Atlantis Georgias

The Georgias Hubris Cycle reached cataclysmic heights this season as we went from a record-breaking 113 wins and a nice 69% win rate in the main season to being viciously swept out of the postseason in our first round. So what went wrong?

The Georgias were abuzz right from the start as we were projected to be the strongest team this season, due to a very solid pitching rotation and a great defence to back it up. However our offence was comparatively mediocre, despite a few star players in the form of fan-favourite 80s horror protagonist Penelope Video, deep-sea rave DJ Hyena Dropper, and Gianna Schenn who became our best hitter thanks to an incredible Yummy reaction only to be stranded at the end of our Lineup by a Reverb.

By the end of the main season we had given up fewer runs than any other team, but were only tenth in total runs scored. This reliance on defence gave us a lot of close games, and while the length of the main season ensured it averaged out in our favour, for the postseason it left us easily at risk of being eliminated by a few bad games.

And what a few bad games they were. With the rise in overall league offence from the midseason Elections, combined with the Georgias failing to secure any Squid Gifts or Blood Jams and choking in both of our Prize Matches, it was probably inevitable that our initial advantage would wear off. Things went even more disastrously in the second game against the Shoe Thieves when a massive blizzard froze the weaker half of the Shoe Thieves’ Lineup, leaving us facing an absolutely deadly array of batters, including former Georgia Babka McCoy, who was Feedbacked for Lorcan Griffey earlier in the season.

-Jangalian (Jangalian#7646 on Discord)

Charleston Shoe Thieves

This Circuit we’re highlighting (but not Charging) Zora Kramer, a garbage pitcher whose fighting spirit inspired us all.

Our playoff series versus the Wild Wings showed the depth of Zora’s grit. They pitched first, eager to give us a win, and immediately gave up a 2-run homer. We lost that game 19–6, and Zora squatted on the mound, disappointed. They tried, but the rest of the Rotation would have to carry us.

But in the third game, a winter storm Froze two subsequent pitchers, and Zora was called back from the bullpen! A second chance. Zora took a breath, concentrated. A hardened gaze through the snowstorm.

The Wings scored 7 runs that inning. Final score: 25–3. Zora was in anguish. Had they not tried hard enough? They looked inward as we looked to the next game and to Hartley Pebble, who had already given us a win this series.

But wait— who’s that walking to the mound? It’s Zora! They begged for one last chance to give their team a win, and who could say no to that hunger, that drive? So, in defiance of all reason, bottom-of-the-league Zora Kramer took the mound for the third time in a five-game series.

Each pitch was a herculean effort. Visibly straining, Zora held the Wings to one run for an unthinkable six innings. We watched in disbelief as they tore themselves apart to keep us in this series. By the seventh inning, they were spent, but never stopped fighting. The Wings won, but only by two runs.

Zora’s heart was broken, but ours were full of pride. They left it all on the mound, and what more could you ask of a player? We didn’t charge Zora Kramer, but don’t let that fool you. Zora will be with us forever, in heart and sole.

-Jeremy T (APieceOfWorkAmI#8349)

Chicago Firefighters 

Well, if nothing else, the Chicago Firefighters had another interesting Circuit. 

Let’s start from the beginning: when the teams were first revealed, we appeared to have a pretty standard Firefighters team. Average at best with some half decent batters, bad pitching, okay defense, and far more peanut allergies than not. It seemed as though we would be headed for the Fiesta, if we were lucky.

That did not happen.

Less than 40 games into the season, the Firefighters experienced a Night Shift for the thirdCircuit in a row, bringing out Owen Turbo, who would end up being the best pitcher in the League (and despite Feedbacking to the Spies, would only lose two games the entire season), inevitably helping the team narrowly miss the Fiesta. 

That’s not where the weather stopped, though. The team had three Feedbacks over the course of the season: a shockingly mutually beneficial early one with the Crabs, the aforementioned Turbo feedback for Cher Kumar of the Spies (which took a day to go through because of “features”), and a late season batter swap with the Garages. With the Firefighters only having two non-Allergic players, it was no surprise when fan favourite Tube Nebula got decimated by a Peanut (and was equally not shocking when they became our Guest of Honor). Most notably, however, was Craig Faucet getting incinerated and proceeding to play another 10 games afterwards, who despite our best efforts— was not even charged for their troubles.

The thing is, none of these things stopped the Firefighters. Despite winning no Blessings or items, being bombarded with weather, and using their only boosts to salvage a hurt player, they managed to claw their way to third seed, claiming fifth in the league despite all odds. And more than anything, I think that’s the story of the Firefighters this Circuit and beyond; the ability to make something out of nothing.

–Stara

Hellmouth Sunbeams

The Hellmouth Sunbeam entered this Short Circuit right where they wanted to be– bound for the .500 line. Sure, in a season with parties for the worst teams and Playoffs for the best, that had downsides, but the Beams knew what they were about… and then they tanked their way into the midseason fiesta badly enough to get into round one and they were ready to Party their way to the top! And then… they didn’t. One game in EPT, a bit of timeline shenanigans, and the fiesta ended with the Beams better than before but not playoffs material. But not for long!

Because then the Beams claimed (one of) the Title Belt(s) and Royce Spider decided to sit on it, the universe decided that that was Royce’s. And then… the belt got taken. But not for long! Because then the Beams got the only Wild Card slot! They were in the Playoffs! They were going for the championship! And then… they got kicked out round one. And all this happened in a bog-theatre-gothic horror-small town with a chandelier containing the last shards of a dead sun. And their final record was 82-80.

There were icons, like Sun Paladin Amanda Rowdy, or incineration replacement Calvin Revenant, or Samuel ‘Slamuel’ Finnegan, but there was one real hero. Julian Greene had plenty going for them. An early standout on the starting roster, Julian entered the world with 3.9 batting stars. They’d have a top 10 OPS+ (ignoring all the undead invaders from another universe) and a taste for snacking on snow which would bring them to nearly 5 batting stars over the course of the season (before dragging them back to a measly 4.5). But who cares about that? Pregame Ritual Charging? Let’s gooooooooooooo!

-Nix

San Francisco Lovers

It was a beat-down for the Lovers this circuit, trying their best to sell their angle to no avail. The team narrowly slid their way into the midseason Fiesta, missing out on all the action before it could even begin. According to insider sources, a feud between the Lovers and the Mexico City Wild Wings started to get hot after headliner Fontaine Teacup Feedbacked with Liv Chan, but the show was not over for this B-Team yet.

The Lovers held to their wills, and held up their pants holding onto one of the… two title belts until right before the Postseason. When Parker declared reunification, it was a headliner match against Miami. It was a clean finish with the Lovers on the mat. Miami went on into the post season, leaving the Lovers to nurse their aches & bruises.

Eliot Heartfield was sent up into the Mic with the hope that they wouldn’t be destined to become just another Jannetty, but the fate of our Charged players is a story line for another era. All in all, these Lovers couldn’t keep the gold, but that didn’t mean this season wasn’t a popcorn match. With the circuits over and the next era in limbo, maybe this team can get on after all.

-Avery M. (Ackasi#9049 on Discord)

Mexico City Wild Wings

The Mexico City Wild Wings were good this Short Circuit. This was very confusing for a lot of long term Wings fans, because the Wings have never been good. Even when they won their Championship, they came from fourth in the conference. Even when Burke Gonzales was one of the best pitchers in the League they were barely a 0.500 team. So 99 wins and a trip to the Championship, even if it was to lose to The Breath Mints. (a fine, deserving winner) was the sort of inexplicable thing that tested the very boundaries of the game’s capabilities to handle, and was thus appropriate for a Short Circuit.

The “why” of the Wings being good is actually very easy to explain. They hit the ball a lot (1468, first in the League), hit it the furthest (SLG 0.501, first) and thus scored the most runs (975, first). Such was the ferocious offensive output that meant it almost didn’t matter that Tobias Diallo and Mitch Pink forgot where the strike zone was for innings at a time (third and fourth in walks league wide, respectively).

The continual high performance of Soledad Drama, Nova Bye, Alonso Clement, and Lillian McKinley (a 98% consensus pick to charge the microphone) led to the most improbable Wings team to ever exist, a rollicking riotous ball of fun that wasn’t constrained by the Wings of seasons past, and featured such fantastic names as Genesis Toad and Slow McDonald.

Will the Wings be this good again? Probably not. But it won’t matter. The one time we were good was fun, and underdog stories are also fun, and maybe one day we’ll get to see Lillian hit a ball a long way again. Which will be fun.

-BNN Wild Wings correspondent Spludge

Philly Pies

The Pies have traditionally been very good at Elections, so the Front Office started this Short Circuit by enacting a Faustian Pact to have more Elections than we knew what to do with. However, the Front Office failed to read this diabolical document closely enough, missing the footnote where it said anything the Pies elect either wouldn’t matter or wouldn’t actually ever be received by the team.

The mood in the Pies locker room was high despite all this; the team partied hard in the Mid-Season Fiesta, culminating in Nadia Outlaw proclaiming, “I’m never leaving Philly!” and chaining themselves to the radiator. This served to deny the Microphone’s later Feedback attempt, leaving the Wild Wings’ Slow McDonald standing outside the clubhouse.

Kristi Finnegan and Wolf Buss carried the team’s rotation post-parties, and things seemed to be up for the Pies in the second half of the season, until Seyyid Goodhart ate a Peanut and went from one of the worst pitchers in the ILB to the absolute worst in franchise history across all dimensions, proving that you don’t need to be Superallegic to ruin your pitching career.

Although Kid Darling had been sent to party early in hopes the additional training would prime them for Charging the Microphone at season’s end, by the time it was clear the Pies’ playoff hopes were dashed, it became equally clear that Kid’s performance was a disappointment, failing to meet any expectations whatsoever. Seeing this underwhelming lateseason play, the Pies elected to send grizzled power hitter, Ariana Beard in their place.

The Pies have been thoroughly undercooked in the last few circuits; they can only hope the long siesta will give them enough time in the oven to emerge crisp, hot, fresh, and ready by the time Blaseball returns.

-Ads (wilcxck#8979 on Discord)

Seattle Garages

At the start of this Circuit, the Garages were bad. The team was cursed with the highest Patheticism in the League by a mile, such that even making contact with the ball was a miracle. No player exemplified this like Dimi Wobbler, who generated as the worst of the worst, a dismal 0.6 stars. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Garages sighed, laughed (because you have to laugh) and awaited the Party Time they knew was coming.

Then, on Day 3, Dimi Wobbler hit a solo home run to shame the Breath Mints, who would go on to win the Championship. It was their first hit.

Dimi “Warbler” Wobbler, a tiny bird with incredible vibes and very little skill, was on a quest to prove that a positive attitude can overcome any statistical shortcomings. On Day 42, the Garages experienced a full-team Reverb. Instead of the worst batting in the League, they now had the worst pitching. Dimi moved four spots higher in the Lineup. They continued to be bad at Blaseball.

As the Garages’ Guest of Honor, Dimi partied three times and got better. Then Dimi partied again during a game. Suddenly, the silly little bird with excellent vibes had three batting stars. Dimi’s name started to pop up in scoring events more… and more… and more. Despite spending the first half of the season struggling to get on base, they ended with the second-most hits and stolen bases.

All season, the other Garages suffered under the Weather. Reverb decimated the rotation. Their best batter got incinerated; two more Feedbacked away. An already-terrible pitcher had an allergic reaction right after their final game. Dimi just hit the ball some more.

That’s the power of a positive attitude.

– crab

Tokyo Lift

The pitchers were idols, the hitters were yuru-chara mascots and the fans were feeling an unfamiliar tingle of… hope?

Tokyo rolled a strong team. Almost from the start the Lift were chasing a Playoff spot. They couldn’t keep pace with the Ballad-leading Wild Wings, that was clear early on, but the batting of Pop Tomorrah and some creditable pitching meant a winning record at Midseason and third place in Downtempo. Precisely none of this was thanks to Herb Swamp.

Idol performer Art Dembélé was a strikeout machine with Ruthlessness the way a sea has wet. Baffled cruise-ship tourist Seth Bitters was a sexagenarian workhorse with decent ERA but never the wins to show for it. Even Omar “Give Us” Nothing had fans. Herb Swamp, meanwhile, was a firebombed storefront of a player with one-third of a pitching star, Forbidden Knowledge that was painful to read, and not even a tragic backstory to lean on.

But the Tokyo Lift are all about gains. Rather than build an already solid performer into a titan the fans hailed Swamp as their Guest of Honour. Three parties revealed a promising hitter, if still a pitcher for whom mediocrity was but a distant dream.

A Yummy reaction late in the season changed that. Post-Peanut Herb was a monster in every department, bar their day job, and perfectly serviceable there. It wasn’t enough to save the campaign, the Lift having lost all momentum after back-to-back sweeps by the Shoe Thieves and Wings, but joyful fans now coalesced around Swamp as the little kappa that could. And, in some universe, she still might.

Wait, is that hope again?

-elmonstro (elmonstro#6813)

And a final note – BNN relies on reports from readers like you to fill out articles! If you’d like to contribute something in the future, head on over to our discord!

The post The Last Dance: Short Circuit 3 Downtempo Recap appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Season 12 of Blaseball saw the introduction of three new teams, as well as one returning team, in an event that came to be known as the Breach. Three brand new teams, empty slates with nothing but some snappy names and unique emojis, thrown into a league with twenty-one other well-established teams. Some said that the league didn’t have space or time for such unexpected additions, but they could not have been more wrong.

The Atlantis Georgias were one such Breach team. They arrived on the scene not quite as bad as the team with the record-setting awful season, the Ohio Worms, but not quite as good as the Core Mechanics, both of which have since managed a place in the Postseason. In addition to being the smallest team in the entire ILB, it got me thinking: why are people drawn to the Georgias?

Now that Atlantis has had a bit of time to settle as a team, I asked some of my fellow Georgias a few questions about what exactly made them choose the Georgias over the nearly two dozen other options. 

The first question I asked was directed at those who had been fans of Blaseball since before the Breach, and went as such: “If you were previously a fan of an existing team before transferring over to the Atlantis Georgias what was the driving force behind that decision or supporting two teams?”

Present at the Start

Turns out, the responses would start a common theme with many Breach teams: many people were attracted by the opportunity to be a start of something new. With Blaseball’s long and storied history, the chance to have a hand in the beginning of a brand new culture was attractive to many, and for good reason. In addition, the general “small team vibe” attracted a lot of new attention from members of bigger teams who often felt their voice drowned out by the larger community.

“That brief flash of creative energy, as everyone joined together to figure out who we were, what the players on the team were like, what our team identity it would be, it was so energizing and exciting to me.” – Jasmine Wright

“Being on a smaller team makes it easier to participate in the community and makes my votes feel more important.” – Anonymous

Secondly, I decided to ask players who had chosen the Georgias as their first team, simply asking what drew new players to the team over any other. These answers tended to be much simpler; turns out many people were simply drawn by the name!

“The name was the first thing. It’s just a fun name. Blaseball is an imaginary sport, where better to have a team than an imaginary city?” – Cimram

“I loved the name and colour scheme.” – Plunderbear

Moving on, I went a bit beyond simply what drew fans to the team in the first place. Instead, I asked what struck fans most about the Atlantis Georgias, and what aspects of the team had encouraged people to stay.

The very first theme that emerged here was that of the passion of the community. The Georgias have never been good, or big, or really notably anything in regards to the game of Blaseball. But the community, the team, is what sticks with people, how open and friendly the Georgias really are.

“The team has really good vibes, feels like a place you can be without expectations but also you can participate without feeling uncomfortable” – treesponge

“Though we’re a tiny li’l team, I feel like there is such an amazingly active and welcoming sense of community. We all collaborate in such a fun way within the team when it comes to lore or just goofy stuff, like our hour-long billboard takeover. For a bunch of dorks online obsessed with a pretty damn bad splorts team, I think there’s a lovely sense of friendship.” – Cal

“The optimism and determined-ness of the community! We may have been kinda bad for a long time, but nobody on the Discord has been disparaging of that fact, we all believe in our team and doing better.” – Blake

These quotes were just a few from the scattering of people that submitted answers, but they serve well to illustrate how much of the Georgias’ identity comes from its community, even among many similar teams.

Plumbing the Lore

The second emergent theme that kept people on the team was the lore and players of Atlantis. So many Georgias have an intense passion for the team, its lore, and its players, and they show that every day through art, fanfiction, and the fact that our lore channel is constantly in use. Even the fact that the Georgias can be described as the “middle child” of the three new Breach teams helps lend to a fun underdog narrative that can be enticing to many fans.

“I love the character ideas that can come from an undersea theme. I also like being the underdog smallest team.” – Jared B

“I want to say we’re very funny, supportive and inclusive, but I bet every team says that. I do like the cast of players we have, a lot of the commonly used designs for our player have unique silhouettes and stand out.”

“People joke about Atlantis being bad, and they had all rights to we were not good at all, and  for some, it was not a point of pride, but I loved it.  Being on the bottom? Party time speedruns? The underdog story? It’s all amazing.  The other breach teams hit the ground running, but we sank into the depths, and now we’re starting to rise up, and it’s fun. Where’s BNN?” – Sunder#9618

Next, I proposed what I feel to be a very vital question to such a small team, asking fans what part of the Georgias’ lore or culture that they felt more people should know.

An overwhelming amount of people gave what boiled down to the same answer, that being that the Georgias are more than just “the ocean team”! The Georgias have a very strong connection to science and the eldritch, which is difficult to see from the outside but deeply ingrained into the team’s culture. Atlantis isn’t just one place, it’s thousands, all overlaid on top of each other to form the place commonly viewed as Atlantis. That’s why so many different interpretations of players and lore can coexist!

“If I was talking to someone who doesn’t know us, I would say there’s the whole eldritch, eerie, ‘hey a bunch of our players are lost souls adrift at sea’ nature of our lore that we haven’t really touched on outside of vaguely referencing in our psychic blood prop (and if people knew about it, I think our case probably would have been more compelling).” – @moliwogs

“More people need to be aware of the threat that is Rigby Friedrich. He is a menace, stay alert.” – Cal

“I think it’s hard for us to communicate exactly how fluid our lore is, and that literally anyone could just pop in and say ‘Slosh Truk is a turkey wearing a pair of night vision goggles’ and that would then be an extant version of Slosh Truk.” – Lahiik

The idea of lore being fluid is extremely prevalent among the Georgias. It lets anyone join the team, suggest an idea, and have it be true without overwriting any preexisting lore or identify of the character. Ex-Mafia Frankie Hambone and Loving Dad Frankie Hambone aren’t two separate characters, they’re two existing versions of the same character, and they could high-five if they wanted to. This open interpretation to lore helps a lot of people feel more welcome in the community.

The Atlantis Georgias aren’t the best team in Blaseball. They aren’t even the worst. At best, they’re below average, perfectly able to be overlooked. However, to those who do look, they’ll find an extraordinarily passionate community, one with infinite dedication to the game and the team. 

The community is welcoming, and open, and accepting. Anyone can join and feel like their voice is being heard in whatever decision is being made, any far-off idea can be recognized in Atlantis. In the end, this extreme openness is what sets the Georgias apart from the rest of the teams in the ILB, what really makes them special, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Playing Favorites

Finally, because I’ve so frequently made note of how dedicated Georgias fans are to the team, I decided to simply round up some of our fanbase’s favorite characters, and hopefully all of the varied responses will show off our team’s dedication to them.

“My favorite character is definitely jan Canberra, and I have no idea why! Maybe it’s the name, maybe it’s the chants, maybe something about skeletons resonated with me?” – Rennie

“Neerie because she’s the first tragic player we’ve had on the team. She’s trapped elsewhere, and she’s in the shadows so not coming out. The rest of the team is just waiting for her to come back, and the years are going past.” – Aled

“My favorite character is Geraldine Frost. I latched on to her immediately after I joined the Georgias because of the name. I mean. Come on. What a good name. I love cold-themed characters, and ice magic is the coolest kind of magic (do not @ me).” – canti

“I gotta say jan for crimes, but Flattery and Rigby are also amazing.” – Yvette

“Slosh Truk. Came out of the shadows right after my first season and I had many a hearty chuckle over the name.” – nicmoiseyev

“Simple answer, jan Canberra. Our skeleton pirate queen, enticed me with her strong baserunning, and took my heart with her many crimes.” – ComiTurtle

“Mint Shupe! We love an unhinged ex-mad-scientist type” – Bird Cheshire

“Yurts Buttercup because he’s just a wholesome person, and is the team’s shanty man and I’m a sucker for sea shanties.” – Squid

“Flattery McKinley, because on the initial lorejam doc someone wrote down “lesbian scientist with tentacle arm” and that is about as much my jam as a character concept can get.” – Jasmine Wright

“Rigby Friedrich, after his 18 inning fearless eclipse game in season 13 I grew to really love him and his chant, rig em up Rigby!” – Blake

The post Atlantis Georgias: A Deep Dive appeared first on Blaseball News Network.