The Blackening

Several times per season, the Santa Cruz Bananas will experience The Blackening, which is a mysterious sickness that affects the entire team and requires that the entire bunch of blackened bananas be replaced with a new, fresh bunch of bananas. (The Santa Cruz Bananas are literally a bunch of bananas.)

When The Blackening was first discovered by the Bananas in the midst of Pseudo/Season 1, their first season of existence, they were initially too embarrassed to talk about it, and attempted to keep the phenomenon a secret. However, other teams began to notice the effects of The Blackening during matches, and raised awkward questions about the foul stenches and unsightly sores they were seeing appear on the Bananas.

Eventually, the Aptos Investigators did some digging, interviewing several horticulturalists and plant pathologists, and discovered that the cause of The Blackening was a mysterious affliction that only affected members of the Santa Cruz Bananas . In the interest of public safety the Investigators publicly announced their findings, assuring all non-Santa Cruz, non-Banana teams that they were safe from the ill effects of The Blackening.