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Following their Rainbow/Season 4 Rainbow Cup win, the San Francisco Boat Shoes entered another fallow period. The Shoes failed to make a significant impact for over a dozen seasons, including a mediocre third-place finish in Rainbow/Season 17 and bumbling their way to an early exit in Rainbow/Season 19. As their Hellmouth Cup glory faded further into memory and their fans recovered from the team's Donut Sickness and disastrous Toroidal Cup showing, many Shoes fans began to whisper about a "Rainbow Sickness" and the team reliving a tragic repeat of their Toroidal Cup nightmare.

That narrative was nearly rewritten in Rainbow/Season 22. In a stunning return to form, the Boat Shoes, as the #2 seed, clinched the West League pennant and battled brilliantly in the Rainbow Cup final. The entire series was a nail-biter between them and the Delaware Corporate Shells . The lead changed hands multiple times, with every point scored shifting the delicate balance. In the end, it came down to the wire, but the Boat Shoes fell agonizingly short, finishing in second place with 52🌈 - a mere 2🌈 behind the victorious Corporate Shells. The loss was a devastating echo of their one-point Toroidal Cup defeat, another heart-wrenching "what if" moment for the team and its long-suffering fans.