ALMOST

We…

We couldn’t do it. Made the Firefighters sweat, captured a shadow of our legendary defense from the old days, but in the end Jordan let too many walks slip through their fingers. And without several of our powerhouse hitters…

This is why we were looking to trade Jordan. They’re a decent enough batter, but a transcendently bad pitcher.

MVP

Also, technically before the playoffs or the championships happened, back on day 99 – I should have covered this in the last one, but now’s better than never – the Coin came up and decided to crown everyone at the top of the Idol Board “MVPs”. They have been given the Modification of “Ego+”.

Which might do nothing whatsoever. Just to leave us in suspense.

I am impressed with our level of participation and cohesion in this week’s idol board plot, including our rapid pivot from Joe Voorhees to Peanut Bong when the initial plan went wrong. Mission mostly accomplished. Good job, Agents.

Anyway. The Tacos (our Wild Low friends) made it into the finals with the Crabs. They accidentally deckbuilt themselves into a solid pitching rotation and then everything else fell into place.

The Crabs then won in a 3-games-to-0 sweep.

A Brief Editorial Aside

Stealing their players is on the table. That might actually be how “crabs good” was intended to be balanced: the guarantee that it would be easy for a poorly-performing team to acquire a good player.

I know we’re not doing this, because we’d like to demonstrate that we can win even when we cooperate and share all our plans. But it’s solid reasoning, and we may well be leaving a great deal of utility on the table by taking a moral stance. So please don’t be cruel or snippy towards people who want to play the game as a numbers game.

Status Effects

Denzel Scott was pecked out of their shell during the playoffs, and is now – like everyone else who has been Shelled – Superallergic. We still don’t know what that means.

Fitzgerald Blackburn is still Elsewhere, and is now nearly guaranteed to return Scattered. And for someone who might be made of smoke, ichor, a congerie of souls, or ashes, depending on which files you’re looking at, being scattered is particularly worrying.

Personally, I’m worried that Fitz might well have let themselves be washed away on purpose. Maybe they didn’t consider that they might even be capable of grieving? Maybe they retreated and isolated themself because the feelings were too overwhelming? Or was it something else?

Please, Fitz. Come home. We won’t be mad at you for not returning sooner. We just want to make sure you’re okay.

Votes

Our voting guide, as usual, is pinned in the various Spies Discord channels. This being said, last-minute chaos has caused utter mayhem: our plan, and then our backup plan, failed in rapid succession. The voting guide has a number of backup backup options, which you may as well pick from. Honestly, we have no idea how any of this is going to turn out.

Remember: Whatever happens is in service of ultimately making spies win. I have absolutely no idea how the risk of ending up with a one-star pitcher in place of Jordan Hildebert, and the near-certainty of receiving a zeroed-out Morrow Wilson, could be part of the plan, but. Well. We work with what we have.

Good luck out there, Agents. I don’t know what else to say.