#yeah i guess it's pretty easy for an earth bender to just shove a nonbender out of the ring BUT. maybe he uses something in the arena to

[petricorah]

i saw this post about probending zuko and got swept up in the euphoria of planning a zukka probending au before remembering sokka doesn't bend.

so anyway. pro bending sokka where he gets high on cactus juice and gets in an argument with katara and registers himself as a jerkbender, saying "i (hic) totally (hic) bet you i can beat all of you in pro bending tournament" and signs up high off his ass

he wakes up in the morning with Regret. But is too stubborn and arrogant to back down. so he goes. after all, he fights benders all the time, right? (he realizes one mistake when he's not allowed to bring weapons into the ring and is plopped into the arena completely defenseless)

he manages to beat the first few in a combination of smarts and dump luck. And yeah he gets bruised a lot but there's no way he's going to let katara say "i told you so" This is now for non benders Everywhere, okay?

and so he gets better about using the arena and the benders' strengths against them and his plans and he gets into further and further along. And maybe he spars and practices with Zuko because they're on opposite ends of the bracket and haven't fought each other yet. And Sokka always beats Zuko in swords but now the tables are turned, and how the hell is he going to beat Zuko at probending when he can't even take his eyes off his crush to spar?