[Blaze Black 2 Redux] Does the first Colress fight come down to pure encounter luck?

I seem to be walled by him (specifically his fan rotom) no matter what is in my box. Nothing I’ve obtained in my past few runs can do any 2 in combination of outspeed , significantly damage, or tank damage from his fan rotom. Is there some secret sauce or encounter or TM I haven’t obtained that levels the playing field a bit?

For context I’m capping my self at his ace’s level of 28 and playing with your standard HC rules. Usually choosing Oshawott as my starter but considering Tepig to see if that might help.