The First Tournament Match Finally Clicked

I smoked Leda and the beast

That is the update. Both fights are done, and I loved it.

This is what I was hoping Fortune's Weave would become. I wanted a team that felt powerful and capable rather than one overleveled protagonist trying to rescue everyone else. After all the detours, the restarted tournament preparation, the equipment changes and the leveling experiments, the first main match finally felt like a payoff.

I had been worried about walking into the tournament with my teammates in the low 20s. In the end, I didn't wait for everyone to reach 30. I fought with the team I'd built.

The final team I took to match time

The exact latest level of every character wasn't recorded, but this is the lineup immediately before the tournament, not a claim about post-battle level-ups:

Character	Approximate level	What made them ready
Cai	35	Armored Ornius Rider; Da Mina Spear +1, excellent Attack Speed
Jasmine	27	Armored Knight; dependable physical defender
Alexandra	25	Wing Soldier; I finally acquired her Da Mina Spear
Tialla	25	Priest; magic and healing
Yang Jie	25	Priest; magic and healing
Peter	25	Archer; restored or replaced Tempest Bow
Guzran	24	Myrmidon; Flyssa equipped

The lesson for my own save was simple: a focused level-24 unit with the right equipment could still be part of a winning team. I didn't need to delay the story for one more arbitrary level.

The leveling experiment that didn't pay off

Earlier, I saved and tested approximately 40 turns of Inn Auto-Leveling without committing to the result. Most characters didn't gain a full level; a few gained roughly one.

So I reloaded and went back to active dungeon fights. That gave me a better feeling of actual progress. By match time, nearly everybody was level 25 or very close.

This is one save's experiment, not a universal number for every unit, activity or chapter. It's enough for me to know what I prefer next time.

What I know about the Event Clash

The grid Match against Leda was followed by a distinct Event Clash with a demonic beast. Both are now finished on my save. My account here confirms the victory and the way I felt about it; it does not preserve an exact turn-by-turn record of which Links, items or spells I used.

For players preparing to fight it, I've put the community-tested tactics, Buccar's defensive role, Link Point decisions and retry options in my dedicated Cai vs. Leda guide.

What comes next

The story has given me 32 more turns before the next main quest. I'm not replaying the tournament, shopping for a replacement Tempest Bow, or following the old countdown advice as though Leda were still ahead.

Before I travel again, I want to read the new quest destination in the Journal/Foresight, inspect what new events and quests have opened, and then decide where this particularly satisfying team gets to go next.