Affinity for Crows

For the Player Modification for pitchers, which will increase the chance opposing hitters will be ambushed by Birds, see Friend of Crows.

For the Team Modification which will cause its players to be attacked by Birds more often, see Curse of Crows.

Affinity for Crows is a Team Modification, awarded to the Philly Pies during the Season β8 Elections. It is also the signature Modification of the Society Data Witches, and a Player Modification that can be acquired through via the Reform Will.

Effects

During Birds weather, a team with this modification will have its hitting and pitching stats improve for batters and pitchers respectively. The boost provided by Affinity for Crows is considerably better than that provided to players who are Overperforming.

History

In the Season β8 Elections, the Philly Pies received a "newfound Affinity for Crows" as a result of winning the Affinity for Crows Blessing. They won this with 6% of the vote, compared to the 22% vote share of highest bidders the Baltimore Crabs.

Coffee Cup

Oh, that's what they do.

The Society Data Witches also received the Affinity for Crows modification upon joining the Coffee Cup, likely as a nod to their sponsors, the Society for Internet Blaseball Research (who were also the sponsors of the Affinity for Crows Blessing in Season 8). They proceeded to play 13 games in the Coffee Cup before being eliminated by FWXBC, with exactly zero of these games featuring Birds weather.

A graph comparing the Philly Pies' win (or non-loss) rates from season to season, in Birds weather and all other Weather types, following the acquisition of the Affinity for Crows blessing. The number of games the Pies played in Birds weather each season is depicted in yellow.

Four and Twenty Seasons of Birds in league with Pies

In contrast with the Data Witches, the Pies saw immediate benefits from this blessing, with significantly improved win rates in Birds weather compared to their performance in other weather types. In Season β10 in particular, when the Forecast: Birds decree from the Season β9 came into effect and resulted in 34 games in Birds weather for the Pies, they won 28 of these games (accounting for over half of their 54 wins in the Season 10 regular season). The Pies had six separate seasons throughout the Expansion Era where they won^[1] 100% of their regular season Birds weather games.

Pies fans capitalised on this trait when ballpark Renovations became available, funding the Birds+ renovation during the Latesistas of Seasons β16 and β17 to increase the incidence of Birds weather in Tastycake Stadium. As a consequence, The Season β18 Pies had one of the best regular seasons in the history of modern Blaseball, accruing 80 non-losses to match the Baltimore Crabs of Season β6.^[2]

To "commit to the bit",^{[citation needed]} Pies fans also funded the Birdhouses renovation in Season β20, and Bird Hotels in Season β21.

Comparison of wins (and/or non-losses) accrued versus losses accrued by the Philly Pies, from Seasons 9-23, in Birds weather versus all other types of weather. This time as a pie chart.

Additional Affinities

Affinity for Crows remained a exclusive Modification for the Philly Pies until the Season β15 elections, when the Hawai'i Fridays won the Bird Brain Blessing, granting the Modification to Jacob Winner.

From Seasons 12 to 17, fans had the option to spend a Will to Enrich their team, granting them a seasonal version of various modifications. Affinity for Crows was available in this fashion in Seasons 15, 16, and 17, but no team ever chose to Enrich their team with Affinity for Crows during this time.

Tot Fox also gained the Modification in the Season β20 elections, when the San Francisco Lovers rerolled Fox's Flinch modification via their Reform will.