With the bracket for the Boominati League Playoffs set, we here at SCPortal take a look at the League so far and where what’s next!
When KramFlakes managed to take on all of Team 1776 with his Kilik alone and score a victory for Team Quarantine Thick, no one realized that this was far more than just a hype upset from the lesser-known Texan player: it was an omen foreshadowing the wave of OCVs that would plague this volume of the Boominati League. In this article, we’ll be covering this and more as we talk about what the Boominati League is, details about its third volume, and the current standings.
What is the Boominati League?
If you’re familiar with the US scene of the Soul Calibur community then you probably already know or at least heard of the Boominati League, but for those who are out of the loop, here’s a breakdown of the history of the League and what it is:
As the name suggests, the League is a series run by the Boominati, a group created by SC competitor, twitch streamer, TO, and (most importantly) Maryland local, Boom (@ayob00m). In 2020, after hosting many high-quality events such as the Illuminati Institution, Boominati Battles, the Queen of the Ring, and more, the Boominati decided to tackle their most ambitious project yet: a massive team-based competition called the Boominati League. The first league consisted of 48 players divided into 8 teams of 6 that would battle it out in exciting matches over the following months until just one team remained. For the first volume, Team We Can’t See, led by Richsticks, claimed victory, while Team Carbon, led by Lolo, took first place in the second volume.
Back and Better than Ever!
After the second Boominati League in 2021, Boom was adamant about retiring from the TO, but anyone that knows Boom knows that in his dictionary “retirement” really just means “absolutely going to do more of it,” and in 2022 the Boominati League would come back like my dad’s smoking habits for its third volume. This time around there are a total of 13 teams of 6 for a grand total of 78 players — that’s essentially enough players to hold a bracket at a major! Along with a jump in player count, the League saw some other nice quality of life changes. The first of these changes was to the normal 5v5 rule. In the past, each match of the League would be a lineup of 5 players from either team facing off against the other teams line up in a series of first-to-two sets until one team was out of players. This meant that in every match the team would have to alternate and sit out one player each time. While this format is still the same, Vol. 3 of the League gives teams the option of doing 6v6 matches if they had all players available for the match. Teams are also given the choice this time around to play their matches either on the usual SCVI online or through Parsec with a server being provided by Team DEUS’s own SabinDeus (@SabinDeus).
Draft Day
The League runs in three phases: Drafting, Pools/Divisions, and Playoffs. With the draft phase, the 13 captains got together to sit with Boom and take turns picking out players from a pre-selected list to decide who would be on their teams, along with who would be the team’s ace, the player that would always go before the captain in the team’s order. After an hour of laughs and a bunch of “f**k you, I wanted them!” the teams were set leaving us with:
| Team | Captain | Ace |
| Medicated Geniuses | Anton | Jimbonator |
| Bozo’s Clown Brigade | Bozo | Lolo |
| 1776 | IcyChains | FatherRamon |
| 5 Stages of Denyal | Indenyal | Linkorz |
| Cthuwu | OmegaXCN | No Woe |
| Jesse and the Fiends | Florida Man | BlueGod |
| Monochromosomes | Incendiate | EndersJ |
| Genetic Freaks | Richsticks | Sandman |
| Steller’s Only Fans | Steller | HyruleHeroJoe |
| Beph | Xephukai | BTD |
| Quarantine Thick | Nori | Sayine |
| Get Scooped | Twice-A-Day | Party Wolf |
| Down Meterless | Draetheon | Thermidor |
Pools
After the draft teams were then divided into two divisions: Soul Calibur and Soul Edge. Each team then had to fight the other teams in their division in a round-robin format with the top four of each division moving on for an eight-team bracket in the playoffs. For the past three months, teams have been battling it out in their divisions. At the start of this article, I mentioned how KramFlakes OCV on Team 1776 was an omen of things to come. Throughout the pools phase of the League’s 3rd volume, we saw a total of 8 OCVs (Unless I messed up in my counting). For those that don’t know, an OCV stands for “One Character Victory.” Usually, this term is used for games like Marvel vs Capcom or King of Fighters where someone manages to win an entire set with just one character from their team. In the case of a team tournament like the Boominati League, an OCV means one team member managed to beat each member of the other team without switching off their character. That means on 8 matches we saw a player take on 5 to 6 other players in a row on their own!
Of course, there was far more than just OCVs happening in the League. There were roughly 30 matches between the teams giving us a TON of exciting Calibur to watch, with plenty of hype and Calibur jank. If you haven’t been watching the League or missed a few matches here and there, don’t worry, all VoDs of each match were uploaded to a playlist on the Midnight Morons’ YouTube channel found here.
Current Standings
With the Pools now wrapped up, the Boominati League will be moving to its playoffs in a bracket format. Here are the teams that will be moving on from both divisions along with their scores during their pools:
Soul Calibur Division:
Team Monochromosomes – Wins: 4 – Loses: 1
Team Jesse and the Fiends – Wins: 4 – Loses: 1
Team cthUwU – Wins: 3 – Loses: 2
Team Beph – Wins: 2 – Loses: 3
Soul Edge Division:
Team Medicated Geniuses – Wins: 5 – Loses: 1
Team Bozo’s Clown Brigade – Wins: 5 – Loses: 1
Team Genetic Freaks – Wins: 3 – Loses: 3
Team 5 Stages of Denyal – Wins: 3 – Loses: 3
Not only do these teams get to move on to the playoffs, but on March 27th, the last night of pools, Boom made a special announcement that each team will get in-game uniforms for their teams with each team getting specially designed Create-A-Souls customs made by the talented people over at SoulCaliburCreations.com!
Moving on to Playoffs
Now in the playoffs, teams will start working down a single elimination bracket until just two teams are left for the championship match. To follow along with the bracket, you can click the link here. At the time of typing this up, I don’t believe any matches are currently scheduled but you can follow Boom on his Twitter to stay up to date on when matches are coming up. You can also follow his twitch, along with FatherRamon and JJJ on twitch to catch live as they happen!
Going forward, I do plan to post more updates on the Boominati League, here on SoulCaliburPortal, but with the sporadic nature of scheduling with the League and me having to deal with living things, I doubt I’ll be able to make a post for each individual match, but I’ll try to at least doing weekly updates or updates for each phase of the bracket (Round 1, Semi-Finals, Finals). Either way, don’t forget to check back here on Soulcaliburportal.com for more news, updates, and other happenings in the Soul Calibur community!