AQL Season 8 IYKYK updates

 Hi guys! Ok here I go again, here is where I start sounding like myself again instead of that weird AI simulacrum I have adopted on the FB page where I post vanilla. What are my KPIs? I will post one post per working day here, focusing on one match, or one issue, or one...thing. Since I do not have the censorship board watching me here, I can go a little more indepth, and hopefully my army of devoted readers (all 6 of you) will get some insight into the cozy little quizzing planet that we have created called AQL. 10 seasons and 5 years later (we have been here for 5 years yes), it still feels weird to own what is possibly the biggest team quiz league in Asia.  We have had a few superteams turn up in AQL since the beginning of time - it is not a bad phenomenon in itself, take for instance 120 Days of Sodor who presumably began life as a superteam (I cannot imagine Brandon and Victoria meeting at College Bowl, for instance) but over time you do become a real organic team and yo...

So Gold finally ended with Chiltern Chillies poised to take their trophy - but somehow they lost their first match in the ENTIRE competition with a 30-47 reverse at THE QUADS MUST  BE CRAZY, who themselves take their first AQL Gold title. Both teams thankfully were going up to Champ anyway, and are joined by the winner of 3rd 4th. CARPAL DIEM thus become one of two sides to have played in four leagues finally, as they won the million dollar playoff against We have ghats to pass. The latter will go up of course if dropouts happen as they occupy the all important fourth place seat. On the other end of Gold - the hitherto meaningless 13th 14th place playoff carried huge stakes this season as we decreased the relegation slots on the final day from 4 to 3. The two teams contesting this match had both come up from Plat and did not want to go back down as one of them has gone back down three times at last count. Unfortunately that team now goes back down for what seems like the 4th time, ...

 Oh you are all wondering how it ended as they extended two weeks to MD9, and we did not have a proper swansong for Champ. Now that I appear to have 48 unique readers, none of which are flaming me now, let's do the post. CROUCHING MIMIR as we have mentioned have gone up, and with that, the rags to riches story is complete, from fifth world to first. Now we postulated multiple scenarios, and AGEING BULLS were quite clear in following the formbook, as they did what they needed to at Tequila Mockingbird 40-31. So they sealed their promotion in the clinical fashion after one season out of Prem. Now they need to keep their place again as they've yo-yoed five seasons now between 1 and 2. Mango a Go Go helped themselves to a customary win over a team that didn't need it anymore (against a team that didn't need it either) and find themselves ending in a nice 4th place right outside the promotion zone. You Lot were also supposed to win their final match and just confirm their fi...

 APQC 2024 came and went at G Hotel Gurney, Georgetown, and for a change, we had a Malaysian team consisting of individuals who actually lived in Malaysia; India turned up as they always do, with a Greatest Hits of India players of tournaments past; Singapore set a record of sorts with a 19 year old turning up; and Australia setting another record of sorts with 3.5 teams appearing, necessitating the use of BLUE as a colour and a team of spares, who duly were called THE SPARES. Defending champions: INDIA, last year's positions being 2nd place Malaysia (albeit with some assistance from foreign imperalists) and 3rd place Australia Gold sans external assistance. Participating teams: AUSTRALIA: 3 (Gold, Green, Blue) MALAYSIA: 2 (A and B) INDIA: 1 SINGAPORE: 1 PHILIPPINES: 1 Multinational: 1 Individual rounds were very heated, with AUSTRALIA GOLD racing to an extremely large 50 point lead (one of those so called unassailable ones) and 3 out of 4 of the top individual scores. AUSTRALIA GR...

 Sorry Platinum. The youngest child always loved, the oldest child always in the way, the middle child (Gold) always overcompensating. It's Platinum that always gets forgotten so today we plan to rectify that. EUREKA MOMENT are champions of Platinum - having bought a few terrific new female players by the looks of it when I drop in to their matches. They are again the epitome of "it takes a relegation to make a team better", as they were just moribund in their last season in Gold when they went down with a whimper (I am not even sure there was a whimper). This season Eureka lost to Nylon in the group stages and finished second in the group, but in the end "we meet again" in the finals and Eureka exacted their revenge. Of course it was a somewhat meaningless match promotion wise as both teams went up irrespective but it's nice to hold on to that air trophy for Christmas. The all important third place playoff happens soon with Calicut Cartel taking on WAGMI. B...

An improbable end to an overpowered season, where one of the best teams in Ruby is still stuck there for another season, and a team that was established on the back of a napkin essentially and is named after the guy whose napkin it was! In the finals of Ruby, Quiz and Qurious finally smashed their way back to Prem after digging around for a bit in the nether regions of Ruby, but they did make it out in the end. They defeated Movin's Minute Men 40-30 in a nice high scoring clash which signalled both of them being promoted anyway, so honestly no loss for either side to just turn up. Trivia Matters won the decisive third place playoff and collected their bronze medals (and the promotion place) against Carlo Rossi, who are really not half bad as a team but just suffered from a surfeit of good teams in Ruby this season - I would say 3M are not even really a Ruby team and will thrive in higher leagues as well. In other news TK became the undisputed champions of the so called bottom 4 pla...