[attr="class","howicontst1"]

[attr="class","howicontst2"]
As folks filed into their seats, it wasn't long until the lights all went off. Cue the smoke machines to give the stage some flare, followed by a loud KA-BOOM! to really set the mood. After the smoke and pyrotechnics cleared, multicolored lights shined before the colorful flame-haired host who stood proudly centerstage as he held his hands above his head to clap to the opening of the song that played to stage his entrance. After the drums cleared into the guitar part, he assumed the position to air-guitar his way to the microphone. The crowd seemed to go ballistic at his little display that was no more than a dorky adult who had more than enough stage presence to get the applause going.

Once he reached the microphone, he gripped it, tilted the stand to the side, and held it propped up with his foot as he grabbed the microphone itself off of it. He let the stand plop back down, the stand itself swaying side to side until it finally settled on its based without tipping over.

"HEY HEY HO, HOENN! How's everyone doing tonight?!"

The crowd gave an uproar to show how excited they were for the festivities to take off. Danny flashed them a grin as he threw his own pokeball into the air to release the Smoliv he'd caught a bit ago.

"I'm glad to hear that!" he offered to the cheers. "You guys know the drill! New guys like my boy Smoliver here have been popping up all over the place! Let's see what new faces we've got in our pokepal lineup and what new moves some old faces have got going for us!"

It wasn't long until he gestured behind him as the curtains drew back to reveal the six lovely contestants within the contest. Smoliver toddled quickly over to his trainer and hid right behind Danny's pantleg.

"Now give us a warm welcome for our participants tonight! Let's start off with a familiar face in the contest community! Andrea Vaneau who just so happens to be Silver Corps' last contest winner! Glad to have you back, our dragon master!"

The whole stadium practically shook with cheers and applause, some of the crowd members sporting dragon-styled kigurimi to support their favorite coordinator. They absolutely adored Doraemon in the last show, let's see how much they loved Gia!

"And let's give it up for our returning contestant and a fellow host via her work with the snowboy event last year -- which thank you for such an entertaining event -- luka chêne ! She was another contestant in our QTPI contest, let's see how Pavonearse fairs for her!"

He flashed the pink-haired official a thumbs up as if to wish her luck this go-around. People seemed absolutely charmed by her little Tandemaus, and they were more than happy to cheer for the duo pokemon. Most who cheered for Luka seemed to know her from her work in public relations and came to show support for such a respected official. Others knew her from her contest submissions and were charmed by her coordination prowess.

"All these familiar faces in the contest hall! mint frost is certainly one, and a talented streamer at that! Shoutout to you for checking out my game, Doki Doki Historica -- shameless plug, I know, but still much appreciated in your twitch coverage, friend!"

More cheers came from the crowd from the instagram famous entrepreneur and Mint's social media presence. Danny was certainly a follower of theirs and enjoyed the content provided. With the way the crowd gave an uproar of applause, it seemed the same for them. Danny could hear the outcries of 'there they are!' and 'he's so gorgeous in person! flawless!'

"And quite the exciting re-entry! Is this, perhaps, the same masked stranger, Mister Reeman, from our prior contest?! How lucky are we to have some returning faces, even though our mystery guest remains masked up!"

Whispers and speculations fell upon the crowd as they looked upon the stranger. Unbeknownst to them, and even Danny himself, the masked man was none other than the Delibird Deliveries deliveryman himself, Locke Jamison . Still, the brunette couldn't help but feel riled up in excitement from the sight of a mystery contestant. Things always got more exciting when an element of mystery was added! A few whispers picked out were ones of 'do you think he'll use his Latias again?!' and 'there's no way that's Mister Reeman! this guy looks a little different!'

"And let's not forget some newer faces in the contest crowd, @fritz ! We don't have any Corviknight flying around do we? Afraid his partner might take 'em out."

The crowd couldn't help but laugh at his joke. Those who cheered for the blonde knew him from his modeling work, and wished to see how well he did in the contest scene. It seemed most of the crowd was absolutely fascinated by his partner pokemon of choice in Tinkaton. It seemed to be a crowd favorite given its menacing nature towards the pokemon taxi service adopted from Galar.

"How about a hand for Miss LORELEI DU'MOT ?! She's got a classic pokemon in her Houndour, BUT! Let's see if this old dog can indeed learn some new tricks!"

The crowd didn't seem to go too wild for Lorelei. Though there were some suits seated within the crowd that seemed to give a polite golf clap. Business people could be so stuffy, but he digressed. Danny gave a cough as not to try and let the awkwardness of the situation hang too heavy. Soon enough, he allowed the spotlight to hit him once more and he picked up his Smoliv.

"Smoliver and I can't wait to see what all these trainers have in store for us! Let the show COMMENCE!"

With some more pyrotechnics to get the crowd riled up, blue sparklers mixed with glitter and confetti to match the cool aesthetic sprinkled down and showered the crowd in the first few rows.

REMEMBER TO ROLL FOR THE FIRST ROUND, FIRST ROUND POSTS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY JANUARY 18TH @ 11:59PM EST TIME