rose

By Kidror

Season 12 Election

Before we get into the weeds with our coverage of Season 13 of the ILB, we should quickly recap the changes the Season 12 Election Results caused.

King Weatherman was traded to the Magic for Cory Twelve. Both players boast a similar level of pitching ability, so no growth or rot here.

Alaynabella Hollywood was sent into the Shadows, allowing Zesty Yaboi to come out of the shade and into the sunshine

 Although Zesty is a slight improvement over Alaynabella, neither are impressive batters.

Nagomi Mcdaniel was plundered from the Garages in return for Alaynabella, leaving Nagomi in the shadows for some much-deserved rest.

An image depicting the Shadow Rotation of the Boston Flowers. Six names are listed, Francisco Object, Shaquille Sunshine, Zeboriah Whiskey, Kiki Junior Jr, and Nagomi Mcdaniel.

Season 13 Begins

Expectations among the Flower Buds were low due to the lack of improvement in the Election. Many fans believed the team would have their usual run: a weak start followed by a strong finish and losing matches in such a way that leaves you saying “We’re the Flowers,” and they certainly met fans expectations.

The Boston Flowers finished Season 13 in 4th place of the Wild Low Subdivision, with 53 Wins and a record of 58-41, snuggled up peacefully between the Miami Dale and the Hellmouth Sunbeams. 

The Wild Low Subdivision End of Season Standings.

LA Tacos: 68 Wins; Record of 64-35.
Houston Spies: 62 Wins; Record of 62-37.
Miami Dale: 55 Wins; Record of 55-44.
Boston Flowers: 53 Wins; Record of 58-51.
Hellmouth Sunbeams: 52 Wins; Record of 47-52.
Ohio Worms: 14 Wins; Record of 21-78.

The path to their final result began early, with the Boston Flowers stumbling out of the gates with a 1-2 record against ILB newcomers, the Atlantis Georgias. Hoping to change their course of fate, the Flowers readied themselves for a six-game series against the Hellmouth Sunbeams.

The Sunbeams quickly denied the Flowers their wish, and, over the course of Day 6 and 7, overran the Flowers defenses. To make matters worse, the Sunbeams utilized the Black Hole to steal three Wins from the Flowers and steal their hopes of a Postseason too.

By the end of the Season, the Boston Flowers were no strangers to the effects of a Black Hole, having lost a total of five Wins and having had two Wins stolen by other teams, leaving them as the 4th Most Involved-In-Black-Holes Team (following the Sunbeams, Worms, and Dale).

The Sunbeams collecting a Flowers Win.
An image showing the Sunbeams activating a Black Hole and swallowing a Flowers Win. It reads "The Sunbeams collect 10! The Black Hole swallows the Runs and a Flowers Win."

Thankfully for Boston, that was the only real trouble they experienced at the hands of the weather, avoiding the spree of incinerations that resulted in the loss of 11 players across the league. 

Only three Flowers players were swept to Elsewhere: Jacob Haynes, Hiroto Cerna, and Gloria Bugsnax. Haynes and Cerna have since returned to The Garden safely unscattered.

At the time of writing, Gloria Bugsnax is still missing, and any sighting of them should be reported to the Missing Players Hotline. Fans and Teammates are hoping for their safe return home. [Editor’s note: Gloria Bugsnax has since returned, Scattered. Her name as of Day 10 is -l–i- Bug—-]

Gloria Bugsnax listed as Elsewhere.  
An image from the Flowers Roster, showing Gloria Bugsnax's name covered with a purple label saying "elsewehere..."

Growing Pains

The key to the final standing was the Flowers’ growth throughout the season, with the Flowers winning 16 of their final 20 games of the season. 

Their development led them to a 4th place finish in the Wild Low Subdivision, ending a single Win ahead of the Sunbeams and falling short of the 3rd place Miami Dale by just 2 Wins.

Their Lateseason improvement was also a source of consternation for many Flowers fans who had been looking forward to an early entry into PARTYTIME in order to bolster their struggling pitching rotation.

The Flowers managed to hold out from entering PARTYTIME until the end of Day 93 where a close loss to the Mexico City Wild Wings finally sent the Flowers and their friends the Sunbeams to the party.

Ultimately Castillo Turner was the only player on the Flowers to successfully party, sneaking it in on the final day of the regular season and doing nothing to improve the roster’s weak pitching.

Sowing Seeds 

Season 13 also marked the beginning of Ballpark construction across the ILB. The new stadium, nicknamed “The Garden,” secured funding quickly with fans eager to support their team, and by the Latesiesta, construction was complete. 

Built using the popular Boreal prefab, the Boston Garden has high ceilings and natural light. It’s theorized that further renovations will likely begin at the beginning of the Season 14 Earlsiesta with the team continuing to obtain funds from enthusiastic fans, so we’ll keep you updated on the ongoing construction.

New Growth

Continuing in the vein of future developments, it’s time to examine the results of the Season 13 ILB Election and see what the future holds for the Boston Flowers.

This election was huge for the Flowers’ future Playoff chances and even gave them opportunities for future moves as well. We’ll start with the minor changes and work our way up to the biggest.

Blessings

Despite only having 1% of the vote, Nagomi Mcdaniel secured the “Center of Attention” Blessing, granting her the Super Idol modifier, doubling payouts from Idol snacks.

Led by the Tacos, the Wild Low Subdivision ran an election campaign with the goal of obtaining all of the Bubble Blessings, each granting +4% to a particular stat for the whole Division. This plan was successful and they won ALL FOUR Bubbles, with the Flowers personally achieving the Baserunning Flotation Bubble with 14% of the Votes.

Now with a 4% buff to all four stats (Hitting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Defense), the Flowers are a lot stronger in contrast to the other divisions. Though this won’t help them overtake the other teams in their own division, this is still a massive improvement and will be even more impressive if they can reach the Playoffs.

Wild Low Bubble Buddies.

An Image that says Don’t Forget Your Bubble Buddies! It depicts each of the four Flotation Bubble Wills. Next to each will is an image of a Wild Low Team. Hitting Bubble features the Tacos titled Cilantro Soap Gene. Baserunning Bubble features the Dale and the Flowers titled Garden Party. Pitching Bubble features the Sunbeams titled Starbursters. And finally Defense Bubble features the Spies and Worms titled Dr. Worm.

Wills

The Flowers voted to plunder the deceased Sutton Picklestein, causing one of their top batters, Castillo Turner, to enter the Shadows.

Before they get a chance to utilize their newly-alive player, Sutton Picklestein was plundered by the Kansas City Breath Mints. Sutton was then pulled back to the Hall, no longer permitted to live.

In exchange for Sutton Picklestein, the Flowers received Lenny Spruce. Though they aren’t quite as skilled as Sutton Picklestein or Castillo Turner, Spruce is still a highly-skilled player.

This move also plants a seed for a future move by the Flowers. Castillo Turner has long been notorious for being both an incredible batter and pitcher, and the potential to move them out of the Shadows and into the Pitching Rotation would immensely boost the Flowers’ defensive abilities.

And now we have the final Will to be enacted. With a whopping 57% of the Flowers Will Votes and making up 76% of the Flowers Foreshadow Votes they choose to bring Nagomi Mcdaniel forth from the shadows. 

The Season 12 Election has finally borne fruit; Nagomi Mcdaniel is one of the top Blaseball players in the league. Combined with the aforementioned improvements, the Flowers Defense has jumped them from being one of the worst teams defensively, into an above-average team.

And not mentioned until now, at the end of Season 13, The Coin declared the highest Idolized players to be “MVPs” and granted each of them the new Ego+ modifier. This included now star pitcher for the Flowers, Nagomi Mcdaniel. 

Graph Showing Defensive Stats for the League

A Graph showing the defensive stats for the ILB. It shows the Flowers moving from the worst three teams defensively, into the 8th best overall.

The Postseason of Season 13 has been a huge boon for the Flowers and their fans: these changes position them to push for the Playoffs, in which the Flowers have not played since Season 11 where they entered as Wildcards and failed to make it out of the Wild Card matchups.

Not only do the Flowers stand a chance of making the Playoffs, but the goal of winning a Championship has also rapidly moved from a dream to a potential reality. If the Flowers put the petal to the metal we could see “Season 14 Champions, the Boston Flowers.”

That’s all for this Recap folks! Thanks for reading, and I hope you check back in with us again at the end of Season 14 for our Season 14 Recap, where hopefully the Flowers may be able to share with us news of making the Playoffs.

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