Template:HellmouthPianoTunersSnowballEffectFragment StolenCredentials
The successful Season 11 run at the Hellmouth Cup by the
Ft. Worth Piano Tuners
is the thing that keeps E Division auditors awake at night. The Tuners’ path to the Cup began with a grotesque 3-way tiebreaker for the Wild Card. The wild card tiebreaker only occurs when there are more teams than wild card spots - usually 2 teams and 1 wild card spot. In this case, it was 3 teams:
Ft. Worth Piano Tuners
,
Long Beach Flightless Birds
, and
Jersey OSHA Violations
. According to the rules, the tiebreaker win goes to the team that scored the most points over the course of the season. But the point totals for Season 11 show a terrible mistake: the Flightless Birds, finishing the season with 7,069 points, lost the tiebreaker - and the Piano Tuners, finishing the season with 6,607 points, advanced to the Division Series.
| Rank | Team | League | W-L | Points Scored | Points Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atlanta Glitter Sharks | Hot | 31-18 | 7,544 | 5,802 |
| 2 | Orlando Business Majors | Hot | 31-18 | 7,006 | 6,396 |
| 3 | Elko Astronauts | Cold | 30-19 | 7,513 | 5,850 |
| 4 | Baltimore Texas | Cold | 29-20 | 7,531 | 6,271 |
| 5 | Seattle Sneakers | Cold | 25-24 | 6,754 | 6,396 |
| 6 | Long Beach Flightless Birds | Cold | 24-25 | 7,069 | 7,175 |
| 7 | Alewife Arsonists | Hot | 24-25 | 6,832 | 6,886 |
| 8 | Sacramento Boot Lickers | Hot | 24-25 | 6,804 | 6,757 |
| 9 | Ft. Worth Piano Tuners | Cold | 24-25 | 6,607 | 6,586 |
| 10 | Detroit Grape Chews | Hot | 24-25 | 6,484 | 6,530 |
| 11 | Jersey OSHA Violations | Cold | 24-25 | 6,309 | 6,676 |
| 12 | Delaware Corporate Shells | Hot | 23-26 | 6,796 | 6,295 |
| 13 | San Francisco Boat Shoes | Hot | 21-28 | 5,843 | 7,323 |
| 14 | San Diego Balloon Animals | Cold | 20-29 | 6,088 | 7,436 |
| 15 | Tucson Butchers | Cold | 20-29 | 5,892 | 7,373 |
| 16 | Milwaukee Flamingos | Hot | 18-31 | 6,487 | 7,807 |
The
Long Beach Flightless Birds
were understandably outraged by the flawed tiebreaker decisions, but tiebreakers were not subject to review, and the Commissioner's Office issued no statement on the matter, which left the
Ft. Worth Piano Tuners
free to advance to the postseason on stolen credentials.