User blog comment:B214/Shin DxD 1 discussion/@comment-30230931-20180804194539/@comment-28884330-20180806184443

Ravel has immortality, so you need to get past that before even thinking of bringing her down, not to count that even that argument of “Ravel can be focused!” can be done against Rias in this match-up with even more success. And the reason you need to engage Issei and not just Ravel is because otherwise you are letting a Heavenly Dragon-level player run free to wreak havoc. Simple as that. Rias being better than Issei in demonic power or magic is irrelevant because she’s not some prodigy with abilities on that that cannot be overcome by Issei’s superior power and utility, and she’s completely outclassed by Ravel in strategy. Rias does not have Cao Cao in her team and Issei facing Cao Cao can only happen in the finals due to the brackets, so mentioning him is irrelevant.

And when has a weaker team ever defeated a stronger one just by relying on better leadership? That has never happened, so you have no way of asserting that it can. It’s not like lack of leadership would affect any of the reasons I have for why Issei’s team has the advantage, unless there is some weird Rating Game rule for the Issei vs Rias match.