Guys... I have a question so please hear me out... I've been following this thread since time immemorial... okay, it wasn't that long ago but it had been years now...
but as far as I can remember this topic hasn't been discussed before... or maybe it had been but I'm too lazy to check...
First off, I had reread the manga a few days ago concerning the captain battle for the quarterfinal up to before the semifinal begins in the main manga... after that I had some time so I re-watched some episodes of Saki season 1... then something hit me... it's about Kiyosumi's four schools combined training camp... now, anybody figured out where I'm getting at? this got to be a very big issue, right?
Here's some more... in achiga-hen, Harue told the achiga girls that during her time her team couldn't get a practice match even with elementary schoolers but the present rules state they can play anybody as long as they play with people who aren't National qualifiers like themselves... nobody in achiga girls entered the individuals so they're safe to challenge any team that didn't win the prefectural tournament regardless if such team has a member or members who qualified for the individuals...
Now, in the main manga... when Esui and Miyamori lost in the quarterfinal, remember how they ended up going to the beach together? But Coach Kumakura gave them a remainder that they can go together as long as those who will be playing in the individuals will play no games against each other...
Now, going back to Kiyosumi's four schools combined training camp... obviously, they had that after the team and individual prefectural tournament is over... Kiyosumi is Nagano's representative school for the Nationals... Saki and Nodoka are two out of three Nagano's representative individual players for the Nationals... then here comes Mihoko... Mihoko is one of the three Nagano's representative individual players for the Nationals... Mihoko is with the Kazekoshi team in that training camp... doesn't this put them in a very dangerous predicament? Okay, they are friends now and they can keep this under wraps.... but Fujita-pro was also there....
Well, they can still say that during the whole training camp that there wasn't a time that Mihoko ever played against either Saki or Nodoka but they have to prove it... well, Fujita-pro can back them up if ever that's the case... furthermore, that rule was never properly explained... does it apply to outside of school only players? does this mean Saki and Nodoka can't play with each other? Does this apply to outside of prefecture? if this rule applies to outside of prefecture then they're safe, right? Saki, Nodoka and Mihoko belong to Nagano then it's okay, right?
Yes, yes, these days I have a lot of free time...
well, what do you guys think?