The False Note
The
failed attempt to clinch a Cold League pennant in Season 7 of the Hellmouth Cup is remembered less as a Cinderella story and more as a mass head-fake. A collective that had spent previous seasons dissolving into Partytime soup by Day 45 suddenly began executing high-level defensive blocks against the
. To the fans and analysts, this success felt deeply uncomfortable, like watching a dog walk on its hind legs for too long. It looked like Golly, but the behavior of the patterns created strange, unsettling impressions on the subconscious. Pretty much everyone knew something fishy was going on, but no one knew exactly what it was. The Piano Tuners' LDS win over the Butchers led to a Championship Series against the
, where they attempted to assemble a complex formation early in Game 1. The result was a disaster - they just didn't have the precision needed to pull off the formation. The Flightless Birds, sensing the weakness, swarmed the Tuners in a huge flock and picked away at their soft spots until they had swept the Tuners in 3 straight games. The Tuners desperately claimed they were "experimenting with jazz improvisation," but everyone knew the truth: the imposters had been hoisted by their own petard.
| Season 7 Cold League Championship Series Results Table | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Long Beach Flightless Birds
vs. Error creating thumbnail: File missing Ft. Worth Piano Tuners
| |||||||
| Winner | W Score | Margin | L Score | Loser | Generations | Link | |
| Game 1 | Long Beach Flightless Birds | 189 | 78.31% | 41 | Ft. Worth Piano Tuners | 2,000 | Error creating thumbnail: File missing f790629d-593c-4085-9ab9-39b935f34e0b
|
| Game 2 | Long Beach Flightless Birds | 104 | 23.08% | 80 | Ft. Worth Piano Tuners | 1,032 | Error creating thumbnail: File missing 8057f51f-17e6-49e8-8a0c-265759f6198e
|
| Game 3 | Long Beach Flightless Birds | 96 | 42.71% | 55 | Ft. Worth Piano Tuners | 2,029 | Error creating thumbnail: File missing fd98019c-4cea-41c2-b2ed-cbfcd94aee59
|
For the Flightless Birds, the display of strength would plant seeds of enmity between the Birds and the Tuners, which would not take many seasons to sprout, bloom, and create noxious fruit.
