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IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN. School is almost out for the year; the 4 rounds of the SmashKart regular season are behind us, and the town is filled with slush. That means it's time for the 5th Annual AADL-GT SmashKart Grand Championships and Festival of Noobs! er, Wildcard Tournament, I meant Wildcard Tournament! It all happens this Saturday, December 20, starting at High Noon at the Downtown Library! Prizes include a Wii, an iPod touch, a DS, and a Shuffle; plus hot new AADL-GT Tshirts for all attendees! Then the season wraps up with our 2nd annual Grudge Buffet, Clan Cup Finals, and GT Awards on Monday, 12/22 at 6 PM featuring food by Salsarita's! Don't miss it, and read on for full details about these highly anticipated events

All season bonuses and achievements have now been awarded, and we've got a nice round 32 competitors who qualified for the Grand Championships by finishing 4th or better in any team or single-player event this season. Your name on the leaderboard will be highlighted if you're qualified and you'll be able to preregister for the Grands. If you're not yet qualified, that's what the Wildcard tournament is for; it's your last chance to make it into the Championship Bracket, and the top 8 wildcards will advance to join the present qualifiers to see who can walk home with some serious hardware.

Both the Wildcards and the Grands will follow the same format as last year: two rounds each of 4P Kart and 4P smash, gathering up scores, and then the top scorers advance to the next round. We will ban some items and some stages as we did last month.

However, the final match of the Grands will come down to a single kart race for the 4 finalists to determine the final placement.

So, with all bonuses awarded, we've still got the mighty Hot_ArmS on top with the never-to-be-underestimated DaleW in 2nd, season Phenom DingDong in third, and John Durski of course, poised to seize 4th place.

But the real action is in the Clan Standings, where awarding of a season's worth of Clan Bonuses has drastically reformed the Clan Landscape. The Whole Famn Damily's unprecedented 3 Clan Battle Victories has catapulted them into first place, with 4000 points easy over 2nd place We're Better Than Special Ops, Asian Invasion, who earned the most match points this season, fell to third along with their insufficiently-braced Tower of Goo. A Solo Special Ops follows in 4th by 5000+ points, with Scrappy Up-and-comers Clan Phoenix storming to 5th, and Tires Don Exits, Clan Anonymous, and Wario Ware rounding out the top 8.

The Clan Cup will take place at the Grudge Buffet & GT Awards, coming up Monday Night 12/22 at 6 PM. Remember that Grand Championship points earned count towards the final Clan Standings, so anything can happen, especially with 10000 points on the line to the Grand Champion! The top 8 Clans that are able to field a team at the Grudge Buffet will work their way through Smash, Kart, and Surprise Rounds on their way to winning the coveted Clan Cup trophies and a $50 gift card for each clan member.

Also at the Grudge Buffet we'll present the GT Awards, so once again, I'm taking nominations for the following annual awards:

Most Valuable Player
Most Improved Player
Rookie of the Year (must be someone who did not play in any tournaments prior to season 5)
Heartbreaking Loss Award
The Pickwick Award for Outstanding Sportsmanship

Let me know below who you think these awards should go to, let me know if you have any questions, and see you for the big show this Saturday!