Fall 2023

The first complete season in the Richmond floorball archive wastes little time establishing a rule:

Do not confuse the standings with the ending.

Fall 2023 produced three teams at 5-2. Eskimo Bros, Maniax, and Flamingos each finished with 15 points. Behind them came another three at 4-3: Clutch Pucks, Fright Night, and Dirty Puckin’ Dangles.

Six of the league’s eight teams finished within one win of each other.

In technical terms, this is called a mess.

Eskimo Bros led the league with 44 goals. Flamingos scored 43. Maniax scored 40. All three had stronger regular-season records than Clutch Pucks, who finished tied for fourth at 4-3.

Clutch had also lost to Fright Night, Flamingos, and Eskimo Bros. That meeting with Eskimo ended 5-3.

Nothing here suggested inevitability.

Then Clutch Pucks won the championship.

The archive refuses to provide a cinematic explanation. It has no scorers, assists, quarter scores, or goal chronology. The regular-season scores survive, but the postseason record contains only advancement and the identity of the champion.

This is inconvenient for a beat writer and excellent for preventing fiction.

What remains is enough.

Clutch Pucks reached the final. Eskimo Bros reached it too. The team that had beaten Clutch during the regular season was waiting for them.

Clutch won.

Apparently, the regular season had been reconnaissance.

This was already their third documented championship, following titles in Summer 2022 and Spring 2023. Fall 2023 did not introduce Clutch Pucks as a contender. It gave the detailed archive its first look at a team whose championship habit was becoming everyone else’s problem.

It also opened a matchup that would refuse to leave quietly.

Clutch Pucks and Eskimo Bros would meet again in the next championship. The Desk could continue, but that would be stealing from the future, and the future appears to contain enough hostility of its own.

For now, Fall 2023 speaks plainly.

Clutch Pucks finished 4-3.

The trophy remained unmoved by the objection.

Unfortunately, the record had established a pattern.