novelraw Chapter 297 The Silver Tournament of Reform, 8 Master Qualifying Spots!
Chapter 297 The Silver Tournament of Reform, 8 Master Qualifying Spots!
Chapter 297 The Silver Tournament of Reform, Eight Masters Preliminary Round Spots!
This address of "Ancestor" even broke the composure of Shinji, who had maintained a cold and expressionless face. Among the people present, who could earn the Champion's title of "Ancestor"? It was clearly not Ash or the others, so that left only—that Dragonite!
"Come out and get some fresh air with the young people. Don't mind me, just follow the procedures as usual." A deep voice resonated in everyone's hearts, and Xiao Mao looked at Long Yuan with a shocked expression.
"This Dragonite can talk?!"
"Shigeru! Be polite. This is the patriarch of the Dragonite clan on Dragon Island, with unimaginable strength," Lance whispered sternly.
If it were any other dragon, even the head of a clan, Lance would never be this serious. But this Dragonite is different. He is not only the head of the Dragonite clan, but also a divine-level Pokémon!
Because of his status and strength, even the entire Dragon Clan had to treat him with utmost respect, let alone a rookie trainer like Gary.
"The head of the Dragonite clan—Mr. Lance, you must be joking, right? How could Ash be riding on the head of the Dragonite clan?" Gary said in disbelief.
However, this sentence made Lance's eyes widen in disbelief. What did he mean by Ash riding the head of the Dragonite clan?! Explain yourself!
"It was Dragon Source who brought us out, Mr. Lance. He's a very nice Dragonite!" Ash said with a grin, patting Dragon Source on the shoulder.
A-Du: ————
At this moment, Lance felt completely bewildered. Although he knew Ash was known for his unpredictability, he never expected him to be this surprising! Had he already become sworn brothers with Dragon Source?!
Only three days! Aren't your social skills a bit too exaggerated?
In the end, Lance and the others left under the watchful eyes of Dragon Source. When they left, Lance still had that incredulous look on his face. Who would have thought that the only God-level Dragonite on Dragon Island would be defeated by Ash in just three days?
A-Du even suspected that if it weren't for the fact that Dragon Source needed to be stationed on Dragon Island, he might have run off with Ash!
If that were the case, the Dragon Clan would probably be in chaos. Even though Ash and the others are allowed to catch Pokémon as they please, you can't just kidnap the leader of Dragon Island!
That is not only the anchor of Dragon Island, but also the anchor of the Dragon-Riding Clan!
Fortunately, that situation did not occur. Longyuan seemed to like Xiaozhi, but it was not to the point that he wanted to go with Xiaozhi.
A-Du was also very curious about what kind of Pokémon Ash had caught and why it had attracted the attention of the Dragon Source. However, these matters had to be discussed in private. After sending Ash and the others back, they still had to go back to the Dragon Clan.
Although Dragon Island's secrecy has been well maintained, some cleanup work still needs to be done to ensure its existence is not exposed. Also, it seems that Dragon Source has something to tell the Dragon Taming Clan.
Therefore, A-Du's question had to be postponed for the time being.
Ash and his friends returned to the Indigo Plateau. Ash was thinking of saying hello to Shinji and asking him what Pokémon Shinji had caught, but Shinji left without saying a word.
In addition, Gary successfully caught the Pokémon Ash mentioned. The main reason was that the Pokémon had a rather unique status in the group. Pokémon with S-rank talent usually have something different about them, so Gary easily identified which Pokémon Ash was referring to as having unique talent.
Although it took some time to gain the other party's recognition, the final result was a close call, and he successfully made a good harvest on Dragon Island.
"What are you going to do next?" Ash asked Gary on the way back to Pallet Town.
"I need to train my Pokémon well and prepare for the Silver Conference. This year's Silver Conference is going to be amazing. If I don't participate, I'll probably regret it for the rest of my life." Gary said firmly, holding his backpack in one hand and looking up at the blue sky and white clouds.
"Was it exciting? Is this year's Silver Conference different from the previous ones?" Ash tilted his head, somewhat puzzled.
After visiting the Orange Islands, he also planned to attend the Silver Conference, but the Silver Conference described by Shigeru seemed to be a little different from what he knew about it.
The Silver Conference is not a beginner-level trainer tournament like the Indigo League. The Silver Conference features a constant stream of powerful trainers, and the trainer who wins the Silver Conference can even directly challenge the Elite Four and Champions.
The champion of the Indigo League can only initiate the Elite Four battle. However, even for the Elite Four battle, the champion of the Indigo League has never exercised this right. After all, it would be ridiculous to let a trainer who has been in the industry for less than two years initiate the Elite Four battle.
The Silver Tournament champion has a real precedent of challenging the King, after all, to become the King, besides working diligently under the league, only the tournament champion should have the qualifications to become the King.
Therefore, fully-fledged league tournaments such as the Silver League and the Rainbow League are still very attractive to trainers, including many trainers with Elite Four level strength.
Even encountering the champion in the tournament wouldn't be unusual, but meeting the champion might only happen once every ten years. If you do, you can only say you're unlucky.
This year's Silver Conference has been reformed.
"Didn't you see the news? Didn't they just release the rules a couple of days ago? The champion of this year's Silver Tournament will qualify for the Masters Qualifier."
"The Eight Masters Qualifying Tournament!" Ash exclaimed. "What's that?"
Xiaomao:————
You don't know what the Eight Masters Qualifying Tournament is, so what are you so surprised about!
"You must know about the Eight Masters Tournament, right?"
"Of course!"
"Half a year has passed since the last Eight Masters Tournament, and the next one—that is, the current Eight Masters Tournament—is being prepared. The venue will still be the Galar region, because the first place winner of the last Eight Masters Tournament was Mr. Leon, who belongs to the Galar region. In order to have an advantage in terms of venue, it is only natural that this year's Eight Masters Tournament will be held in the Galar region."
"This year's Masters Tournament is tentatively scheduled for eight months from now, which means the Masters Tournament will be held one month after the Quartz Conference ends. During this month, the Masters Qualifying Tournament will be held."
Xiao Mao explained everything to Xiao Zhi in great detail, just like a mother hen.
The so-called Eight Masters Qualifying Tournament is naturally a selection process for participants in the Eight Masters Tournament. Currently, there are seven major leagues in the world: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola.
Neither the Kanto nor the Alola League has a champion, and the Alola League doesn't even have an Elite Four member. However, they do have trainers who are comparable to the Elite Four members, but their titles are not Elite Four members; instead, they are called Island Masters.
In reality, the island lords of the Alola region are equivalent to the Elite Four members of other regions, only with different titles.
However, the Alola region ultimately has no champion, so it is not eligible to participate in the Masters Tournament.
That's right, to qualify for the Eight Masters competition, you need to become the champion!
If you are the champion of the league region, you can directly participate in the Masters World Championship.
There are eight slots for the World Championships, and currently only five champions from the seven regions have been selected. This means that the remaining three slots will be determined through other competitions or rule changes.
The league does have a plan for a national ranking tournament, but the short six months is not enough time to prepare. So the plan will have to wait until the next Masters tournament to be implemented. The number of participants in this year's Masters tournament will be determined by the preliminary rounds.
There are two criteria for determining the eligibility of participants in the preliminary rounds. One is that the four kings of each region are eligible to participate in the preliminary rounds. Only those who become kings are eligible to participate in the preliminary rounds.
The other one is the champion of the Silver Tournament!
As long as you can become the champion of the Silver Tournament, you will also have the qualification to participate in the qualifiers, so the competition in this Silver Tournament will be particularly fierce!
Although for some powerful trainers, this is not the only option to participate in the Masters Qualifier. Some people are qualified to challenge the Elite Four. As long as they defeat the Elite Four and obtain the Elite Four title, they can also participate in the Masters Qualifier.
What are the chances of defeating the Heavenly King?
Don't say that you have to defeat every opponent to become a champion. Just because you can't win now doesn't mean you can't win in the future. The most important thing is to qualify for the competition first.
Compared to defeating the King, the chances of standing out in the Silver Tournament are naturally greater.
So no matter what, this year's Silver Tournament is probably going to be a battle of titans!
"There's such a thing?!" Ash exclaimed in surprise.
It's one thing for the Quartz Conference to undergo reforms, but now even the Silver Conference has changed. What's going on these past two years? Why are such important competitions like the League Conference being changed so frequently?
However, this change is actually a good thing for Ash. If it weren't for the changes to the Silver Conference, Ash wouldn't know how to participate in this year's Masters Tournament. Although becoming an Elite Four member would qualify him for the preliminary rounds, becoming an Elite Four member requires winning the Silver Conference to qualify for the challenge.
As for his Quartz Conference challenge qualification, it will expire the next day if he doesn't use it on the spot. There's no way to keep it. So if he wants to challenge the King, the only way is still to become the League Conference champion.
But then again, with Ash's connections, he doesn't necessarily need to win the championship to challenge the Elite Four.
In any case, the reforms to the Silver Tournament have greatly affected its competitive level. Originally, the tournament might have only produced a few Champion-level trainers at most, but with these changes, even hidden Champion trainers might emerge.
After all, winning the championship guarantees a spot in the preliminary rounds, which is much simpler than challenging a superstar. This simplicity comes not only from the difficulty of the challenge but also from the level of trouble involved.
Initiating a King of Kings tournament is a very complicated process. It can take anywhere from ten days to half a month from initiation to the actual start of the match, with a whole host of procedures to go through. So for most people, becoming the Silver Tournament champion is a more realistic option.
It's hard to say whether Ash was lucky or unlucky, but Ash himself thinks he was lucky.
If it were any other trainer who had only been in the industry for six months, upon hearing the news of the Silver Tournament reforms, they would probably feel like the sky was falling. How could they possibly compete under these circumstances?
But this is Ash. For Ash, it simply adds a little more challenge, which makes him more excited and makes it easier for him to get a spot in the qualifiers. Why not?
"Besides the changes to the tournament, there are some other minor changes that may affect gym leaders in all regions. The specific policies haven't been released yet, so we'll have to wait and see. I suspect that gym badges obtained in other regions may also be usable at the Silver Tournament, which is probably due to a rule change."
"No way! How many people would have to participate in the Silver Conference if that were the case?!" Ash exclaimed incredulously, his eyes wide.
If badges from other regions can also be used, then what's the difference between this and turning it into a global alliance conference?
With the enticing rewards, it's likely that the number of participants will exceed a thousand in the blink of an eye. While collecting eight badges is certainly difficult, the Quartz Conference already has hundreds of participants. With the Silver Conference changing its rules like this, it's perfectly normal for it to easily surpass a thousand.
With so many people participating, not to mention when the competition will be scheduled, managing it will also be a very troublesome matter. Even Ash can think of this, so how could the League not think of it?
"The number of participants may be the highest in history, and it is said that the Elite Four, champions and even gym leaders from all regions will come to help maintain order. In addition, the venue for the Silver Conference is being expanded and is estimated to be two or three times larger than it is now."
Ash looked at Gary with a strange expression and asked, "Where did you get all this inside information? The Silver Conference reforms are one thing, but these later things aren't just made up, are they?"
Xiao Mao rolled his eyes and replied irritably, "You're the one making this up! This information came from my grandfather, what do you know about it!"
Upon hearing this, Ash suddenly realized that it was Professor Oak who provided the information. That made sense; among all the people they knew, Professor Oak was the closest to them in obtaining firsthand information about the League.
"Mr. A-Du, you really shouldn't have told us about something this important!"
"They're the champions of the City Alliance, of course they have to keep some of the Silver Tournament reforms a secret. They're not going to tell you just because we're friends. Do you think everyone's my grandpa?!"
"Alright then—since the Silver Conference has been changed like this, I'll have to work even harder! I'll try to train at least six Elite Four level Pokémon before the conference starts!" Ash said ambitiously, waving his fist.
Gary remained silent, not refuting Ash, because if it were Ash, he really could do it—
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