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The first week of SPL 4 was filled with controversy, hax, upsets, alts, Brazilians, and probably ghosting. To start us off, let's look at the first matchup of the week: The Alpha Ruiners versus The Circus Maximum Tigers. This matchup was considered by many to be an easy win for the defending champions, and really, who can blame them? The Tigers were one of the worst ranked teams in SPL 3, and they certainly lack the big name players. The series started off as most people expected. Princess Bri and and Dimsun provided some early week victories for the defending champions and it seemed as if the Tigers hadn't gotten any better, with the exception of fewer VGC players this time around. Things began to change when Thatjustpeachy was able to defeat "LavosTour14" winner McMeghan largely due to a surprise Tyranitar set while TV-Rocka swept Delta-numbers with a Venusaur. Despite what haters like kd24 said, the Tigers managed to come back from a 3-5 deficit heading into the latter part of the weekend, and were in sight of defeating the defending champions. It all came down to Crystal_ vs RoyalFlush. RoyalFlush was desperate to prove that he wasn't the only Brazilian who would lose that week, and was also desperate to defeat the defending champions. The game ended in victory for RoyalFlush in standard GSC fashion: PP stalling once both players lacked any form of offense and after RoyalFlush managed to avoid a Double-Edge crit.
The second series of the week to discuss was between The Team Raiders and The Cryonicles. The series was fairly even throughout the week, but did have its highlights, such as Blim choking a game away to Faint. The Cryonicles began to pull away with their lead towards the latter part of the week with the aid of reyscarface's Metagross dodging M Dragon's Heracross's Megahorn. The only hope the Raiders had to tie the series was the game between future Pokemon XY tier leader TheFourthChaser and Blightbringer. Blightbringer's whereabouts were unknown for most of the week but he showed up on Sunday to squash the Raiders' chance of a victory.
Before the series between the Bigs and the Sharks had even started, it was already polluted with controversy. During the auction, the Sharks bid on and obtained a user by the name of Warhammer. What the Sharks knew that no one else did was that, Warhammer is actually a user by the name of Make, an infamous Mexican ADV OU player whose team has been used on the Smogon Tour for a few seasons. Kevin Garrett had originally ruled that Make would be allowed to play for the Sharks but he could not be retained. After a manager veto, Kevin Garrett changed his ruling, Warhammer was banned, Make wasn't allowed to play for the Sharks, and the Sharks lost their ADV player. After threatening to quit SPL, the Sharks realized that no one really cared if they quit and they decided to go compete anyways. The loss of Make seemed to have chomped the gills of the Sharks. They lost four games in a row, and it seemed like they had no chance to make a comeback. Somehow, though, the Sharks managed to win four games in a row, which could have been five games in a row if everyone's favorite Brazilian, kael, didn't Sleep Talk Earthquake twice to defeat -Frexa-'s Dragon Dance Tyranitar that threatened to sweep. A day later, Heist defeated undisputed in a game with mixed luck, and the Sharks had somehow managed to pull ahead. The only match remaining was between Conflict and Mr.E. It seems as if the Sharks are controversy magnets as these two players spent a few hours johning on the last day of the week. Conflict missed the scheduled time to play Mr.E by an hour and a half, and when Conflict was finally ready to fight, Mr.E johned as well. Maybe they were afraid of each other. They probably just didn't want to commit to a 1 hour long game of GSC. After an extension, Mr.E defeated Conflict and tied the series between the BIGS and the Sharks.
The series between the broke Wifi Wolfpack and The Indie Scooters started off with some luck as Ojama's Swampert missed a crucial Hydro Pump against DracoMalfoy's Claydol in ADV. DracoMalfoy managed to win over 100 turns later with the aid of his trusty Calm Mind Blissey and Dragon Dance Tyranitar. This series between the two teams was normal until a timeout ending occurred between Poppy and Hugendugen. The server at the time, Fun Community, was lagging due to the moderators spamming with joy that people finally decided to join their server. The game was concluding just before Poppy timed out. An argument exploded on #spl about what the ruling should be. The Scooters argued that there is a timeout clause for a reason and that Poppy wasted time calcing on a laggy server. For some reason, syrim argued that the game should be restarted to the point where Poppy DC'ed because he still had a chance to win. Commissioner and alleged Kevin Garrett puppet Symphonyx64 ruled that the match was to be redone to where Poppy DC'ed. After the managers complaining about the ruling, Hugendugen was given the win due to the timeout. Due to the result of the Ubers game, the series between the Scooters and the Wifi Wolfpack tied at 6-6.
The series between the Congregation of the Classiest and The Smog Frogs was undoubtedly the most interesting. With the exception of the Frogs themselves, very few people thought that the Frogs had any chance. Whether the hate was a manifestation of Lonelyness's unpopularity, or due to the weird team name, everybody had it out for the Frogs. The week started out as you and I probably expected; the Classiest started off with some early wins featuring Lavos Spawn and VGC superstar Cybertron. Things began to change when Dekzeh defeated Golden Sun in likely the fastest ADV game in SPL history. Wins ribbited from all across the Frogs in the form of yan[sogeking], davidness, reachzero, xtrashine, and Colchonero. With the score at 6-5 in the Frogs' favor on Sunday, the final game came down to Texas Cloverleaf and Honko. The game was "interestingly played" with innovative strategies such as using Uxie to switch into Escavalier, doubling switching for no apparent reason, and Scarf Nidoqueen. Texas managed to come out on top. With the haters quiet and Lavos crying, the Frogs ended .dancin.
Here are some of the better games of this week:
[K-12] The Madchine vs Aqualouis
McMeghan(Mtaba) vs Thatsjustpeachy
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