Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Perfect No More - Pool Fiction Knocks Off X8B
Pool Fiction grabbed the early 1-0 advantage, as ta.lent won his season debut over Xtreme 8Ball's king.ronnie. Ronnie had run the table down to the 7ball, his last, before the game was stopped to confirm his eligibility. After it had been established that Yahoo!'s game profiles were yet again omitting games, Ronnie was free to try his bank shot, from the right rail to the top left pocket. Ronnie missed the shot high, however, allowing Matt to run out all his stripes, and the 8, and put his team on top.
In the second game, PFN's xlx_ogges_xlx had a golden opportunity to double the lead. Despite leaving appealing openings for 4-0 u_got_no_skillz to run, Stephen only pounced when he was left a cut on the 9ball to the bottom right pocket. Stephen was able to make that shot, and leave one of his remaining two stripes for a relatively easy shot. That ball was the 10-ball, which he needed to make and then spin the cueball back in an attempt to free up the 11 near the upper left corner. Stephen missed the shot entirely, leaving Ogges with a chance to finish. George's run was a rather adventurous one, never leaving more than one possible shot to continue. Ogges was able to convert on a 5-1 combo to the bottom left pocket to keep shooting. After the cueball rattled in the top middle pocket and kicked out just enough to leave a shot on his last solid later on, ogges made the three and left the 8 fairly close to the lower left pocket. His shot would miss off the bottom rail however, and Stephen would clean up to steal the game, and improve to 5-0 on the season. More importantly though perhaps, the match was squared at one apiece.
In the third game, so_wolf_cub4 had the break against Xtreme 8Baller obv.skill. Cubby got a ball to fall off the break, and while intending to run solids after the next shot, he also got bailed out as a stripe fell. Had that stripe not fallen, there were no reasonable shots on any solids that could've been made. With the bailout, Cubby cashed in, running the remaining stripes and knocking down the 8ball. Pool Fiction enjoyed a 2-1 lead.
Onward to the fourth game, where Pool Fiction Captain kerryanne_24 looked to try and put things away. xlx_bpk_xlx got the call for PFN, while X8B's canuck_justin sat in for his new team. Jamie tried to recreate the feat of his teammate in the previous game, with less luck involved, trying to run out his solids and give PFN another win. But with a cluster of balls, 8ball included, at the lower right side of the table, Jamie opted to try and safety by potting one of the stripes. That ball stayed out of the pocket, allowing Justin to use it as a safety tool. After a pair of fouls by Jamie, the Canadian was off to the rehces. With one stripe left, Justin had a moderately difficult shot with the cueball perilously close to being directly under the final stripe. The former Lucky Shot made the runner, though, and kept the 8ball on the table and next made it, to level the match at two.
In game five, Big League Tour Runner-up and X8B Captain the_lvlag1cian called on himself to take on devilstature. After Roger fouled trying to thread the needle between a pair of solids, Ben picked up where he left off Sunday night - running tables. This time, unlike Sunday night, Ben took his time and picked off all 7 of his balls, along with the 8, making it all look so easy... And Xtreme 8Ball's Captain gave his team their first lead of the night.
So in the sixth game it was X8B's usual clinch specialist dan.buddy against Pool Fiction's Ihatejustin. Dan, 2-2 on the season all in clinching games, opted to play a snooker game with Perry. After tapping around a bit, Dan decided to have a go at the table to win the match. After taking the time to line up a bank on the 15, Dan suddenly realized he had a better shot available on the top middle pocket, and took that instead. This led to a much better running opportunity for Dan, but that became a moot point when he safetied himself with 2 stripes remaining. A desperation cuebank led to one of those stripes being kicked home, but still left nothing but desperation on the last ball. After an unsuccessful bang, Perry went to work playing janitor, cleaning up all his solids with minimal trouble, and sending the match to a decisive seventh game.
In the decider, Pool Fiction's pool_warrior2002 looked to continue the trend of Canadians enjoying solid success this week. He would be matched up against formerly caught aimer user de.ported (Kimbo.) This one was another long safety battle, much to Andy's liking. Late in the game, Andy spent an extreme amount of time lining up a shot with 3 stripes remaining. After examining numerous possibilities during the long delay, he opted to safety and push the 14-ball towards the left side of the table. Kimbo came back with a safety with seemed to put the game solely in his hands, separating a group of solids and leaving little short of a miracle shot for Andy. Andrew fanned on his english-cuebank off the bottom rail aiming for the 12-ball and top middle pocket, but avoided a foul by connecting with one of the two stripes on the left side. Then it was on Kimbo to run out and keep X8B's perfect season alive. While breaking out those solids mentioned before once and for all, the 8ball was pushed over to the left side near Andy's stripes. Kimbo was only able to leave a cuebank off the bottom rail to make the 8ball top left. Perhaps a season ago it would've been a no-doubter, but Kimbo erased any speculation that he was using in the night's uncammed finale, missing the shot well to the left. PFN's game 7 rep. was able to finish up, pot the 8, and give Pool Fiction its second consecutive win, and first against a quality opponent, 4-3.
Pool Fiction is now 2-3 with the win, and holds a 18/17 overall record. That's a welcome sight to a league that had started the season 0-3 with losses to Magic Pool, Sexy Poolerz, and Pool Legends before finally putting down Pool Loverz last week. The game 7 win for pool_warrior2002 increases his record to 3-1, and he has now split on a pair of clinching opportunities. Pool Fiction's next goal is certainly within reach: a win over Pool Dragonz next Wednesday would make PFN .500 on the season.
Xtreme 8Ball, the last undefeated league in MLP has fallen. But X8B still holds a 4-1 record and is 24/11 overall. As mentioned before, u_got_no_skillz improved to 5-0 on the season with his win in game two over xlx_ogges_xlx. de.ported's game 7 loss was his first of the season, while dan.buddy, lamenting a fair bit at the table over his self-proclaimed subpar season, is now 2-3 all in clinching games. X8B now holds a half-game lead over Pool Legends for the top spot in the National League, with head-to-head advantage in hand. Pool Legends will play Pool Loverz in Wednesday night's only match, a 9PM start almost certainly not worth the wait. Xtreme 8Ball takes on Magic Pool next Tuesday night.
