Chapter 623

After the livestream started, the number of viewers surged at rocket speed, and the density of bullet comments on screen instantly exploded, almost covering the entire screen.

【Teacher Yu actually knows senryu? Professor Oak exclaimed, "You're a pro!"】

【The most reliable—our Tyranitar is just too strong, it brings its own system while being both bulky and high-damage output—how could there be a Pokémon that needs this much skill to use?】

【As expected, has Teacher Yu already defaulted the sandstorm team's weather setter to be Lao Ban? The Hippowdon single-pusher is crying in the bathroom, wuwuwu……】

【Hippowdon……you go train for ten thousand years, stand up and become Hippoman before coming back to fight Tyranitar for the big brother spot on the sandstorm team!】

【Not Tyranitar? Even if you can't beat it, there's still Explosion—nobody wants to live!】

One senryu not only clarified the theme of this livestream but also sparked the audience's discussion about who gets the head seat among the Sandstorm Brothers.

Qingyu expressed great satisfaction with this.

It seems the audience should also quite like this style.

"As the impromptu senryu just said, in this sandstorm team, our team's absolute core has already been appointed—it's one of the late-blooming Pokémon, the Sandstorm King Tyranitar!"

"As for why it's the core……the reason has already been placed in this senryu."

Speaking of the sandstorm team, the eternal unchanging core role is forever Tyranitar.

While silently thinking, Qingyu quickly opened Pokémon·Champion, dragged Tyranitar into the team, and set it as the first Pokémon.

And its appearance, the audience had actually already guessed it long ago.

【As expected, Tyranitar as the weather setter—just looking at it gives a sense of stat beauty……】

【Who wouldn't like a Pokémon that's both handsome and powerful? Teacher Yu usually plays quality tactics just for fun, but when the intensity goes up, you still have to look at the stats!】

【If nothing unexpected happens, the mega user should also be Lao Ban, right? Then bring a Mega Garchomp as the damage dealer, forming a standard Sandstorm Brothers?】

(Tyranitar)

"As a highly discussed pseudo-legendary, Tyranitar's own stats are already very impressive."

"Its defense and attack both over 100, combined with the powerful Rock and Dark offensive typings, allow it to both attack and defend in battle."

"It can unleash violent offense when advancing and has solid durability when retreating—truly quite versatile."

Qingyu continued explaining Tyranitar's tactical value.

The combination of these two offensive typings seems slightly problematic at first glance, exposing seven weaknesses including quadruple weakness to Fighting, but……

Because its durability is excellent, aside from the Fighting-type weakness, the other weaknesses are actually not fatal to Lao Ban.

In fact, it even allows for a special playstyle of boosting power by insulating against weaknesses, using Blood Switch to gain terrifying combat power, even enabling easy team pushing.

"Plus, Tyranitar's own ability is Sand Stream, so it likely brings sandstorm weather upon entry, and can further gain the effect of sandstorm boosting Rock-type Pokémon's special defense, further solidifying its defensive capability."

"Compared to other weather setters, Tyranitar is simply too versatile."

In fact, whether it's Hippowdon, Tyranitar, or even Sandaconda as weather setters, they each have their own unique uses, but in terms of general applicability, Qingyu still prefers using the classic Lao Ban.

Although it's not a Dragon Pokémon, Lao Ban's design prototype is the cinematic giant Godzilla, so it also belongs to the Monster Egg Group, its move pool is incredibly extensive, and it can even learn the noble Dragon Dance.

Aside from being easily OHKOed by a close-combat move, it's flawless in all other aspects.

The fusion of stats and mechanics ultimately gave birth to this sandstorm team's sole king.

Therefore, Qingyu said Tyranitar is the absolute core of the sandstorm team.

This is not exaggeration, but a statement of fact.

And in the version after Mega Evolution was implemented, Tyranitar further enjoyed the version's benefits.

"The mega user for the sandstorm team is indeed exactly what everyone thought—I chose Tyranitar."

Qingyu spoke, continuing to explain.

"Besides the stat boost from evolution, the fact that it retains Sand Stream after evolution is also extremely crucial."

"Two Sand Streams may seem wasteful, and it would be better to have an ability that boosts speed or output, but actually, sometimes it can even turn the tide."

"Because during the weather war, Tyranitar can use Mega Evolution to retrigger Sand Stream, reclaiming the lost sandstorm weather, almost guaranteeing it will always have sandstorm cover when it acts."

Just this one trick makes Tyranitar worthy of this precious mega slot.

"Of course……actually, it also has something to do with the other mega user in the sandstorm team being slightly underwhelming."

Saying this, Qingyu couldn't help but smirk slightly.

【It appeared—after so many days, Teacher Yu is indeed sniping at Garchomp again—how can this person be so awful!】

【Not sniping—I used it once and knew, the feel is truly terrible, the kid is already autistic……】

【To be honest, Teacher Yu is actually right this time……I thought Mega Garchomp would be strong after evolution, but then got one-shot by an Ice Pillar Fall from Galarian Darmanitan—who understands this redemption feeling? Wuwuwu……】

"I don't even remember saying who it was—why are you all guessing it's Garchomp? This time it's totally unrelated to me!"

Qingyu raised an eyebrow, skillfully using the blame-shifting trick.

The kid who sent the last bullet comment is indeed quite unlucky.

Who let Mega Garchomp still have that hidden Pickup ability?

"Garchomp's base 102 Speed basically suppresses Darmanitan's 95 Speed, but after mega evolution it becomes slower by a step—getting one-shot like this is indeed easy to break mentally……

"Since the trolls in the bullet comments are all saying Dragonite is useless, today we'll bring one to prove its strength!"

"Of course, because the mega slot is already taken by Tyranitar, so we can only wrong it into being a little brother~"

The sandstorm team can only have one mega user—that is……

Tyranitar!

【Garchomp: You call this human speech?】

【Teacher Yu seems to have said nothing, yet also seemed to have said everything……】

【If Champion Zhulan were in the livestream right now, wouldn't it be fun? Go home and kneel on the washboard!】

【Impossible, absolutely impossible!】

Besides Tyranitar and Garchomp, these two late-blooming Pokémon, Qingyu added a Diglett to the team.

It has the Sand Rush ability and outstanding combat power, making it a core member as well—in the sandstorm system, it will directly become a blade, quickly seizing initiative and causing the opponent to lose a member.

By this point, the core of the Sandstorm Brothers had already taken shape.

In my view, the Sandstorm team's thinking is somewhat similar to that of the Rain team, but with significant differences.

Gazing at the three Pokémon in the team editor, Qingyu quickly added two more sentences.

"Due to the differing weather effects, Sandstorm's own buff leans more toward defense, its impact on opponents is not obvious, and it does not directly boost offense, so there's no need to include too many Pokémon of the corresponding type in the team."

"Just looking at these three Pokémon, one can intuitively sense that Ground, Rock, and Steel types have clear defensive weaknesses, especially their ability to wall Fighting types is extremely poor."

"Therefore, just like with Rain, we still need to supplement the team with some Pokémon that expand walling capabilities."

In the game, such a classic scene sometimes appears:

When the Sandstorm team is cornered in the endgame, the Sandstorm summoned by a teammate becomes the final straw that breaks the camel's back, ultimately leading to a regrettable defeat.

When first getting into Pokémon battles, young Qingyu would also think—

Since Sandstorm harming allies is a foreshadowing, wouldn't it be better to just use Pokémon in the team that are unaffected by Sandstorm?

A rather simple idea; now, looking back, it seems a bit naive.

Even a newcomer like myself knows Sandstorm screws over teammates, so the top players must be even more aware, yet they still ended up making this choice.

Ultimately, it's because the effect of Sandstorm weather is somewhat lackluster, forcing a compromise out of necessity.

Sunny/Rain weather itself boosts the battle power of corresponding-type Pokémon, and the benefit of gaining priority through abilities is very obvious.

But Sandstorm is different—aside from boosting the special defense of Rock-type Pokémon, it almost only deals non-discriminatory, insignificant continuous damage.

Pure Sandstorm teams have mediocre offensive capabilities and extremely poor walling, so their strength is obviously not high.

Rather than saying Sandstorm weather is strong, it's more accurate to say that Tyranitar, Garchomp, and Excadrill are powerful enough on their own, forming a Sandstorm core with astonishing strength, which propped up half of Sandstorm's presence in the early days.

Therefore, since we're discussing Sandstorm teams, Qingyu naturally wants to focus on them.

Meanwhile, the other three Pokémon serving as supporting leaves were quickly decided upon.

Washing Rotom, Scizor, and Skarmory.

"The washing machine's walling capabilities are very strong, and it also has some disruptive ability, allowing it to wall many troublesome Pokémon in a Sandstorm team."

"Scizor's role is similar to before, and if we drag the opponent into a slow pace, due to Sandstorm's ongoing effect, its Bullet Punch also gains some finishing capability."

"As for the last one, Skarmory..."

Qingyu paused, then smiled.

"Do you remember when I previously introduced the Spikes team? Combining it with Sandstorm can further increase the opponent's walling burden and also further boost the team's finishing capability."

Setting up Spikes at the start is itself a very common move in singles, so this is also a good opportunity to have the students 'review' their lessons.

The Sandstorm battle mode is very flexible—when favoring offense, we can rely on Tyranitar to quickly set up the weather, then use the Sandstorm Brothers' battle power to swiftly defeat the opponent;

when facing lineups that trouble them, we can rely on Skarmory, this all-purpose shield, to lead with Spikes, establishing an advantage while also avoiding the predicament of Tyranitar being knocked out by a close-combat move right at the start.

【Hiss—just listening already gives me goosebumps, Teacher Yu, don't make me recall the terrifying memory of all those Spikes teams in ranked matches back then!】

【Since Teacher Yu became famous, the ranked environment has become increasingly absurd…… Teacher Yu has done all kinds of bad things!】

【Teacher Yu, the best spokesperson for thick-soled boots, I have a feeling that after today, the usage rate of thick-soled boots will absolutely skyrocket by several tiers.】

【Come to think of it…… are Teacher Yu's points about to break into the Master Ball tier?】

After the team was built, Qingyu quickly began matchmaking.

While waiting for the opponent, he casually glanced at the barrage, then quickly shifted his gaze to the top-right corner of the ranked interface.

Although he doesn't usually play ranked, with only about one hour of streaming time per week used for climbing, his win rate is still very high.

Therefore, after being reminded by the barrage, Qingyu only then realized—

I've already reached 105th place, as if I'm about to advance to Master Ball?

The top 100 on the game ladder corresponds to the number of participants in the first round of the Master Tournament.

When he first started considering using streaming to drive traffic to the gym, he once came up with a somewhat clickbaity name.

《From Zero to Master Ball! 》

But as streaming and the gym career both flourished, he has now become nearly the most famous trainer in all of Paldea, and this bit has actually been almost forgotten by him.

However, although it came a bit late, it can also be considered as quickly achieving his small goal back then.

Based on his current points, this match is likely his Master Ball promotion match.

Thinking of this, Qingyu's gaze suddenly became sharper.

If so...

Then let's be a bit more serious!

Perhaps it's indeed because of the promotion match, this time the matchmaking speed was much faster than Qingyu expected—less than a minute.

After Qingyu decisively pressed the confirm button, the opponent's information quickly appeared before his eyes.

Familiar golden hair flowing in the wind, a black windcoat fully displaying queenly poise, making the woman on screen look both heroic and dignified.

Behind her, the furious Garchomp glared with wide eyes, as if ready to attack at any moment.

Upon seeing this trainer's custom appearance, Qingyu was somewhat dumbfounded.

Because...

Opponent's Trainer ID: Myth Scholar Zhulan.

【??? Holy crap, is it really this coincidental? Just now Teacher Yu was trash-talking Garchomp, and now we've run into Zhulan sister's righteous punishment?】

【Not a coincidence—combining the well-known relationship between Champion Zhulan and Teacher Yu, plus her occasional appearances in the stream before…… I have sufficient reason to suspect that Zhulan sister is actually screen-peeking, intentionally coming to snipe Teacher Yu!】

【Good good good, I want to see exactly this! Teacher Yu isn't just into bullying Mengmeng, right? This time's Mengmeng—see if you dare to fight!】

【For Teacher Yu, this is truly a major problem—be careful, winning the match but losing life, oh~】

【Gah, being able to witness such a clash of titans, plus a post-match skit—even if I die, it's worth the ticket price!】

"……"

After glancing at the barrage, Qingyu's mouth corners quickly began to twitch uncontrollably.