Midseason Fiesta

The Midseason Fiesta took place in Gamma 4 as a part of the last Short Circuit. It was intended to be a losers tournament where teams were able to party and gain additional stat boosts partway through the season, and the winner was to be awarded an unnamed prize.

The event is also known as the "Party Crash", the "Double Feature", the "Fiesco" or the "Fiesta everybody go to Fleep".

The Beginning

The Fiesta kicked off with a message from the Monitor announcing the start of the Fiesta:

hey winners siesta go to sleep okay losers fiesta everybody make some noise get loud

[CROWD NOISE]

Game 1 (Day 113)

The first day of games for the Fiesta all of the participating teams were given the Party Time modification and able to party. Fans immediately noticed that there was a significantly higher rate for partying than normal, with multiple players partying within the first few innings across the four ongoing games. by the end of the games, there had been sixty-three parties across all games, with the New York Millennials in particular partying thirteen times and gaining 20.8 total stars for their team.

The game's Live Feed covered in conversational Emojis

In addition to the players enjoying their parties, Fans were able to interact with the live feed of the game by reacting to events using a set of pre-selected emojis, with other fans being able to see their reactions in real time. Emojis that were available were:

• 😱
• 💀
• 🎉
• ❤
• 🤔
• ⚾
• 📎
• 😐
• 🏈

While the first four emojis were stable, the last two would be randomized between the available emojis when a Fan opened the Live Feed page.

Game 2 (Day 114)

The second day of games for the Fiesta began with all participating teams losing their Party Time modification, as well as the pitcher rotation inexplicably moving from the fourth position straight to the second position. No teams were able to party, however Fans were still able to cheer for their favourite teams.

The Canada Moist Talkers experienced a Night Shift in their game against the Hellmouth Sunbeams, which saw hitter Roland Magehands sent to the Shadows in exchange for Eloise Butterworth. While this change was reflected on the Moist Talkers' roster, Butterworth only completed a single at-bat during the game, and Magehands stayed in the batting order until the end of game, batting from the Shadows.

After the games had completed, Fans noticed that the Seattle Garages' logo had begun propagating over the Fiesta's bracket, replacing both the San Francisco Lovers and the Houston Spies.

Game 3 (Day 115)

The third day of games for the Fiesta began to exhibit issues.

As the second day ended and betting became available Fans noticed that there were two versions of each game to bet on for a total of six games. For some reason the odds were different for several of them despite there being no changes to the team compositions - though weather did vary on some of them. The games scheduled were the:

• Millennials vs Crabs (Eclipse)
• Millennials vs Crabs (Eclipse)
• Pies vs Jazz Hands (Night)
• Pies vs Jazz Hands (Snow)
• Sunbeams vs Moist Talkers (Peanuts)
• Sunbeams vs Moist Talkers (Peanuts)

When play began games started as normal, except that they were happening in two divergent instances. Partway through the Jazz Hands and Pies game the active pitcher for the Jazz Hands, Squid Psst was removed from the night game after a night shift swapped them with Troy Bowman, but Psst remained pitching in the Snow game, even though they appeared in the shadows on the roster page. Psst was then frozen in the Snow game, and Lily Cole began pitching. This replaced them in the snow game but also somehow reversed the night shift on the roster page, which showed Psst back in the rotation and Bowman in the shadows. Bowman remained as the Night game pitcher during this time despite being back in the shadows. At the end of the games, Bowman returned to the active roster as the night shift somehow reasserted itself.

The scores began to diverge in the double sets of games and while the Millennials beat the Crabs in both of their games, the Jazz Hands, Pies, Moist Talkers, and Sunbeams all had two wins for their respective series as they both won and lost one instance of their games.

Fans eagerly awaited to see what would happen next as the games finished and it was decided who should play in the next round.

Game 4 (Day 116)

The fourth day of games for the Fiesta appeared as soon as the third round ended and sparked an immediate round of confusion. The games showed both the New York Millennials and Seattle Garages set to play themselves in the next round - with the Garages having 50/50 odds displayed against themselves, and the Millennials having 51/49 odds for some reason. The Party Time modification was restored for all teams still in the tournament. Several teams that should be participating were missing from the bracket.

The games scheduled were the:

• Moist Talkers vs Mechanics
• Jazz Hands vs Moist Talkers
• Steaks vs the Jazz Hands
• Garages vs Garages
• Millennials vs Millennials
• Spies vs Lovers

A siesta was called, with members of The Game Band working to figure out how to complete the Fiesta as scheduled, with one tweet reading that "if it can run, we'll let it run (we don't think it can)"

Noise Complaint

In the end, the Fiesta was forced to be cancelled early, with the potential issues of teams playing themselves proving to be hazardous to the remainder of the circuit. The Monitor appeared to give the news on the site, and gave the prize to the Canada Moist Talkers who were last place in the league.

hey
uh
bad news
noise complaint
crashed the fiesta
seeing double
had to shut it down
sorry
can't leave empty handed
so uh
moist talkers?
sure why not
you won
what did you win
how about this
shiny

Additional Material

• 

  All but three of those were Millennials

• 

  The Ticker explains

• 

  Three

• 

  By Quinn

• 

  A normal tournament bracket

• 

  Day 116's games

• 

  Gearing up for the big game

• 

  The Commissioner Explains

• 

  The Double Feature