Recapped By torey luvullo on Tuesday, September 24, 2002
What a night. What a battle. Wins and losses were decided by the narrowest of margins, not only in the individual battles, but in each match, and, indeed, in the bracket as a whole. When the smoke cleared from the arena of combat, Flo was standing triumphant - having been tested severely, and yet winning convincingly. Here's the details:
First Match: Freddy B. vs Spinach - Spinach started the first battle with a
214 remote punch, then seemingly decided to rest on his leafy laurels. Bad decision
- 3 spin knuckles later, Freddy had a 1-0 lead. Spinach unleashed, and connected
on all its techs in the 2d and 3d, and Freddy's eagle rushes were not enough
to keep up,
giving Spinach the lead again. 2 remote punches by the green machine were overcome
by a last minute critical eagle rush, and it was 2-2. The monsters missed most
of their techs in the deciding 5th, with a 232 remote punch finally outpointing
a 126 eagle rush. Spinach 3, Freddy 2
Second Match: Kitty v Flo - The mew civil war was a lot more violent than the first match. Kitty opened the first battle with a 266 zap, but flo retaliated with a 534 cat fan, a 430 10:10 and [after a 218 cat fool by Kitty] a 301 cat fan for the KO. Kitty roared back with a 336 zap, 228 cat fool and a 409 crit zap which left Flo reeling and tied the score at 1-1. In the next two battles, however, Flo connected with 739 and 740 crit 10:10's, respectively, to leave the bambiimew in a heap on the floor. Flo 3, Kitty 1.
Third Match: Kitty v Freddy B. - 2 220-ish cat fools gave Kitty the lead, but a last minute crit eagle rush gave Freddy the first battle. The Hawaiians came out for the second battle, and, together with the fools, left Freddy hopelessly befuddled - tie match. Freddy blocked the spiral hulas in the 3d, but a 377 cat fan led to a narrow points victory for Miss Kitty in the 3d; a 323 crit spin knuckle reversed that pattern in the 4th, making it 2-2. Freddy began the crucial 5th missing two spin knuckles in a row, and Kitty took full advantage, hitting fan, fool and hawaiian for an domineering final win. Kitty 3, Freddy B. 2
Fourth Match: Freddy v Flo - By now the thinking was, get Freddy's matches over with and move on to the real battles. The sweaty penguin had other plans, however. A last minute 431 crit spin knuckle gave Freddy the first battle, and Flo missed all her techs in the second, allowing Freddy's 3 eagle rushes to lead to a 2-0 lead. Seconds from a humiliating sweep, Flo managed to salvage her dignity with a 512 crit cat fan, making it 2-1, but her glee was short-lived...3 big time spin knuckles outpointed her 10:10 and zap, giving Freddy the upset of the day. Freddy 3, Flo 1
Fifth Match: Spinach v Flo - Spinach landed an early giga shooter, but Flo fought back hard with a 268 meow and a 294 zap to take the first battle. She began the 2d with a zap, but Spinach landed the best 1-2 of the night: 426 remote punch immediately followed by a 580 ion cannon for the KO, tieing the match. Spin took a 2-1 lead on points, with remote punch and giga shooter outpointing meow, and held a clinching lead in the 4th after a 237 force bomber and a bunch of misses by Flo. But the gritty kitty landed a late 427 zap to force a crucial 5th battle. Both monsters continued to miss for the first 3/4 of the final battle. Flo hit 311 meow, which proved better than Spinach's final remote punch. Flo 3, Spinach 2
Sixth Match: Kitty v Spinach So these monsters battled, with the winner guaranteed a tie with Flo, and the loser getting to keep Freddy company in losersville. Kitty came out of the gate strong, with Hawaiian and cat fool outpointing giga sbhooter for a 1-0 lead. But Spinach hit a 599 ion cannon in the 2d, and a 584 ion cannon in the 3d, and Kitty could never recover in either, despite a collection of fools and Hawaiians, making it 2-1. Kitty smartly blocked the ion cannon in the 4th, and followed up by hitting all of her techs - Hawaiian twice - to blitz the humble hengar and tie the match. However, Kitty's accuracy deserted her in the crucial 5th, missing 4 out of 5 techs, while Spinach connected with a remote punch and a force bomber, sealing the victory. Spinach 3, Kitty 2
Tiebreaker: After the evening of squeakers, and in light of their ultra-close regular session match, it was shocking to see Flo completely dominate Spinach in the Tiebreaker Round. 1st battle - 461 crit zap outpointed 236 remote punch. 2d battle - 600 crit 10:10 crossed the machine's circuitry. 3d battle - 489 crit 10:10 was better than 302 remote punch. Flo 3, Spinach 0
So Flo and the D rule all - Flo is indeed a brute, and will be a handful for Pokylyps and whoever wins the other brackets in the finals. But every monster here - even my maligned Freddy - was a worthy entrant. This was an incredibly tough bracket, and a very entertaining and tense battle all the way through to the anticlimactic ending. Let's do it again soon!