As soon as the announcer said too begin the battle, Riley sent out his Alakazam. Riley grinned when his prediction of the Sandslash coming out first was correct. After watching Layla's battle against Zack, Riley had figured that the Sandslash would be sent out too setup and use stealth rock. Riley considered that one of the biggest threats to his team, especially Charizard. He didn't really have anything to counter ground types, so his Alakazam using one of its strongest attacks plus a boost from the life orb it was old ing should do the trick. Riley also didn't want to waste time. After what the manager told him last night, Riley would have to be able to defeat Layla with ease. Taking out Sandslash should be able to help with that. "Okay Alakazam, use a full power psychic on the Sandslash!" Riley commanded. Without hesitation, Alakazam's eyes glowed before Sandslash was lifted high into the air. The physical damage from the fall might hurt, but the mental damage would be worse. Once Sandslash was high enough, Alakazam let it fall to the ground. Once the dust cleared from the landing, Sandslash was knocked out.
Next, Layla sent out her Parasect and Riley immediately returned his Alakazam and sent out his Gengar. Bug types were super effective against psychic types and Riley figured he might need Alakazam later. When Gengar came out, it was hit by a leech life from the Parasect. It didn't seem that effective and Gengar shook it off. Layla must've figured that Gengar was going to use a super effective attack, so she switched Parasect out for Slowbro. However, Slowbro did take a full on sludge wave attack from Gengar. Layla had took a risk sending out Slowbro because even though psychic countered poison, ghost countered psychic. Gengar also had the speed advantage against a Pokemon named for being slow. "Gengar, use shadow ball." Riley order the ghost type. With a smile on its face, Gengar formed a sphere of shadows and shot it straight at the Slowbro. The Pokemon was so slow that it wasn't able to dodge and took the attack. It was sent flying and landed unconscious at Layla's feet.
Riley was a bit suprised when Layla sent out her Rapidash. He didn't see what advantage the Rapidash wound have against his Gengar. Since Gengar also didn't have its own advantage, Riley just made it use another sludge wave. The Rapidash took the attack head on and countered with a flamethrower. Gengar did take the attack and when it managed to escape, Riley could see that Gengar was heavily burned. However, other than the damage, the burn didn't really affect Gengar's attack stat because it was mainly a special attacker. "Gengar, finish it with another sludge wave." This time, Rapidash tried to run away from the wave, but it was eventually swallowed up and knocked out. It was now three to nothing in Riley's favor and he wondered if Layla was starting to feel discouraged. Gengar would maybe last atleast one more turn before it feinted so atleast Layla could say she got one of his Pokemon.
The crowd went wild when Layla sent out Shrub. Everyone believed that if anything, Shrub had what it took to turn the tide of the battle ever since her battle with Zack. They had literally jumped on the Shrub bandwagon. Well everyone except Riley. He could here people chanting Shrub throughout the whole stadium. It seemed they had forgotten about that Gengar was still barely standing. Riley was going to return Gengar, but it turned to Riley and gave him the look saying it wanted to fight the battle to the end. Riley nodded and respected his Pokemon's wish. Another wave of sludge came at Shrub and the crowd cheered when it continued to stand proudly. Everybody watched as a beam of wonderful light hit Gengar. It was moonblast, but Gengar was still standing. It stood up for a few more second before it succumbed to its burns. The crowd roared for Shrub believing that the comeback was beginning. Riley couldn't believe how much the crowd had jumped on the bandwagon. They must've forgotten about what Riley could do and it was time to remind them.
Riley decided that he would end the crowd's chanting of Shrub when he sent out his Charizard. He could hear the booing coming from the crowd, but he didn't care. They were probably expecting fire blast, but instead Charizard used a powerful air slash. The crowd got quiet as they saw Shrub get hit with the attack and fall to the ground. For a second, you could hear a little boy crying, then all of a sudden the crowd erupted into noise. Riley looked at Layla and mouthed 'sorry' to her. Riley figured that it would be all downhill from there and Layla might be discouraged. She did ask for Riley to go all out so in reality, he was just doing what she asked for.
Hupgup came out next and Riley was not going to lose to a Farfetch'd. Charizard used a fire blast on the Farfetch'd and it actually took the attack. Then too Riley's dismay, Layla ordered it to use roost. Now it was basically back to full health. "I'm not playing this game." Riley muttered to himself as he recalled Charizard and sent out Jolteon. As soon as it came out, Riley had no time give a warning as it was hit by a powerful slash attack, knocking it to the ground. The crowd must've though this was the second coming of Arceus because the roaring got louder and everyone stood up to see if Jolteon was still able to move. Thankfully for Riley, it was. Now Riley had to take a gamble. Jolteon would not be able to take another hit so Riley hoped that it would be able to outspeed Hupgup and take it out with a powerful thunderbolt. However, Riley was not expecting for Layla to recall Hupgup and send out her Parasect.
The Parasect took Jolteon's thunderbolt surprisingly well and Riley was left with another choice. However Jolteon gave him the same look as Gengar from before and Riley knew what he had to do. "Jolteon, thunderbolt one more time!" After tanking another powerful thunderbolt attack, Samuel used leech life, which took some of Jolteon's health and knocking out Jolteon at the same time. After returning Jokteon back to its pokeball, Riley sent Charizard out again. There was no way Parasect would be able to avoid an air slash unless Layla switched it out, which she didn't. Parasect took the super effective attack head on and feinted afterwards.
Layla only had Hupgup remaining and the crowd stood up for her, even though they knew the match was practically over. Riley wasn't going to keep the match going any longer and ordered Charizard to use fire blast and once again, Riley was left speechless as Hupgup was still standing. The crowd roared and cheered at this as they saw it as Hupgup's last stand. Even more unbelievable was the slash attack on Charizard. Hupgup literally brought Charizard to its knees with another clutch slash attack but not before Charizard had countered with an air slash. The crowd was even more louder than before with some Hupgup chanting going on. Charizard and Hupgup seemed to give some respect to each other before Hupgup fell to the ground. "Hupgup is unable too battle and that means Riley is the winner!" The crowd were on their feet as they cheered for both Riley and Layla.