The Invitation Tournament sees the return of Skrface13, Zti890, Zabi-, Rteruyas, BankerD, Raziel_Sinister, and Serjery. There was one opening left since many invitees never got back to me. Therefore, the last spot in the Invitation Tournament was given to the final new member of the season, TrickyTewi from California. These 8 members are playing in a single elimination Invitational Tournament. The winning fighter will earn a seat in Super Brawl II as the #21 seed. At the end of Week 21, I hope to have all matches completed, including the 8-fighter tournament, so that we are left with 64 fighters. The tournament officially begins two weeks from today on May 9th, 2011.
Of course, the other thing on everyone's mind right now is the PlayStation Network. It going on 6 days since the PSN went down, and Sony has only given brief statements since then. They have admitted it was an "external intrusion" and they are taking the time to add further security to the network supposedly. Here is a link to their official blog which seems to be updated every other day: http://blog.us.playstation.com/
Their last post had this dreadful update as written by Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, "Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time." There is no official word as to when the PSN will be back up, but some reports indicated the Japan servers would return today with the US and European servers coming back on Tuesday. I fear that isn't the case, otherwise, Sony would have made an announcement by now. They are getting hammered in the press and media right now for their handling of this disaster. Personally, I am angry that they have yet to address whether or not our personal information was stolen or compromised, such as names, addresses, and credit card numbers. Hopefully this matter will be ending very soon with good news from Sony regarding the above issues. Stay tuned.
How this directly affects the league is questionable right now. If we lose a day or two this week (after already losing 5 days last week), we should still be in fine shape to play out the week's matches. However, if the PSN is down for another week or longer, the league will suffer terribly. With our current problem with so many members not playing their weekly matches, the league would literally be on hold until the PSN returns. Each day draws us closer to the June 7th date of SSFIV: Arcade Edition and less time to complete this season. I don't want to make any decisions now regarding the league, but if the PSN continues to be a problem, the league may have to be shut down prematurely. As I wrote before, stay tuned.
Due to the Invitational Tournament, the SFCCL is 56 members / 104 fighters strong going into Week 21 with members in 8 different countries.
WEEK 20 RECAP
Completed matches: 9 out 50 (18%)
Forfeited matches: 4 out of 50 (8%)
Draw matches: 37 out of 50 (74%) Unofficial
Double Forfeit matches: 0 out of 50 (0%)
OLD, NEW, & CHANGING MEMBERS
Two members were dropped form the league per their request last week:
Vincente916bboy (California)
HerkulesHulk (Finland)
Only one new member was allowed to complete the Invitational Tournament:
TrickyTewi (California)
Welcome to the SFCCL! The following 'Auto-Promotions' occurred as a result of the departures:
GOLD Division: None
SILVER Division: None
BRONZE Division: 1 spot
A Division: 2 spots
B Division: 2 spots
RED Division: 1 spot
BLUE Division: 2 spots
Members changing fighters and Division change:
DromeKilla BALROG to DEE JAY (B Division)
ModeType_Beast SETH to T. HAWK (B Division)
Wauhti ROSE to JURI (Blue Division)
Any member in the league can change their fighter, but it will result in a penalty of the new fighter dropping one division and starting at the #15 ranking, unless of course, the division is closed which will result in the new fighter starting at the bottom of the next lower division.
THE WAITING LISTS
The Waiting List are officially closed for the rest of the season. No new members will be admitted to the league.
DEADLINE FOR WEEK 21
Deadline for Week 21 matches is Sunday, May 8th, 2011.
Good luck to all members this week!