THE SUNYSHORE SCUTTLEBUTT

The Sunyshore CybirdZ are certainly a unique team among the Citrus League in the recent fourth season. Built on a players-first mentality, the CybirdZ eschewed traditional management roles in favour of democratic meetings on various issues held by the players. While obviously the three returning players held a lot of sway over the rookies, everyone had their opinion heard and got to contribute.

With their season over, the team recently had their most important meeting since their founding, and graciously allowed us to sit in and report on the results. The meeting served as both a debriefing about the prior season, a stage to share both highlights and greivances, and most importantly a discussion about the future of the CybirdZ brand.

The meeting kicked off with Cydolfus giving a speech about how proud she was of everyone on the team, and how glad she was to have such a great group of players. While they did end up tying for last, many of the CybirdZ's matches were down to the wire, often fumbling to unfortunate slips in defence. And given the players on the team, it was likely never in the cards for them to break into the top echelons when all-star teams like the Bronze Wyrms, Skycats, and Acro-bats had the funds to recruit tried-and-tested major league players. The CybirdZ were an eclectic mix of all and every, and performing as well as they did was more than many expected of them.

Cydolfus then sat down and passed to other members of the CybirdZ to bring up the notable points of the season for them, both good and bad. We won't recap the whole thing, but we will share a few highlights or common themes.

For many players, the inter-regional nature of the Citrus League was a double-edged sword. Many had never been outside of Sinnoh before, let alone the Greater Kanto Region. Experiencing the sights and sounds of Galarish and Unovan culture firsthand were the high points of several players, in particular the castle city of Hammerlocke. However, all the travel quickly wore on them as well. Hopping across the globe on the weekly wasn't easy, and a few members are still having sleep issues from the excessive bouts of jet lag experienced throughout the season.

For a number of players, they felt disheartened by how formidable a lot of the opponents in the league were. The CybirdZ actively welcomed people from all walks of life, and many of them had little to no major league battling experience. This caused a lot of justified stress and anxiety around gameday, which more than one claimed ended up affecting their performance. Being up on the world stage is certainly a lot of pressure, and it proved too much.

Overall their experience in the league was positive, with lots of great fan interactions, exciting battles, sightseeing, and meeting such famous players as Vinny the Goop, King Fonz, and The Big Bopper. They wanted to keep on battling, but the team overwhelmingly agreed that Citrus League was not the right home for them. They were all incredibly grateful to have the chance to compete in the prestigious cross-regional league, but if the brand and players were to persist they had to tone things down a bit. Less travel time and lower stakes were the two biggest things that needed to be focused on, and after a while of debate the team came to the decision to leave the Citrus League and instead apply to the Coronet East Division. Keeping it regional means most travel would be by train rather than plane, and all within the same timezone, and the competition generally would be less stressful with fewer major players and no global audience watching. The players were not averse to the occassional overseas flight so long as it was not a full season, so the idea was thrown around of participating in the smaller Yuzu cup tournaments, but time will tell on that front.

We here at the Sunyshore Scuttlebutt whole-heartedly support their decision, and hope that our readers will join us in looking forward to the future of this team! I know at the very least plenty of you will be glad you can catch more matches in person without buying a ticket to Galar or staying up past midnight!