With all the preliminary battles over, the Ever Grande Conference has officially begun.
Now, it was the second day of the tournament, and Ash was with his friends and girlfriends in the Pokemon Center, where they are waiting to see who of those who are participating in the tournament, they will be battling against.
Yesterday, the preliminary round was held, with Ash and all his friends and associates passing into the next round, which is the qualifying round. It's another round to thin down the number of competitors, before the real tournament starts with only the best trainers left.
Last night, Ash has spent it with all of his girlfriends. They didn't have group sex or anything similar, they just spent the whole night together, talking about all the things they've done since the last time they saw each other, and for some of them, it's been a while since they've seen each other in person. Whitney, for example, hasn't seen Ash since Ash was in Goldenrod City, two years ago. They have literally met, became a couple, and they haven't seen each other again, unless you count the video calls, but that's not the same as actually seeing someone in person.
As for his other girlfriends, Cynthia and Diantha haven't seen Ash since the end of the Johto League, and Misty a little after that. As such, not counting Serena and May, who have been traveling with Ash, all of his other girlfriends wanted to see him very badly, and spend some time with him. When they saw each other few days ago, they had very hot sex, and now it's time for that talk about their travels.
For the whole night, everyone was talking about their lives in the last year or two, or few months the least, since they last saw Ash. Misty, Leaf and Whitney talked about their gym battles, how it was going, and said how they are all training hard, not to be better gym leaders, but because they want to join the Elite Four.
Cynthia and Diantha were champions of their regions, and the best trainers in the group, outside of Ash, with Amber probably being on the same level as they are, at least in terms of skill as a trainer. They were talking about what they've been doing since they became champions, about constant training because they have to keep their skills high and their Pokemon strong, as the members of the Elite Four from their respective Regions, keep challenging them time and time again.
Zinnia was talking about her time in the Meteor Falls, and about her progress in training her Dragon Type Pokemon.
Finally, May and Serena talked about their journey with Ash, though they did agree not to mention some stuff which happened to them, and about which not everyone knows, like for example, Serena's canning. All of Ash's girlfriends knew that she was injured, but none knew what exactly happened to her, and they knew not to ask, because if Serena wanted to talk about it, she would have.
After a day of battles, came a night of relaxing, and now it was again a day for the battles. As Ash and the others were standing in the Pokemon Center, listening on the Nurse Joy, as she explained that the 256 trainers who passed the preliminary round, will battle in qualifying round, from where, only 32 will advance to the next stage. In order to pass to the next stage, a trainer needs to win three matches, and all will be double battles.
"Damn, this is going to be hard," Max commented, after he heard about the rules for the qualifying round. "They need to win three double battles to pass to the top 32."
"Yeah, it's going to be tough," May agreed with her brother. "But don't worry, I'm sure that Ash and Serena will pass, along with most of their friends."
"I'm not worried," Max said. "I'm just surprised by the rules. They are really tough."
"Well, this is an Ever Grande Conference, so it's supposed to be hard." Misty commented from next to May. The three of them are standing together, along with Leaf, Whitney, and Zinnia. Cynthia and Diantha are not there, as they were recognized yesterday, and have started to attract a lot of attention, which they don't want at that moment. They will be watching Ash's matches, though, one way or another.
As for Ash and the other competitors, they are standing a little closer to the giant screen, where they are looking to see their picture and name, along with who they will battle against.
Soon, the screen showed the pictures and everyone saw who they will be battling against in the first qualifier round.
Ash saw his picture and commented. "Today in the afternoon at stadium C. I look forward to this. Let's hope though they my opponent has some skill and powerful Pokemon."
The others also looked at their matches, and they were all spread around all stadiums, with only Marina being in the Stadium C, along with Ash.
"Good luck, Ash." Morrison said to Ash.
"You two, Morrison." Ash said, before Morrison walked away. Ash was surprised by this, as he was almost expecting that Morrison would start shouting how he will win this, but… he didn't.
XXX
Later that morning, Ash went and watched few of the battles which were in the morning time, as his own battle is in the afternoon, he had the time to do it.
The first battle he watched was Morrison's. Along with him, Serena, May and Max were there. Amber was watching some other matches, in which her own friends are participating, as for Ash's girlfriends, Cynthia and Diantha are watching on TV from their Hotel Rooms, as to not draw the attention. Misty, Leaf, Whitney and Zinnia, are actually checking some other matches, so they can find some potential rivals for Ash, Amber and Serena, before they warn them about them. It was Leaf's decision to do that, and surprisingly, the other three girls agreed.
Ash only shock his head at that decision, but didn't say anything. Instead, he focused on Morrison's match against a trainer named, Gavin.
Morrison was using Growlithe and Gligar, which in Ash's opinion, is not a bad combination. Fire, as well as Ground/Flying, give a large variety of attacks, and have some speed and defense, so they should do OK.
Gavin chose Marowak and Machamp, which are also powerful Pokemon, as a Ground and Fighting Type, so they have some fighting power to rival Morrison's Pokemon. In fact, they might even have advantage, as they are both fully evolved Pokemon, while Morrison's are not.
For the first part of the match, Gavin had an advantage over Morrison, but then Morrison managed to get back in the game with his Gligar defeating Machamp, giving Morrison an advantage in the match.
Then, the situation turned again, when Gavin's Marowak defeated Morrison's Growlithe, and had Gligar on the ropes. But then, out of nowhere, Gligar managed to land an Iron Tail or Marowak, defeating it right then and there, and giving Morrison his first win in the qualifying round.
Ash and the others watched the battle end, and then Morrison cry tears of joy for the win, while hugging his Gligar. "Good job, Morrison," Ash said under his chin, so none of his companions heard him. "You pulled of the first round, but let's see if you can keep this up." Ash was smirking while saying this.
XXX
After Morrison won his match, Ash watched few more battles, one of which was Serena's against a trainer named, Nick.
Serena has come to a decision after the preliminary round. In the preliminary round, she used Magneton to win her match, but after she learned that she needs to win three more matches, all of which are double battles, which means that she has to use six Pokemon, she decided to use six Pokemon which are not Flying or part Flying Types. That way, she will give them a chance to battle, and if she passed the qualifying rounds, and advances to the top 32, then from there on, she will only use Flying Type Pokemon, as it's her goal to become a master of Flying Type Pokemon.
With that decided, and before he match was to start, she went and gave her Kirlia a Dawn Stone, which she bought few weeks ago so that she can give it to her Kirlia when she knows that he is ready to evolve. Kirlia has become very strong, and there is almost nothing else he can learn in his current form, so it was time to evolve. By giving him a Dawn Stone, Kirlia has evolved into a Gallade, which is a dual Psychic/Fighting Type Pokemon.
Along with her newly evolved Gallade, Serena used Marshtomp for her first qualifying round.
Gallade and Marshtomp were a good combination of power and skill, and Serena won her match quickly by not even giving a chance to her opponent. She practically whipped the floor with her opponents Golduck and Loudred.
Now though, it was time for Ash's first double battle, and it was against a trainer named, Dominic.
"Combusken, Marshtomp, you are up!" Ash said as he released two of his Pokemon. A Fire/Fighting Type, and a Water/Ground Type.
"A nice choice," Max commented from where he was seating. Along with him were Amber, and all of Ash's girlfriends, except Diantha and Cynthia, who were allowed by the Pokemon League Committee to seat in a boot separate from the rest of the fans, so that they wouldn't be bothered and could watch in peace.
"Yes," Mai agreed. "Those two will cover for each other's weaknesses just fine, and their power is great. Ash should have no trouble with those two in battle."
"I mostly agree," Misty said, "but let's wait and see if Ash will win that easy. His Hoenn Pokemon don't seem to me that they are as powerful as his Johto were, let alone his Kanto Pokemon. Those things were monsters."
"Did Ash train his Hoenn Pokemon less than he did his Johto ones?" Leaf asked Serena, as Serena is the only one in the group who has traveled with Ash through Johto and Hoenn.
"Actually… yeah, he did," Serena admitted. "I can't say anything about Kanto, as I wasn't there, but he did train his Johto Pokemon harder than he did his Hoenn group."
"I wonder why," Whitney wondered? "That doesn't seem like him."
"I can take a guess," Amber said, and all looked at her. "Ash likes to train his Pokemon and he likes the battles, but if you always win, it stopes being fun and interesting. I'm pretty sure that Ash trained his Hoenn Pokemon less than his Kanto and Johto, so that they wouldn't be as powerful as his older Pokemon were, and that way, his opponents will have better chance to defeat him, or at least give him a harder battle."
"Even if he did train his Pokemon less than before, he is still the best trainer in this tournament," Misty said. "I'd say that of all the trainers here, Amber and maybe Serena are the only ones who can give him problems, the others, not so much."
"Well, my friends are not pushovers," Amber said. "They are really good, and have some strong Pokemon. They can be a problem as well."
"There are also others who can be problematic," Zinnia said. "I've seen few matches, and there is that girl… Venus… she is very good with poison type Pokemon. Then there is a guy named, Tyson. He is also good, and can be a problem. Morrison isn't a slouch either."
"Yes, they are good," Whitney agreed with Zinnia. She has also caught several good trainers while she was watching the matches with Misty, Leaf and Zinnia. "But none of them are Ash. I don't think that any of the three can defeat him. Give him trouble… maybe. But not defeat him."
"And that's exactly the difference from Kanto and Johto," Amber said. "During the Indigo League and Silver Conference, none of them would have been able to give him trouble, but now they can. That shows that Ash has mellowed down on his Pokemon Training in order to have better battles."
In the end, they all had to agree with Amber. After that, they started to pay more attention to Ash's match, which was already under way, as it started a little while ago, after Dominic chose Tropius and Swalot as his Pokemon for this double battle.
XXX
The battle between Ash and Dominic was already on the way, and so far, the two trainers have been testing each other's power… well, Ash was testing the power of Dominic's Pokemon, while he was either dodging or countering Dominic's attacks.
Ash was doing this so he can see Dominic's skill level and his Pokémon's power and decide on how to win this in the end. He didn't want to go all out from the start and show too much, unless it was necessary.
"Tropius, Bullet Seed on Marshtomp!" Dominic said.
"Dodge," Ash said to his Pokemon, and Marshtomp jumped to the side, dodging all the bullet seeds. "Combusken, jump high in the air, and use Flamethrower on Tropius."
Combusken jumped as high as he could, and fired a powerful Flamethrower, which hit Tropius and sent him crushing into the ground.
"Marshtomp, Earthquake." Ash said as soon as Tropius hit the ground, and while Combusken was still in the air, though he was coming back down.
Marshtomp jumped into the air, and came back down, hard, causing the ground to start shaking, and making both Tropius and Swalot fight to stay up, and not fall to the ground. The shaking was very strong, and is causing the two Pokemon damage, even though as a flying type, Tropius shouldn't be affected, but while on the ground, it is affected.
Combusken came back on the battlefield from in the air, and even he grunted as the ground beneath his feet was shaking.
Soon the shaking stopped, leaving Marshtomp as the only unaffected Pokemon on the battlefield, though Combusken is in a much better shape than Swalot and Tropius.
"Combusken, use Bulk-Up," Ash said to his Fire/Fighting Type. "Marshtomp, use Mud Shot on Swalot."
"Swalot, counter it with Sludge Bomb!" Dominic said to his Swalot. "Tropius, use Solar Beam!"
Tropius started to glow, as it was gathering the sunlight for its attack, while both Marshtomp and Swalot, fired multiple balls of mud and sludge at each other.
The two attacks clashed against each other, mud against sludge, until they canceled each-other out.
Combusken was glowing red for a few moments, before his muscles increased in size, as his power increased as well.
"Combusken, use Overheat!" Ash said seeing that his Combusken was ready and fired the Overheat attack for the first time in today's battle, which means that it's powerful and when added the power-up from the Bulk-Up, it makes for one hell of a Fire attack.
Tropius finished gathering sunlight at the same time as Combusken fired the Overheat, and immediately, Tropius fired a Solar Beam. The two attacks clashed against each other, and started battling for dominance. Soon, Combusken's attack started overpowering Tropius's, as the Overheat was approaching the Grass/Flying Type Pokemon.
"Full power, Tropius!" Dominic shouted, making his Tropius push more power into its attack, which halted Combusken's advance for a few moments, but it didn't manage to push it back.
Ash smirked at this. "That's not going to work." He said to Dominic, who looked at Ash, before he looked back at his Pokemon, only to see that it was overpowered again. Just then, Combusken's Overheat overpowered Tropius's Solar Beam, and hit Tropius head-on, making the grass/flying type, scream in pain.
Once the fire and smoke cleared, Tropius was shows to be lying on the battlefield, unconscious.
"Tropius is unable to battle," the announcer said! "Which leaves Dominic with only Swalot against Ash's Combusken and Marshtomp, and they don't even look fazed after the battle so far!"
Dominic returned his defeated Pokemon, seemingly unfazed by the fact that he lost one of his Pokemon and is losing. "Swalot, use Shock Wave on Combusken!" Dominic said.
Swalot formed a blue orb in front of itself, before it fired a beam at Ash's Fire Type Pokemon.
"Intercept it, Marshtomp." Ash said, before his Water/Ground Type, jumped in front of Combusken, and took the Shock Wave, head on. But, as a part Ground Type, Marshtomp is unaffected by electric attacks, so it was useless. "Use, Dig." Ash said.
Marshtomp jumped up in the air, and the fell back down, head and arms first, before he disappeared underground.
"Be careful, Swalot," Dominic said to his Pokemon, while he looked around. "Marshtomp can come out anywhere."
"Combusken, use Flamethrower!" Ash said, and Combusken fired a powerful flamethrower from his mouth at Swalot.
"Dodge!" Dominic said to his Pokemon.
Swalot dodged the fire attacks, by jumping above it, but then just as it landed back down on the battlefield, Marshtomp jumped out from below the battlefield and right in front of the surprised Swalot. "Hydro Pump." Ash said immediately.
Marshtomp fired a Hydro Pump right in Swalot's face, making the poison type fly backwards from the force of the attack.
Swalot got back up and Dominic told it to use Shadow Ball on Marshtomp, but before it could fire the attack, Combusken appeared in front of Swalot, and kicked it using, Mega Kick. The attack wasn't that effective against a Poison Type, but it sent Swalot flying, allowing Marshtomp to jump in the air, above Swalot, and hit it with Mud Shot, which was effective against the Poison Type Pokemon.
Combusken struck Swalot with a Fire Punch, dealing it even more damage. Then Marshtomp used Bulldoze, and jumped at the ground, hard, creating a serious of shockwaves to spread across the battlefield and strike Swalot, who was sent flying behind his trainer, where it fell on the ground, rolled a few times, until it finally stopped. Once it stopped, everyone saw that its eyes have turned to swirls, indicating that Swalot was defeated.
"Swalot is unable to battle," the referee said. "Marshtomp and Combusken are the winners, and the qualifying victory goes to Ash!"
"What a win," the announcer shouted, as the crowd cheered! "Ash Ketchum makes a clean win, and advances to the next qualifying round!"
Combusken and Marshtomp look at Ash and smile at him, while he smiles back. Suddenly, both of them started to glow at the same time, halting the crowds cheering, as they all watch Ash's Pokemon evolve after their win.
XXX
At the end of the day, the qualifying rounds have all been finished, and 32 trainers have advanced to the victory tournament, while the rest have finished their participation in this year's Ever Grande Conference.
After Ash won his battle against Dominic, he had two more rounds to win, in order to get to the top 32. In the end, he was able to defeat both of his opponents, and have advanced.
Just like Ash; Amber and Serena have also advanced in the top 32. Along with them, Morrison is in top 32, as well as, Venus, all three of Amber's friends, and Brendan. Unfortunately for them, Sawyer and Wally have ended their participation in the qualifying rounds. Sawyer lost to Ash in the second match of the qualifying round, while Wally lost to Macy.
With the day of the qualifying rounds over, Ash and all those who have reached to the top 32, have been given a day to rest, before the victory tournament starts the day after tomorrow.
That night, after the end of the qualifying rounds, all of Ash's girlfriends, as well as Max and Delia, found themselves in the same room along with Ash. They all wanted to talk with Ash about what they talked about earlier today.
"What makes you think that I have trained my Hoenn Pokemon, less then I trained my Kanto and Johto?" Ash asked, after he was told about his girl's theory.
"We can tell that your Hoenn Pokemon are not as strong as your Johto were," Misty said, with others nodding. "I don't even want to talk about your Kanto Pokemon. They were in the League of their own."
"That's right, Ash," Serena said. "Since I traveled with you through Johto and Hoenn, I know how much you trained your Pokemon there and here, and I know that you trained your Hoenn Pokemon, less then you did your Johto. Of course, you still trained them more than I did mine, and more than anyone trains theirs, but still less than your previous groups of Pokemon."
"So, we want to know, why did you train your Hoenn Pokemon less then you did your Kanto and Johto?" Leaf said.
Ash thought about what his girls said and asked. He thought about that hard, and realized that he did train less than he did in the previous regions, but he also realized that he didn't do it on purpose, or consciously.
"I don't know," he said, surprising everyone. "I guess I unconsciously trained them less so that I can have harder battles, just like you said. I did get bored of always winning. No one wins as much as I did, not even dad was winning like I did, and he is… well… Anyway, I want to have tougher battles, but I can't have that if I train my Pokemon like crazy where they reach Elite Four or Champion level after just a year of training. Still, I didn't make a decision to train my Pokemon less then I normally do. I most likely did it subconsciously. On top of that, let's not forget that a lot of things have happened since I came here in the Hoenn Region. Because of Teams Aqua and Magma, as well as because of the Shadow Legion, we have had a lot of problems, and that took the time away from the training."
Everyone had to agree with Ash's second reason for training less. They did have a lot of problems in Hoenn, especially because of the Shadow Legion.
What they didn't understand, is Ash's first reasoning for training his Pokemon, less then he normally does. They said that to him.
"Ash," Cynthia spoke. "I understand your desire for tougher battles, but you can't just stop training your Pokemon, hoping that someone will give you a good battle. You need to train your Pokemon as best as you can, and make them as powerful as they can be, regardless if someone can battle against them after that, or not. You owe it to them. How do you think your Hoenn Pokemon will feel when they find out that they are not as powerful as your older Pokemon because you decided to train them less then you did your older Pokemon? They might start to resent you and your older Pokemon, and you don't want that to happen, do you?"
Ash shock his head. "Then get back to how you were in Kanto. Train your Pokemon the same way you did back then, and don't worry about finding trainers who can battle against you on the equal field. There are no trainers in the world who are as good as you, and you know that. You are the best, and you should act like it, no matter what."
Ash thought about it for a while, before he sighed. He has a mistake to fix, and it will not be easy, but he will have to do it one way or another, and he will start with it tomorrow morning.
XXX
The next day, since it was free and there were no battles in the tournament, Ash went far away from the Ever Grande City, and into the forest, so that he can be away from the eyes of everyone else.
Last night's conversation with his girls pointed out to him that he has failed his Hoenn Pokemon, and thus, he has decided to fix that mistake by training them better. Now normally, it would be too late for any kind of training since the League tournament has already started and one day of training won't help much, but it's a start and it will show his Pokemon what to expect for the next few months, during which he will stay home and train his Hoenn Pokemon until they reach the level of power his Johto Pokemon are at, before he trains both groups to catch up to his Kanto Pokemon.
After a while of walking, Ash found a clearing in the forest, several kilometers away from the City, and decided that it's a nice place to train. He went and released all 12 of his Hoenn Pokemon, who stood next to each other, and looked at Ash, waiting to hear what he has to say.
Ash looked at his Pokemon for a few moments, before he said. "I'm sorry," Ash said, getting raised eyebrows from his Pokemon. They didn't know what was going on and why was Ash apologizing. "Ever since I started traveling, I've always been winning, and in a way, I got tired of it. Because of that, I have subconsciously decided to train all of you less than I did my Kanto and Johto Pokemon, which is why right now, you are not as strong as they were during the Indigo League and Silver Conference.
"I know that you were expecting me to train you to the best of my abilities, and I have failed you, so once again. I'm sorry." After he apologized, Ash looked at his Pokemon and waited to hear what they will have to say about this.
All 12 of Ash's Hoenn Pokemon huddled together in a circle and started to talk. They talked for a few minutes, with Ash staying away, without even trying to hear what they are speaking. He will simply wait and hear what they have to say, when they are ready.
Eventually, Ash's Pokemon stopped talking to each other, and looked at him. As arguably the strongest among the group, Ash's Dusknoir floated forward and said. "We have spoken and decided to forgive you," Dusknoir said, making Ash smile. "I have seen your other Pokemon back in your home town and I knew how powerful they were, which I admit surprised me that neither I, nor any of the other Pokemon here were that strong. Now that you have explained yourself, we know why that is. Still, even though we forgive you as we understand your reason, we wish for you to train us from now on, just as you trained your Kanto Pokemon. We want to be just as powerful as they are."
Ash nodded at his Pokemon with a smile on his face. Soon that smile turned into a grin, which scared his Pokemon a little bit. It looked insane, and not something that should be on Ash's face. He is scary enough as he is, so that grin is unnecessary.
"Then you should prepare for hell… as that is what awaits you." Ash said, making all of his Pokemon, back away from him a little bit, while they also broke into a cold sweat.
XXX
The day of the start of the victory tournament has come, and the first battles on the center battlefield have already started.
In the very first battle, Serena battled and defeat a girl named, Katie, from Lilycove City. Serena's battle lasted a while, as Katie has proved to be a good trainer with strong Pokemon and is a good tactician. She was able to corner Serena several times during the course of their battle, but in the end, Serena won.
Just as she planned, Serena has started to use only her Flying and part flying type Pokemon right from the start of the battle, and that is something that wasn't missed by anyone. It made the crowd, as well as the announcer wonder if Serena is a hoping to become a Flying Type Pokemon master one day.
The six Pokemon which Serena used for the battle against Katie were, Archen, Flamingo, Bombirdier, Wattrel, Noivern, and Swallow. Four of the six Pokemon are the ones she got at the Swap Meet in Lilycove City, so they are relatively new, but she did train them… somewhat, and thought that they will be enough to get her through the first round, especially with Noivern and Swallow as the last two Pokemon. In the end though, she was barely able to win, and that's only after she lost her four new Pokemon and sent out Swallow, who still lost after she took out two of Katie's Pokemon. Finally, Noivern was able to defeat Katie's last Pokemon with ease, and Serena went to the eight-finals.
The next to battle, at least of those that Ash knew, was Macy, who went up against Brendan. She was able to win in the end, as she is a more experienced trainer, and has been traveling and training her Pokemon for a while, while Brendan has been a trainer for only a year and this was the first time he was participating in the Regional Tournament.
Just like when Serena was using only flying type Pokemon, and the crowd wondered if she wants to be a flying Pokemon trainer; Macy did the same thing, as she used only Fire, or part fire type Pokemon. The crowd wondered about her goal as a Pokemon trainer.
Unlike Macy, Casey has lost in the top 32 round. She went up against Venus, and was defeat, though it was a tough battle for both trainers, who have shown to be very good, and have trained their Pokemon well. Venus has also shown to the world that she is very good with Poison Type Pokemon, and has all but told them that she will pursue her dream of becoming a Poison Type Pokemon mistress.
Morrison has passed into the top 16 by defeating some unknown trainer. The same goes for Tyson, who Ash's girls have been paying attention at, as he is proving to be a great trainer and has a very powerful Meowth. He could be a threat to everyone, including Ash, Amber and Serena.
Then, it was time for Ash to have his match.
Yesterday, he has trained his Pokemon into the ground, until they were all beaten and bruised to the point that they all had to spend the night in the Pokemon Center under the Nurse Joy's tender care.
The way Ash trained them yesterday is very different they he ever trained them. He would usually either help them learn new moves, trained their speed and stamina, or have them spar. Yesterday though, he had all 12 of them, battle against HIM, at the same time. As such, it was no surprise to anyone except them, that they were beaten-up so badly, as none of Ash's Hoenn Pokemon have ever seen him fight, unlike his Kanto Pokemon who he has spared with many times while they were traveling though Kanto.
Because of the excessive training yesterday and the beating they took, Ash's Pokemon were not at 100% for the battle in the victory tournament, but they had to push through, as in the end, they were the ones who asked Ash to train them harder.
Ash had luck that his opponent in the top 32 round, was not that good, so he was able to win, though barely, as he has lost four out of six Pokemon, which is a lot considering that his opponent was nothing special. After that match Ash thought that if he has battled against anyone of his friends or acquaintances, he would have lost.
The Pokemon that Ash used in that battle were, Chandelure, Finizen, Frigibax, Gholdengo, Glalie, and Dusknoir. All but Chandelure and Dusknoir were defeated, though in Frigibax's case, he was defeated after he evolved into Arctibax.
After Ash's battle, Amber had hers, and she whipped the floor with her opponent, showing everyone her skill and the power of her Pokemon.
After Amber's battle, and after everything that was seen in the tournament so far, the announcer has even stated that Amber is considered the #1 contender for the win of the Ever Grande Conference this year. She was given higher chances of winning the whole thing then even Ash did, even though Ash is well known as the winner of all the regional tournaments he has participated in.
The final battle of the top 32 round, was the one in which Marina participated. She won that round, and has advanced into the top 16. She won without too much trouble, and has shown to be a very skilled Pokemon Trainer, whose fighting style is very similar to those who participate in the Pokemon Contests.
XXX
At the end of the day, Ash and girlfriends, along with their friends, all gathered and had dinner together. Some of them were not really in the mood for dinner, because they either lost, like Casey; or haven't had the best round, like Serena and Ash.
In Ash's case though, he isn't angry because he nearly lost, but because he had overdone it in beating-up his Pokemon during training yesterday, so they weren't healthy enough for the battle today.
Serena though, was angry at herself for not putting more time into training her new flying type Pokemon which nearly cost her the match. Though she did understand that she can't train all of them at the same time, and that she might have made a mistake to only battle using her flying type Pokemon, when they are not ready. Still, she will continue to battle only using her flying type Pokemon, though she won't limit herself to only those she caught in Hoenn Region, but she will use her older ones as well.
The night was spent socializing and talking with each other, before everyone went to bed, so they can rest for the next day of battle, especially those who are participating in the tournament.