The Munro Smashball League continued their season schedule by hosting Festival Du Spikageur in Legion Park on June 23, where eight teams battled for the ultimate prize in the second tournament of season four.
With original partners absent, some players were playing with teammates they have never played with before. The least surprising of the bunch, was Will Munro moving on from ex-partner Kash Henkelman, replacing him with Andrew Pidskalny, making it his fourth new partner in a span of the last two seasons. Another shocker was the brother duo Kieran and Aidan Maksymchuk teaming up, due to the usually heated rivalry between the siblings.
Round Robin got underway with a ton of upsets, for example, heavyweight contenders Tyan Mykula and Ali Kujanpaa were knocked off the rails after a hot 3-0 start by the sibling duo of Alex and Hannah Campbell, falling 11-2 in a match that seemed like the shortest in Munro Smashball history, or when Munro and Pidskalny were defeated by Mykula and Kujanpaa. The round-robin ended with a four-way tie for last, in which the teams collaborated for about 10 minutes before making a decision on how to figure things out, but once they found out, playoffs were well underway.
Ethan Campbell and Chad Brightnose finished in first, facing the eight-seeded Nate Immerkar and Wyatt Rose; Mykula and Kujanpaa finished second and faced the Campbells; Munro and Pidskalny faced the Maksymchuk brothers; while the Eisners faced off against Rylee Cockburn and Jada Kujanpaa.
The playoffs got well underway with teams ready to put their bodies on the line. The higher seeds all took care of their matchups with some struggle but not like Munro and Pidskalny faced with the Maksymchuk duo. They battled to the end and held the lead at one point against the heavily favoured Golden Arrows, but Munro and Pidskalny pulled through to move on, facing up against former teammate of Munro’s, Tyan Mykula and his partner Ali Kujanpaa, while the Boombastics faced the Eisner Brothers.
The semi-finals got hot underway and left no shortage of controversy, while the Campbell, Brightnose and Eisners matchup was civil, the Mykula versus Munro battle was one for the ages. A ton of arguing and controversial calls went through the game but Mykula beat his former teammate in all fairness, after an apparent missed call happened on the field.
Leading to some fresh new faces in the finals, with the matchup being Mykula and Kujanpaa, versus the Eisner brothers. A final that had spectators happy with some new competitors rather than having a Munro win once again. The finals were an absolute dogfight, with both teams having their ups and downs while competing. But the duo of Mykula and Kujanpaa came out on top.
Next up on the schedule for Munro Smashball is the Spike Series in July 16 in Legion Park.