Sweeps (1 Jun 2013)
Altador Cup VIII started out strong for most of yesterday's winners, as over half of the matches were total sweeps. In the Alabriss bracket, KD shocked the Yooyuball world by winning all four games against last year's second-place finisher MI, though the Islanders did manage to stay in every single game right up until the very end. KL also put the smackdown on their opponant, losing only MSN to the Pharoahs. MD vs DC was much closer, with both teams taking two games apiece, but it was ultimately MD who prevailed thanks to a strong finish in their YYB match-up. The Vaeolus bracket was even more one-sided, with all three winning teams scoring complete sweeps. RI vs VP was a tense affair, with the first three games all coming down to the final seconds before the Roos scored the deciding points. The SK vs MT match was also close, but decidedly less exciting, as all of the games were fought defensively with plenty of errors on both sides. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the bracket came in the final match of the day, when long-time bottom-feeders AD posted an epic crushing victory of FL, earning at least twice the points of the Faeries in all four games and coming in a whopping ten points higher than FL in MSN. "It's about time our fans got to have a good experience on the first day of the Cup," team captain "Trapper" Remis said after the match. "They've stuck with us through everything, and we feel as though this win was more for them than us."
Of all the brackets, the Minitheus was probably the most evenly matched, with only one team earning a sweep yesterday. The Dinos, perhaps wanting to avoid a repeat of last year's weak start, fought their way to victory against a tough HW team also hoping to return to their former glory. In the YYB match, it at first looked as though the Haunties were cruising to an easy win until TY defender "Scrap" Taggert executed a cunning steal against HW's Krell Vitor. The half-second of confusion from HW after losing the ball was just enough for the Moehog to pass to team captain Loryche, who managed to score before HW was able to reset to defensive positions. From then on it was all Dinos, who eventually won the game 6-5 then went on to take all three sidegames from the dispirited Haunties. The other two Minitheus matches saw each team winning two games and losing two, with winners MQ and BV taking YYB and MSN and losing teams KI and TM winning SS and SOSD.