week 5 recap


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Houts Holds on For First Win,
Epp and Rodriguez Secure Second Wins

Finishing out the first half of season 3 was a first for UGT: a release-week game. This excited several of the competitors. Isaac Epp, who would eventually eek out a 0.14 second win over Geoff Mitchell, and Gabe Rodriguez, who took the crossover win with a time within 0.24 seconds of them both were pumped. "Could it be?!" Epp exclaimed. "A release week game?!"

Rodriguez expected competitive times from those three, that managed to be the only competitors across both leagues who had times under 1 minute, 13 seconds. "Isaac, Geoff, and I had all been playing the game." It turned out to be a good week to be playing new games.

"It was a great opportunity," commissioner Dai said, "to promote the comeback of a franchise that I've always felt was good for the UGT. I wouldn't expect release week games to show up all that often in the tournament, but it seemed to go well this week, and I wouldn't be surprised if it popped up again."

It was an odd week for the Premier League. Having to go before the Champions League meant, as usual, the collective times of the Champions League were quite a bit better. Eventual winner Aaron Houts actually laid down the best time of the week for the Premier League on his first run (of three), meaning he had to sweat out 14 nail-biting runs by his competition as they all tried to best him. Houts agreed, saying, "It was a rollercoaster ride of emotion right up to the end." While powerhouse Dan Gibson and surging Jim Larimore came close, the run by Houts stayed strong and rewarded him his first win and jammed him right back into contention for the playoffs.

"I'm not too happy with my performance in the tournament thus far," admitted Houts, "so it feels good to be placed competitively going forward." When the snow had settled, his win put him into a four-way tie for fourth place in the Premier League and gave him that all-important W. Aaron also wanted to make sure that everyone knew who that win was for, closing by saying, "I want to give a shout out to Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain back home."

Things were a bit more straight-forward in the Champions League, with SSX favorites Epp and Mitchell putting down blistering times. With Epp holding on to a run by just over a tenth of a second, he mentioned that watching Geoff Mitchell's run that was fated to come so close and yet so far just moments afterwards was "something just shy of ultimate suffering. I thought Geoff was going to wipe the floor with me." When all was said and done, though, Epp was nothing but smiles, saying "Nothing feels better than a big ol' W going into a weekend."

The big surprise this week in Champions League was Ryan Grant. After an early string of tough weeks, where Grant couldn't seem to place better than 6th, he broke out with a 3rd place finish and a time that was only a single second back from Epp's winning time. He's certainly got a long way to go and may need a bit of luck to make the playoffs, but it was a good week for the UGT rookie.

Crossover closed out the week with Rodriguez easily taking the win, though competition for 2nd place was fierce. Eventually, the Champions League managed to pull out both of the top slots this week with a second place for Lyndsay Pearson, who managed to just beat out runs by Dave Miotke and Ryan Seiff. The win is his second and keeps him within a point of the leaders and makes Rodriguez a clear favorite for the playoffs. "It's big," he said, but aware of what lies ahead, he added, "Gotta keep it up. Only half way."

With 5 weeks down and 5 weeks to go, it's still anyone's game. The Premier League playoff picture is still emerging, as those just outside of the top three are all within only a few points of each other. In the Champion's League, with all the wins so far stacked up in the top 4, a single win could secure a playoff spot for anyone else.

It's time, as five-time champion Walter Yorkson of the URTG (Ultimate Royal Tournamente of Games, predecessor of and inspiration for the UGT) was fond of saying, to "sharpen thy lances and slay thy opponents, for the moon turned waning tonight as marks the midpoint of this, the most Royal of Tournamentes."

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