User blog comment:B214/Volume 23 discussion blog/@comment-27083298-20170415140706/@comment-10330822-20170416031308

You shouldn't bet against Issei consistently, he's been pulling crap out of his butt in terms of power for the last 8 volumes. XD

If he keeps losing, I feel he isn't learning, and I question what the point of this is. It seems a lot of people "want" Issei to lose because he wins too much. Yet the are foreshadowing power-ups for Issei in the form of a complete DxD, AxA, and maybe ExE.

No, Issei is just getting started, I'm pretty sure he's beating Typhon's team and Rias's. The question is if he is going to be beat Sona.

Something that could happen is that Issei adds Roygun to his team last minute, completely throwing Sona's plans off. That would be hilarious, because it seems Issei always unexpectantly screws up Sona's plans. He also could show case a new form of Pilingual in this match, since he show cased the original in Sona's match too.