialized in.
Ian was a Ground-type trainer, and his opponent happened to be a Ground-type trainer as well.
"Tyranitar!"
Without any hesitation, Ian directly sent out the pseudo-legendary, nicknamed the Sandstorm Tyrant, Map Modifier, Little Monster, and so on.
Since he had told Julian he would sweep all ten opponents, he naturally had to choose his strongest Pokémon. He couldn't afford to lose due to underestimating the enemy.
Ian's opponent sent out a Level 73 Donphan, at the early-stage Elite-level.
With that level of strength, this Donphan would be considered quite impressive in a weaker country.
Unfortunately, Ian's Tyranitar was at the early-stage Pseudo-Champion tier.
Before training, six of the ten team members were early-stage Pseudo-Champions, and four were peak Elites. After training, all of them had reached the Pseudo-Champion tier.
As the match began, the livestream was flooded with a large number of viewers from Drakoria.
---
> "It's starting, it's starting!"
> "Starting off with a pseudo-legendary—so domineering!"
> "The opposing Donphan seems a bit scared."
> "Go, Senior Ian!" (Ian graduated from Shu University.)
> "It's a pity that in such an important tournament, we can only see our country's youngest Champion sitting on the coach's bench."
> "My husband is still the number one in the world, even as a coach!"
> "Coach, I want to play basketball!"
---
Tyranitar was a early-stage Pseudo-Champion, while Donphan was a early-stage Elite. The gap between them was so vast that unless this Donphan was trained by Julian, it stood no chance of winning.
Sure enough, in less than two minutes, the Donphan was defeated.
Afterward, the opposing team sent out their remaining members one by one, but they all fell to Ian's Tyranitar.
He defeated nine in a row, and none of the matches even lasted more than three minutes.
Ian's momentum was unstoppable, and the Drakorian spectators roared with excitement.
The tenth and final member sent by the opposing team was slightly stronger than the previous nine. While the first nine were all at the early-stage Elite tier, this one was at the late-stage Elite tier, with Fighting-type as his primary typing.
The Pokémon he sent out was a Machamp at the late-stage Elite-level.
Ten minutes later, the Machamp also fell.
And with that, Tyranitar completed the ten-man sweep, though it had also accumulated some minor injuries.
Still, there was nothing particularly worth bragging about—the level gap was just too obvious.
Hearing the entire stadium chanting his name, Ian allowed a slight smirk to curl his lips.
"That guy really got to show off. Why didn't Coach send me out first?" Evan muttered, gazing enviously at Ian, who was the center of everyone's attention.
"You do know you're the weakest on the team, right?" Marcus retorted from beside him.
Hearing that, Evan wasn't angry—what the other said was true—but he still couldn't help feeling a bit indignant. "Even if I'm the weakest, I could still sweep all ten of them!"
This was Drakoria's first match, and Julian naturally wanted to make a strong impression. That was why he had sent out Ian, whose rugged and bold appearance, combined with his ace Pokémon being a fierce creature like Tyranitar, made him the perfect choice.
A victory with him on the field produced the best impact.
The opposing national team left in disappointment, becoming just another team on a one-day tour in Maplia.
It was simply their bad luck to run into one of the strongest teams. If they had faced some of the other smaller nations, the outcome might have been uncertain.
The entire match took less than forty minutes for Drakoria to secure victory.
The audience found it thrilling, yet somehow still unsatisfied.
By the end of the session, 360 national teams were whittled down to 180.
The remaining elimination matches would take place at 9 A.M. the next day.
After the matches, the team leaders or coaches of each national teams drew lots to determine their opponents for the next day.
After Julian drew his lot, he saw it was yet another small country.
As the saying went, crushing weak opponents felt great—and it felt even better when you kept doing it.
When other countries saw that Drakoria's opponent was already decided, they breathed a sigh of relief. They were aiming for the semifinals and definitely didn't want to run into Drakoria.
The coach of a certain smaller national team was already thinking about packing his bags that evening so he could head straight home after the match the next day and sleep soundly with his wife.
Julian gave Ian and the other nine the rest of the day off, allowing them to go out and enjoy themselves in Maplia.
In reality, Julian also wanted to have some fun—and he left even faster than they did.
Standing on Metagross's back, Julian held a map of Maplia with a serious and determined expression as he addressed the two little ones: "From this point until 11 P.M., we need to hit 30 cities in Maplia and sample over 400 different snacks and foods. Time is tight, and the mission is demanding."
"Are your stomachs ready?!"
Celebi and Jirachi: "Always ready!"
Julian nodded in satisfaction; he had even prepared some digestive tablets in his pocket, just in case.
"Metagross, Teleport! Let's go!"
"Meta!"
*****
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