In the lounge, after Li Xiang had changed his clothes, the first thing he saw was Su Qian bundled up like a bear on the large sofa. Her complexion had improved significantly, and her breathing was smooth.
She held a thermos, taking occasional sips while staring intently at the big screen ahead.
Amazing recovery speed—as expected of a human in the Pokémon world.
Li Xiang quietly looked away.
Their team had started competing in the second round. With a total of ten matches, after theirs ended, only two remained.
And they were heavyweights!
The Dragon City ace team versus the Shanghai ace team, and the Yandu ace team versus the Tiandu second team.
It was inevitable. As the number of competing groups dwindled, the other teams from the Big Six began to collide. Strong teams faced strong teams, ace groups clashed with ace groups—it was all too common. This was precisely why doubles wasn't considered the exclusive domain of the Big Six.
After all, there was always a chance that one might avoid running into a Big Six powerhouse, like Zhao Jie's group.
Among the various schools' doubles ace teams, the strength of their Pokémon was one factor; excellent coordination was another.
Through their matches, Li Xiang also identified areas where he still fell short.
In the end, both doubles matches concluded with victories for the Shanghai ace team and the Yandu ace team.
Online, the first victory was being called "Shanghai's revenge." After all, it was the Dragon City ace team that had taken down Shanghai's third team. If Shanghai failed to make the top three this year, Dragon City would have played a major role.
But what disappointed Li Xiang was that neither side seemed willing to reveal their trump cards. The battles were beautiful and exciting, but they lacked the things he wanted to see.
Did they think the Summer Tournament was still too early?
Even now, with the top teams about to face off, they were still holding back—weren't they afraid of an upset?
Who knew what they were thinking. Li Xiang's expectations had been high, and he was left feeling somewhat let down.
And so, the third round came to an end. Next up would be the repechage matches.
Interestingly enough, after the third round, only Mist City still had all three groups intact among the Big Six. The others had lost at least one or two groups.
Shanghai's second group, in particular, had faced the Sakura Island ace team. Many thought they had a good chance of winning, but they were caught off guard and suffered a bitter defeat.
In the previous round, Dragon City's third group had also been eliminated by the Sakura Island ace team. Twice they had faced Big Six opponents, and twice they had emerged victorious.
Combined with their performance last year, the Sakura Island ace team was now incredibly popular on Sakura Island itself. The local newspapers had even given them the nickname "Big Six Slayers," which was just absurd.
Apart from them, there were other non-Big Six groups that had advanced, fully demonstrating that "doubles is not the backyard of the Big Six."
Shanghai was the most anxious.
As one of the traditional top three, they had already lost two groups in the Summer Tournament. If they couldn't turn things around in the repechage, their top-three position was in serious jeopardy.
"A single point can foil a hero" wasn't just an empty saying.
In the afternoon, since Li Xiang's group had successfully qualified for the Autumn Tournament, the online betting pools were settled.
Many who lost posted videos, but some simply deleted their accounts and vanished. Netizens, however, had a great time watching it all unfold.
Li Xiang casually opened a few, found that he didn't recognize any of the losers, and closed them.
Though the events had started because of him, he remained isolated from the fallout—quite amusing.
That said, the marketing campaign disguised as a betting pool successfully earned him a batch of online fans.
He now had a special tag on his blog, and even a fan club had been established. This also marked the beginning of Mist City University's star-making campaign.
At the same time, Song Jie—whom Li Xiang had always mocked for having a bunch of "mom fans"—finally got the upper hand. The guy who never used his phone was now inexplicably active on his blog, infiltrating fan clubs and lurking in various fan groups.
He would frequently take comments and messages that Li Xiang found particularly cringey and embarrassing, deliberately wave them in front of his face, and then ask with a deadpan expression what certain emojis meant.
He would also screenshot them and post them in the six-person Youth Training Camp group chat, causing Lin Feng and the others to spam mocking messages and join the groups themselves.
Thus, within less than half a day of its founding, Li Xiang's fan club had gained five moles. And the number of moles kept growing.
As the one at the center of it all, Li Xiang just chose to ignore it. If Song Jie dared to wave anything in front of him, he'd pin him down and beat him up.
The white-haired kid would cry foul, saying Li Xiang couldn't take a joke, and it would inevitably devolve into a mutual brawl.
Gong Xu wasn't even involved at first, but the guy had the audacity to sit there eating popcorn and watching the show—unforgivable. The two of them decided to take down the smiling bastard first, then settle their own man-to-man battle.
When the city gates catch fire, the fish in the moat suffer—classic collateral damage.
The next day: the repechage matches.
A total of five matches, representing the last five spots. Every group was giving it their all, determined to take down their opponents.
Mist City's teams had all advanced. They were smug, proud, and walked with a spring in their step—from the coaches down to the students, everyone was beaming all day.
How could they not be? Their doubles performance in the entire Summer Tournament was likely the most complete among all teams. Other events had seen their fair share of ups and downs.
That afternoon, the matches were completely finished, and the top sixteen spots for the Autumn Tournament were finally determined.
They were: Mist City University with three teams, Shen Island University with three, Tiandu University with two, Shanghai with two, Dragon City with two, Yandu with one, Sakura Island with one, Zhuzhou with one, and Chongzhou with one.
Tiandu had actually stumbled—something no one could have imagined.
But there was no helping it. Tiandu's third group had run into Dragon City's ace team and simply couldn't compete. Even after giving it everything they had, they still couldn't secure the win.
For many, that match was also one of the most entertaining of the entire Summer Tournament.
Dragon City's ace team had truly been the most hilarious group of the season—after eliminating Shanghai's third group, they had now taken down Tiandu's third group as well.
The reliably stable Summer Tournament tickets for both Shanghai and Tiandu had been completely derailed by them.
They were the ultimate spoilers of the Summer Tournament doubles—the bane of the traditional top three.
Shanghai's team atmosphere had been pretty grim, but after this, they immediately lightened up. Misery loves company—of course they were happy.
On the other hand, Yandu—the Big Six school with the lowest presence this Summer Tournament—had their second group face Zhuzhou's ace team and, oddly enough, lost. The match was baffling to watch; something felt off, but no one could quite put their finger on it.
But Yandu had always been weak in doubles. Their brain drain problem was just as bad as Mist City's, so there wasn't much to say.
In the repechage, the Yuzhou ace team—the one Li Xiang cared most about—went up against Tianshen's second group, the same one Li Xiang had defeated.
They lost.
It was expected, but still left a complicated feeling.
Indeed, Yuzhou's rise would have to depend on some cheater with insane plot armor. They'd probably have to struggle for another couple of seasons before that cheater fully matured. For now, they were out of the picture.
And so, the Summer Tournament came to an end.
Out of the original twenty-seven teams, only nine would return to the Stellar Arena to actually compete next time, rather than just watch.
The Big Six had held strong, each securing at least one ticket regardless of the circumstances.
But the remaining eighteen teams? Those lucky enough might scrape by with a point or two. The unlucky ones would be eliminated in the first round, reduced to bottom-tier padding.
No one wanted to be padding, but the gaps in strength, resources, effort, and talent ultimately determined the outcome. There was nothing to be said.
That afternoon, it was time for another draw.
This one had nothing to do with doubles. The draw would decide the singles matches. There were no byes in singles—every school would face an opponent and play all five matches. The match schedules would vary due to home-and-away rules.
Spectators could plan their viewing based on the published schedule, as long as they were willing to follow along.
The draw room was quiet, a stark contrast to the earlier bye draws.
This time, it was Captain Su Qian who went up to draw—twice: once for the opponent, once for home or away. The school drawn wouldn't need to go up again.
The other Big Five schools were, as always, the ones nobody wanted to draw. Though everyone knew they'd run into them eventually, people generally preferred to face the stronger opponents later.
And the final result: Haizhou, away match.
Many on the Mist City team were stunned.
The draw itself was average—Haizhou wasn't particularly strong or weak in singles. The real issue was that Haizhou's home city, Lingcheng, had winter temperatures dropping to minus thirty degrees and summer highs that never exceeded five degrees!
Even Saizhou's Snow City would see its ice and snow melt in summer, revealing its true landscape. But Lingcheng had snow and ice even in summer!
This was very much in line with the Pokémon world's characteristics—environments ignored seasons, and temperatures disregarded monsoons.
For the Mist City team, who were used to spring-like weather year-round, Lingcheng's environment was a bigger challenge than the opponent itself. If the matches were held in a semi-open venue, it would be brutal.
"Why are you all making such sour faces? Haizhou! Lingcheng! The northernmost part of Zhuxia! A place we've never been! Chao, didn't you say you wanted to see the great snowy mountains? Laoyi, don't you love frozen pears?"
Su Qian came down from the draw and smiled at the stunned group. Her tone made it sound less like a match and more like a trip—Summer Tournament as a vacation tournament.
And if the schedule worked out, they really could take a day or two to relax and explore the away city.
Her words lifted everyone's spirits, and soon they were all smiling again.
Li Xiang didn't mind either way—anywhere was fine.
The cold would hit Incineroar the hardest, but the others, even Greninja, would be fine. Besides, Incineroar had its Flame Belt, so its combat effectiveness was guaranteed—it would just be in a bad mood. And a bad mood meant trouble for the opponent, not for Li Xiang.
Among those likely to compete in singles, those most affected by the cold were Ruan Qingqing and Feng Laiyi—one a Flying-type specialist, the other a Ground-type specialist. Especially the former.
Her ace, Salamence, was quadruple weak to Ice. If the matches were outdoors and it snowed, Salamence would be in serious trouble.
In short bursts, it might be fine, but prolonged exposure to ice and snow would severely drain its stamina.
As for the Haizhou team, their morale wasn't great upon drawing Mist City. But their captain was doing a good job rallying the troops, promising to avenge their doubles loss.
That loss to Mist City had been eating away at them.