The regular season is over. The final pool games locked all eight playoff seeds, settled two photo-finish tiebreakers, and sent three names home. xpoes won a 128–122 shootout — the highest-scoring game of the year, with zero dead tossups — to grab the last East seed by twenty points of offense, while (Stitch)² ran ChessFun off the floor 106–38 to claim the West's #4. Up top, both #1 seeds closed the pool at 5–1: dan.k.memes in the East, James W in the West with the league's best differential. The tiebreak that decided it all was total points scored — not differential — and it left anurag twenty points short of the postseason despite a 3–3 record. The bracket is set.
The highest-scoring game of the season, and a win-and-in. xpoes won a 128–122 shootout in which every single tossup was answered — no dead balls all game — by out-buying Fez at the buzzer: 13 gets against an xGets of 8.7 (+4.3), an Earth/Space 4–0 sweep, and Rohan G's 28-point, 8-get masterclass out-gunning an absurd 90% bonus night. It clinches the last East seed.
Fez_Keyreb shot a video-game 90% bonus (9/10) — the best conversion line of the year — and still lost. They came in above their number too (10 vs 8.8, +1.2), but two negs and three fewer gets was the whole margin. Advik S's 4 gets led it. The most talented 1-win team you'll ever see poured in 122 in a game they couldn't win: efficiency without the volume to back it.
The #1 seed stated it. dan.k.memes closed the pool with a 40-point win on the back of a Math 4–0 sweep and a big +5.4 over its xGets (14 gets). Varyan J paced it with 7 gets at an average buzz word of 16 — the fastest of the week. It's the East's top seed at 5–1, and it earned the bye-free path with a closeout that looked the part.
sumin lost by 40 but had already done the work that mattered: 504 points on the season banks the #3 seed on the tiebreak. On the night it came in under xGets (8 vs 9.7, −1.7) and converted just 38% bonus; alphazom's 3 gets led it. Streaky to the end — the roster can win any single game, but this was the flat one.
Spoiler night. anurag — already eliminated — knocked off the East's #2 seed by 28, whitewashing two subjects: a Chemistry 0–4 and a Physics 3–0 beatdown of a mingle side that had nothing to clinch. Sanjay Suresh led it with 6 gets. Both sides finished right on their xGets (anurag +0.9, mingle +1.0) — this wasn't a buzzer explosion, it was mingle coasting into a game it didn't need.
mingle/Yunyi seeded #2 in the East regardless and still owns the league's best point differential (+210); the loss was a coast, not a crack. But four negs to anurag's two didn't help, and theenash s's 6 gets couldn't cover the Chem shutout. A tune-up gone sideways, with the seed already in the bank.
The West's #1 seed closed the pool by ending a season. James W won by 28 on a Chemistry 3–1 and Computer Science 3–1 pair of edges, finishing +2.6 over its xGets (12 gets). It was chippy — both sides negged five — but akhil's crew had the volume to survive it. James W clinches the top seed and the league's best differential (+254).
Connor Chang played it close for a half but is out. The 122-point ceiling never stabilized, and here they landed on their number (10 vs 9.4, +0.6) while Kian D (6 gets) tried to keep pace. Five negs in a one-possession-feeling game was the difference; a talented side eliminated in the play-in. Kian D deserved better.
The seed-clincher of the week, and it was a rout. (Stitch)² won by 68 by whitewashing three whole subjects — a Computer Science 3–0, Math 2–0, and Physics 3–0 triple-sweep — and beating its xGets by a huge +4.7 (13 gets). pancreas uvula's 6 gets led the demolition that grabbed the last West seed. From −228 a week ago to a 106–38 statement; the pulse is real.
ChessFun's season ends run by 68. They managed just 6 gets against a 9.1 expectation (−3.1) — the biggest shortfall of the slate — and gave back four negs on a night the rotation questions finally caught up with them. Eric L's 4 gets was the lone bright spot. The talent flashed all year; the answers never came.
The 2-seed, locked. cryo won by 28 on the back of a Computer Science 4–0 sweep, cruising to the West's #2 seed even as it landed right on its number (11 vs 11.1, −0.1). Edward's 4 gets led it. Quietly excellent all year (+202) and now the team nobody wants to draw in the bracket — a clean, professional closeout.
jonathan lost by 28 but went out firing: Edwin H ("potential man") dropped a 28-point, 8-get farewell that carried the whole side +3.5 over its xGets (11 gets). The math still never closed — three negs and a 27% bonus night — and it's the West cellar at 1–5. Individual fireworks, team arithmetic that never added up: the season in one line.
Final regular-season rankings, both conferences, ordered by playoff seed then eliminated teams by finish. Byes this week: GidTheKid2, czz. The bracket is set; the takes below are how each team walks into (or out of) the postseason.
EAST
| # | Team | The Take |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | dan.k.memes | 5–1, the #1 seed. The −6 point-diff says the wins are narrow, but 5 of 6 is 5 of 6, and a Math 4–0 close-out looked the part. Hosts xpoes. |
| 2 | mingle/Yunyi | 4–2, #2 seed and still the league's best point-diff (+210). The anurag loss was a coast with the seed locked; the ceiling is the East favorite. Hosts sumin. |
| 3 | sumin | 3–3, #3 seed on 504 points. Streaky — a 40-point loss to close — but the roster can win any single game. Travels to mingle. |
| 4 | xpoes | 3–3, #4 seed, and the story of the week: won a 128–122 shootout to grab the last spot by 20 points of offense. Rohan G is carrying them into a date with the 1-seed. |
| 5 | anurag | 3–3 but eliminated on the tiebreak (468 pts). Played spoiler to mingle a week too late; 20 points of offense from the postseason. |
| 6 | GidTheKid2 | 2–4, on bye, out. Harry Gao came back but the six-neg games sank the season. |
| 7 | Fez_Keyreb | 1–5, out — and yet scored 554 points (3rd-most in the East) and shot 90% in the finale. The most talented 1-win team you'll ever see; the buzzer volume never matched the finishing. |
WEST
| # | Team | The Take |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James W | 5–1, #1 seed, +254 diff (best in the league). Closed by eliminating Connor; akhil's season was the West's best. Hosts (Stitch)². |
| 2 | cryo | 4–2, #2 seed. Quietly excellent (+202); a CS 4–0 close-out. The team nobody wants to draw. Hosts czz. |
| 3 | czz | 4–2, #3 seed on the tiebreak. Wins ugly (−14 diff) and often; on a bye but locked into a date at cryo. |
| 4 | (Stitch)² | 3–3, #4 seed. Went from −228 to a 106–38 seed-clincher; volatile, but the pulse is real. Travels to James W. |
| 5 | Connor Chang | 2–4, eliminated. The 122-point ceiling never stabilized; lost the play-in to James W. Kian D deserved better. |
| 6 | ChessFun | 2–4, out. Run by 68 in the finale; the rotation questions never got answered. |
| 7 | jonathan | 1–5, out. Edwin H's 28-point farewell was the season in miniature: individual fireworks, team math that never closed. |
No lines were posted for this makeup week, so instead, the ledger: the game-line model closed the pool season having called direction on roughly 3-in-5 games — solid, but humbled twice by the same lesson, that it underprices home court and overprices a single star's ceiling. Its best signal all year was xGets: the teams that consistently beat their expected tossups — mingle/Yunyi, James W, cryo — are exactly the top seeds, and the teams that chronically fell short — jonathan, ChessFun — are the ones going home. The full season breakdown, and a championship simulation off these seeds, lands in the season report.
| Player | Team | Pts | Gets | Negs | Avg buzz word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohan G | xpoes | 28 | 8 | 1 | 27 |
| Edwin H | jonathan | 28 | 8 | 1 | 18 |
| Varyan J | dan.k.memes | 24 | 7 | 1 | 16 |
| Sanjay Suresh | anurag | 20 | 6 | 1 | 23 |
| pancreas uvula | (Stitch)² | 20 | 6 | 1 | 29 |
| Advik S | Fez_Keyreb | 16 | 4 | 0 | 28 |
⚡ Fastest trigger: Varyan J's average buzz word of 16 beat every other top scorer to the packet — the tempo behind dan.k.memes's #1-seed closeout. Highest leverage: Rohan G's 28-point, 8-get night was the only top line that came in a win-and-in — and it out-gunned a 90% bonus to put xpoes in the bracket.
Pool play is done; the bracket is set. Eight teams remain, four per conference, seeded by wins then total points scored. The quarterfinals (host listed first): dan.k.memes v xpoes and mingle/Yunyi v sumin in the East; James W v (Stitch)² and cryo v czz in the West. Winners advance to the conference finals, and the two conference champions meet in the Grand Final — East champ v West champ — for the $1,000.