The Path of a Genius to Becoming a Pokémon Champion

Chapter 234: Different Teams, Different Styles

After returning, Arthur, as was his routine, led all his Pokémon through a round of debriefing.

Although they had won this match in a way that greatly boosted their fans and morale, it had also exposed a great many of Greninja's shortcomings.

For example, it lacked buff-type moves, a powerful ultimate move to quickly end a match, and methods to restrict an opponent's recovery, among other things.

In a real battle, these shortcomings could actually be compensated for through some extra means, such as a teammate's coordination, the use of items, or even the trainer personally stepping in to help. But unfortunately, none of these methods could be used in the arena.

This also made Arthur begin to reflect on some of the problems in his past training.

For example, at his core, he was still a pragmatist of real combat, emphasizing the training of a Pokémon's physical fitness, will, and conventional combat power, while neglecting the learning of some specialized skills.

In short: Greninja still had too few skills.

In a real battle, you often didn't need that many flashy skills; raw power was still king. But the arena was different.

You could never guess what kind of fancy tricks your opponent in the arena could pull on you.

On this point, he was also very brave in admitting his mistakes.

"These were some of the mistakes I made in past training."

The Pokémon sitting in a circle in the living room all cried out at this moment, conveying comforting thoughts.

Arthur's attitude of taking the blame himself and never groundlessly venting his anger on his Pokémon had won him a great deal of favor with everyone.

Only Specter, who had followed him the longest, was watching coolly from the side, silently rolling its eyes.

Being as clever as it was, it had long since guessed that things were not so simple.

Sure enough, Arthur's next sentence immediately made the expressions of all the consoling Pokémon in the room stiffen.

"So I think, starting from tomorrow, we need to add more training."

After a moment of silence, an even more turbulent wave of thoughts was transmitted over.

At this moment, even the usually gentle-tempered Mismagius was desperately pleading, "Master, think twice!!"

Greninja silently face-palmed.

The young frog, at this moment, understood with profound depth: sure enough, behind every victory, sweat and sacrifice must be paid.

This night, it was as if he had grown up a lot…

Of course, no matter how much extra training was arranged, it had to be done step by step.

Although Greninja had reached adulthood early due to the life-form leap brought by evolution, in reality, it was still less than ten years old. It was still a young frog, far from the time when it needed to be hastily developed.

Whether it was training or learning skills, it was a long-term task, not something to be rushed in a day or two.

And the next problem they urgently needed to face in the near future was—in four days, they would be up against another A-list powerhouse in the league, and also a veteran team of strength: the Demon King Team!

During the morning class that day, the coach and assistant analyst were leading all the players in analyzing the characteristics of the Demon King Team.

"As a veteran powerhouse, the Demon King Team's tactical execution is very mature, with almost no shortcomings. They might not be able to pull off a stunning underdog victory like the Blaze Team, but when dealing with teams with less raw power than them, their win rate is abnormally stable! This will be a tough challenge for us."

Recently, through many match recordings and the explanations of the team's analyst, Arthur had also gradually come to understand the style of the Demon King Team, and indeed, the entire traditional "Big Three" of Kubfu—

In complete contrast to a "neurotic blade" team like Blaze, the characteristic of these veteran powerhouses could be summed up in one word: stable!

They rarely gambled on miracles. In a sense, they couldn't gamble. The miracles of Pokémon competition could only ever originate from the Pokémon themselves, and the players in these teams generally didn't have deep emotional bonds with their Pokémon, so naturally, it was difficult to hope for any miracles.

But by the same token, the tactical style of these teams never pursued miracles from the very beginning.

What they valued more was extremely pragmatic tactical reserves and execution!

Their players had a large number of Pokémon, their Pokémon had a large number of skills, and their teams had a large number of analysts and intelligence personnel.

Always identifying the enemy's weakness to formulate the most correct tactics—this was the path to victory for these veteran powerhouses.

However, when facing truly high-level, strong enemies, when the enemy's abilities were equally comprehensive with no obvious weaknesses, and when faced with opponents where they couldn't gain a tactical advantage, a team like Demon King, which lacked possibilities, would often lose very clearly.

Just like in last year's Champions Cup, they always seemed to have a very low ceiling when facing strong enemies.

But it was undeniable that against weaker teams, their win rate was extremely stable!

And regretfully: the Sea Carp Team was clearly not the kind of team that could force the Demon King Team to reach its upper limit.

So for this battle, the entire team's analysis group was even more nervous than when they had faced the Blaze Team.

The analysis data Arthur received before the match was also at least three times thicker than before!

Opening it, Arthur was shocked.

"Their team's doubles players also have so many main Pokémon?"

He looked up and asked. As it turned out, everyone around him nodded silently, including the fellow rookies Elijah and Fang Shiwei.

They had been watching Pokémon competitions since they were young and had long heard of the great names of the "Big Three" teams since their time in the youth training camp.

"Having a large reserve of Pokémon has always been a major characteristic of the Demon King Team. When they promote rookies from the youth training camp, they require them to have at least three main Pokémon that meet the basic requirements for league play. Then, as soon as they enter the team, they require the rookies to catch at least six new Pokémon within the first year, and no less than four each year after that."

Arthur frowned slightly.

He strongly disapproved of this practice.

Catching a large number of Pokémon in a short period of time would inevitably cause the trainer's energy to be scattered. This was not good. In the end, there would definitely be some Pokémon whose strength would lag behind, or they would gradually become distant from the trainer.

His teammate then explained to him: "So this also leads to the fact that the Pokémon of the Demon King Team's players are generally not particularly strong, and this applies to both the main players and the doubles players. But they have a lot of Pokémon, so most of the time, they are the ones who have the advantage in type matchups on the field."

Different teams, different styles. Although the people from the Blaze Team were "neurotic blades," after having fought them, Arthur could see that the Pokémon and players over there basically had a considerable degree of trust and rapport.

This was true for both the main players and the doubles players.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this team atmosphere that they were willing to accept a rookie like Chloe, who used a "Metronome" Clefable as her main, and even cultivated her as a core of the team.

However, the Demon King Team over there had a completely different style.

They prioritized tactics over bonds, using a vast number of Pokémon to seize the initiative in type matchups.

Now, Arthur finally understood why Chloe especially didn't want him to lose to the Demon King Team.

To be honest, he was now gradually beginning to feel the same way.

(End of Chapter)

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