Seattle Underdogs Win Big

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Seattle Underdogs Win Big in Combat Cyclist Playoffs

Jeffrey Copeland, 09/30/2080

National Sports Review

The Seattle Timberwolves combat biker team won a shocking upset this weekend against competition favorites, the Mitsuhama Ronin, defying all expectations in order to secure a spot in the North American Combat Cyclist finals, and potentially the Biker Bowl world championship after that.

The action began poorly for the Seattle team; the Ronin scored early with a shocking blitz attack; while the MCT thunderbiker provided valuable fire support, the Ronin linebikers and lancebikers charged down the lanes while passing the flag amongst themselves, driving through the Timberwolves’ defense to hurl the flag-drone past Seattle goalkeeper Andrew Wright to score the first goal of the game barely 30 seconds in.

Their initial luck was repeated a little over two minutes later when several Seattle lancebikers were hit by a devastatingly effective barrage of concussion grenades and gel rounds by the Ronin defense that momentarily pinned them down and caused a pile-up. The flag was quickly swiped up by MCT player Sarah Clements, who raced almost unopposed down the outside lane to score her team’s second goal.

After finding themselves two points down, the Timberwolves began to dig in their heels and fight back. Team captain Jack Fischer led a charge down the inside lane of the field, clearing the path for linebiker Tony Trujillo to dance around the opposition goalkeeper and score the team’s first goal of the night.

Unfortunately, the Timberwolves were unable to continue building upon their success for long. After their initial goal, the Ronin regained possession of the flag, and feinted a heavy push down the inside lane of the field – the same one recently used by Fischer – and becoming embroiled in a hard fought defensive action fought by the opposing team, which seemed determined not to afford the Ronin another point. Unfortunately, during this commotion, MCT linebiker Vincent Cross slipped down an outside lane and through light opposition. The Timberwolves realised too late that they’d been duped before the Ronin scored the final goal of the first half of the game.

At halftime, commentators speculated on the Seattle team’s chances. Most agreed that the Timberwolves looked frazzled, and criticized their inability to gain and retain possession of the flag-drone. By contrast, the Ronin were complimented on their ability to keep control of the initiative and their team’s composition of motorcycle models. Locker room footage displayed that the Ronin were in understandly high spirits, whilst the Timberwolves appeared to be listening attentively to head Coach Benjamin Keller.

When play resumed in the second half, the Ronin lancebiker Clements again gained possession of the flag. After racing her way to the end of the maze, the Timberwolves defensive powerhouse Brandon Knox stopped the MCT player hard in her tracks, stripping the flag from her and taking a few precious seconds to retreat out of the maze and pass the flag to teammate Zoe Slater. While commentators questioned the decision not to immediately take advantage of the interception and push hard towards the other end of the field, the Ronin appeared disorganised, having lost sight of the flag and attempted to disperse their team widely in order to better map the maze. This decision was shown to be a mistake when, several minutes later, Slater burst through the widely spaced defence on her lightweight bike too quickly to be caught. She emerged into the open field of the Ronin’s end of the field and scored the Timberwolves’ second goal of the game to bring up the score to 3-2.

After the teams reset, the Ronin attempted to repeat their earlier tactic from the first half, feinting a heavy push with several players and sending the flag wide, this time carried by lancebiker Haruko Tanaka. The Timberwolves maintained a defensive line across all of the exits on their side of the maze, foiling the attempt. Knox once more stopped Tanaka, driving directly into him; the Seattle player knocked Tanaka’s lance offline with his mace just before impact and then tackled him from his bike in a hard hitting impact that took them both to the floor. Less badly injured than his opponent, Knox passed the flag to teammate Mitchell Byrd, who raced down through the same lane used by Tanaka to reach the opposite end of the field and scored the team’s third goal relatively unopposed, to bring the score to 3-3.

The next eleven minutes passed without much headway being made by either team. Each team would gain possession of the flag, attempt a strong push, and be shut down by a determined enemy defense at the edge of the maze, at which point possession would be exchanged.

With just three minutes until the end of the second half Timberwolf lancebiker Jordan Wong, in an astonishing display of his physical adept abilities, used his lance to pole-vault himself and his bike over one of the maze walls (and somehow, without losing control of the flag) to evade the Ronin defense and break free of the maze moments later into the open field to score the final and match-winning goal of the game, with just 23 seconds left on the clock.

The Timberwolves will go on to play either the Texas Rattlers or Atlanta Rebels next, depending on which team proves victorious in their next game.

Seattle Timberwolves Roster

Position	Player
Linebiker 1	Brandon "Fort" Knox
Linebiker 2	Tony Trujillo
Linebiker 3	Ashley Robinson
Linebiker 4	Stephen Hartman
Lancebiker 1	Jack Fischer (c)
Lancebiker 2	Zoe Slater
Lancebiker 3	Mitchell Byrd
Lancebiker 4	Jordan Wong
Thunderbiker	Daniel Saint-Martin
Goalkeeper	Andrew Wright

Mitsuhama Ronin Roster

Position	Player
Linebiker 1	Kojiro Sagara (c)
Linebiker 2	Johnathan MacArthur
Linebiker 3	Vincent Cross
Linebiker 4	Peter Dupont
Lancebiker 1	Haruto Tanaka
Lancebiker 2	Naomi Olsen
Lancebiker 3	Sarah Clements
Lancebiker 4	Joseph Meyers
Thunderbiker	Yui Nakamura
Goalkeeper	Malcolm Stokes