You waited damn near a month, but here it is, the final wrap up of the 6th Edition of The Infinity Cup. The Award we knew heading in, the Golden Boot, was a first, being split by 3 players, all of whom are captain of their respective teams. So without further ado, here's a quick rundown:
The Golden Boot
Alfred Legosen, Ammit, Cuckquean-tan (6)
Again, we knew this coming in. The Golden Boot is no stranger to being shared, but bby 3 people is new territory.
insert /cuckquean/ joke here
The Golden Touch
Benito Mussolini (5)
With how /fascist/'s fans were giving him shit, you'd think Benito ended up with maybe two points the whole way. Not the case, as his coming alive in the Knockout Stage sent him clear of Catgirl Maid who finished 2nd with 4 assists.
The Golden Glove
Charles Maurras
Resisting my apparent natural inclination to spell his name "Maurass", I give the best keeper award to /fascist/'s netminder. Yes, he very nearly shit the bed against /lego/, but his performance the rest of the way was excellent. Tack that onto an impressive Group Stage showing (the shutout vs. /christian/) and Maurras earns the keeper crown. I do have to give credit to both of /bane/'s keepers though. They played 4 and 3 games respectively, and both held a goals against/keeper coefficient of under 1.00.
The Golden Ball
Cuckquean-tan
The most difficult choice I had to make, second only to Goal of the Tournament. /cuckquean/'s captain had a terrible performance through the Group Stage. Amazingly though, CQ-tan turned it around in the Knockouts, with all 6 of her goals, and 2 assists coming in the final stage. Her 8 points were actually matched by Mussolini (3-5), but I just couldn't look past her surge of goal scoring. She single-handedly took down /yuri/ with a hat trick in the Quarters, almost earned Goal of the Tournament too. Again, it was tough.
The Golden Screw
Sweet Dreams
/late/ & /comfy/'s keeper suffered the lowly distinction of being credited with the only own goal of the tournament. A 90+1 shot from a /cuckquean/ player went in off him and stole a tie from his squad. In a truly cruel twist of fate, that point lost would have been enough to see them through to the Knockout Stage, as their win against /monster/ would have given them enough for passage through the 3rd place group at least. If you ask me, the designation is bullshit, the keeper's job is to make saves, and he had to try and stop that shot. From what I saw, it was going in anyway, so to slap him with an Own Goal is just twisting the knife. So yeah, he got screwed. I could have given it to the whole team now that I think about it, but Sweet Dreams took it on the chin especially hard.
The Jade Clock
/eris/ 4 - 4 /sp/ (Group F Match)
I don't like the name of this award so I'm changing it. Match of the tournament goes to /eris/-/sp/. I was thinking about giving it to /lego/-/fascist/ but that was more "Tale of Two Matches" rather than Match of the Tournament. The back and forth nature of the 4-4 draw, plus the yellow card to /eris/'s GK and the resulting penalty was what sealed it.
Explain the joke behind the Jade Clock name and I might keep it
The Award With No Name (Goal of the Tournament)
Dr. Pavel, 4-0 goal vs. /animu/
While it doesn't have the in-match significance of last year's officially unofficial Goal of the Tournament, Dr. Pavel's 4-0 dagger perfectly encapsulated the state of the match that day. /bane/ were relentless on attack, and when they struck, it was both deadly and effortless. Pavel's cheeky back heel was all that and more. Coming just at the start of added time, the goal gave him a brace on the day, and completely buried /animu/. This one was the toughest choice for me. You have Ammit's Bergkampian effort vs /bmn/ to tie it 1-1, and Cuckquean-tan's 2-2 marker vs /ausneets/ to contend with (webms here
>>1859 ). There's arguments to be made for all 3 honestly. I went with Pavel's because it just got better every time I watched it. Ammit's was excellent, it almost reached that mark. Cuckquean-tan's is almost as nice a setup as it was a goal, but it just didn't have enough to surpass Pavel's.
As for the other awards, I didn't see fit to award Platinum Lube yet because I'm still not sure what it is (maybe that can be our version of the Wooden Spoon, now that I type this out). Aquamarine Microphone would be masturbatory considering it was only 4 of us. Star of David, the irony is not lost on me, giving it to a player from /christian/. I think the description needs a rewrite, maybe a shortening. Again my issue with it was that it seems to be meant for fans/a management team, but most of you were on your best behavior, save for those early drivebys. I'll take a look, but the ones listed above are all on the Awards page now, so check em out.