An extra attraction for this week - folks who attend have realised by now that, under pressure, my typing becomes rather eccentric -sometimes to the point where even I'm not sure what I mean. So, Mapper was taking bets for a new sweepstake this evening - free to enter, guess how many typos Curunir will make in the evening and those with the closest guess to the actual total win a prize. The prize is to be handed out next match, since so many mistakes are likely to be made Mapper will need a few days to go through the journal and tally them all up!
A rather unusual lineup of fighters this evening, since we had three birds neck and neck as joint leaders for the title it seemed best to make sure no two of them fought each other, so there was guaranteed to be a close finish to the season next week. Combined with the rarity of exceptionally high stat and skill birds, that meant Frosty was in for a rough evening, as she's not eligible for the title but is, on paper, a reasonable opponent for the leaders. On paper.... However, just to demonstrate how wrong I can be, Frosty, had ideas of her own, as she proceeded to demonstrate!
Frosty vs Quicksilver
Looked like a close fight, with a slight edge to Frosty perhaps, a little bit stronger and fractionally more skilled, but Quick has beaten many tough fighters already this season and was not going to let her position in the league slip without a fight. Quick went in first, and landeda couple of heavy hits, but Frosty seemed to go into overdrive and in very short order caught up, and raced past, Quick's early lead. Frosty seemed almost never to miss, a noticably slowing Quicksilver wasn't able to match the pace and Frosty came out a strong winner.
Tea vs Yin
A glowing green bird, Tea had a slight edge on resisting spells but otherwise there was nothing to choose between these two. She was clearly keen, rushing in fast to catch Yin with a couple of quick pecks, and was building a lead when Yin began to fight back and block skillfully. Slowly they drew level, then Tea took a slight lead again, but Yin was having none of it, and pulled back into the lead yet again, finally finishing off a tough opponent - although with very little health left herself, a good and hard fought win for Yin.
Frosty vs Lightning
Frosty's second appearance, and against a truly exceptional fighter. Lightning is right up at the top of the scale for stats, one of the strongest, fastest and cleverest fighters we've seen. It looked like it was all going to be uphill for Frosty, and the betting was suitably one-sided, almost nobody rated her chances. However, Frosty had other ideas - and right from the start pounded into Lightning with a continual assault of fast, heavy hits. Lightning seemed stunned by the rush, and despite landing one or two hits in return was amazingly demolished in pretty short order by a clearly determined Frosty!
Yang vs Spot
Two birds that fall into the more usual range for the species, rather than the exceptional stat competitors for the title, these two are solid, skilled and competent fighter who looked an almost perfect match in every department. One black and one white, at least there was no mistaking who was who in the ring! However, in keeping with the overall strangeness of the evening, matched skills and matched stats did not lead to a matched fight. Spot leapt in, landed a hit on Yang, then another, then another! Yang seemed totally baffled by the all-out pummeling, and barely managed a hit back in return before Spot finished her off in almost record time.
Sky vs Frosty
Third outing of the evening for Frosty, surely she should be tired by now, Sky slightly ahead on stats looked a close, but noticable, favourite for the match. So of course, things went strangely! Both came in fast, Sky took a slight lead, Frosty took it back, and suddenly went into overdrive for the third time in the evening! From a closely fought match, both having lost roughly a third of their health, Frosty went berserk and hammered into Sky, who had no answer to the sudden change of pace - and amazingly, despite an overall very average showing throughout the season, Frosty took her third win of the night!
Wimpy vs Henry
Two total newcomers, both fighting anything for the first time and matched in stats and abilities. We usually find new birds matched against each other give a very close fight, and for once in a truly bizarre evening, something remained true to form. Both constantly landed hits, health of each went down at almost exactly the same rate, and neither gave an inch. One odd moment came when Wimpy, slightly ahead, seemed to have a panic attack and tried to dodge out of the ring! He quickly realised running away wasn't an option, recovered his nerve and returned to the fight. A good, close match finally ended when a battered Wimpy gathered enough energy to land a finishing hit on an equally exhausted Henry, an exciting and close final chicken bout where both fighters gained plenty of skill from the workout!
For the novelty fight - speed and brains versus sheer bulk! Soba, a reasonably trained bake kitsune, up against a solid wall in the shape of Ruddy, an almost fully trained rudy boura. As expected, Soba was in fast, despite being almost totally hidden by the sheer bulk of Ruddy, and was doing well despite some hefty hits from Ruddy. A close match though, until Sobe applied her brains to the problem - a craty poison spell helped slow and already sluggish Ruddy down, and a quick spell combination of explosion and flamestrike clinched the fight in favour of dexterity and intelligence!
So... a truly weird set of results, that managed to keep the tight finish we'd hoped for this season in a truly unexpected fashion! I'd expected Frosty to maybe win one, so we'd have two fighters facing off for the title next week, but it just shows you should never trust a chicken to do anything expected, and we're left with a wide open, three way finish! I'm trying to train up three suitable opponents so all three contenders will get a shot at a match next time - will we have an outright winner, a two-way split title, or even a three way share! Nobody knows (least of all me, as my faiulre to predict anything his evening should have proved!)
We're also working on a rather unusual 'finale' where people might win a bit more from us too, as well as announcing the winner of the 'mock Curunir's terrible typing' competition, and of course crowning a winner (or winners!) for season two of the ECL!
Currently, points are as follows :
7 : Lightning, Quicksilver, Sky
5 : PeckyBalboa, Tea, Frosty (!)
3 : Trinsic Rose
2 : Trinsic Steel, TwoTimeChampion, Sapphie, Cerulean, Geeko, Spot, Yin
1 : Old Blue Eyes, Bernie, Nari, Roadrunner Two, Dryad, Goldy Feathers, Protagonist, Linnea, Bob, Wimpy.
All to play for, so come along and see who gets the title, win on the betting, win on the novelty events, and have a laugh at the entire idea of an arena of battling chickens!
Saturday 5th, 8PM UK time, at the O*T arena in Zento.
