On Friday night The Darkness comes to the USHSL, and when it disappears no one knows what will be left in its wake.  For the newcomers, each year we hide the standings for the final two weeks of the season.  And only on Selection Monday (7pm @ Capitol Lounge) when the tournament brackets are revealed will everyone know what happened during that time. 

Last year, the darkness left a lot of teams bloodied.  Nine of the top sixteen seeds lost at least one game, and those sixteen teams were a combined 15-12.  Of the top 48 teams, 26 lost at least one game.  So a lot can happen in those two weeks to change the fortunes of a lot of teams.  In fact, the KGbs went from #61 when the standings froze to #47 and a tournament bid, while others dropped clear out of the tournament picture.

Heading into Friday’s darkness, we have an important game between #4 Texas Republic and #8 Dragon Slayers.  And it’s likely more important to the Dragon Slayers than Texas Republic when you look at the numbers.  As we noted, three of the last four Champions have been Top 4 seeds.  But beyond that, no team seeded worse than #8 has ever won the tournament.  Not only do the Slayers have Republic on Thursday, but #10 Big In Japan also looms next week.  A loss in either game might drop the Slayers out of the coveted Top 8 – conversely a win this week and next could vault them into the more-coveted Top 4.

However, while the Slayers have built a reputation of being giant killers – notably “Slaying” DGS several times, the Liberty Square Sliders, and this season’s #1 FDA, they are 0-2 lifetime against Texas Republic.

For Texas Republic, closing out the schedule without incident could put them back into familiar territory at the #2 seed – a spot they occupied the last two years.  They have taken that spot the last two seasons and turned it into a Championship (2009) and a 2^nd Place Finish (2010).  This year they seek to become the first team to win a 2^nd USHSL Championship – Thursday’s game may say a lot about their prospects.