On the 12th of November, the members of Squid LITE participated in the unofficial tournament of Turkey Tax held at the University of San Diego, or USD. The purpose of our participation in this tournament was to not only obtain more chemistry and experience as a team, but also to take a closer look at a small group of newcomers rather than all of them at once like KFall. In doing so the returners also started the process of giving newcomers or “fish” more in-game experience. Fellow schools that also participated in this tournament included: (The host) University of San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego State University, Cal Poly Pomona, and us, UCSD. Since we were only allowed one team, there had to be a balance of both newcomers and returners to both have a chance to win, and give the fish more game experience. Making it so there was a significantly less amount of newcomers made it so the ratio between coaches and newcomers was a lot smaller, allowing for more instruction during the game and therefore a higher opportunity for the newcomers to showcase their skills. 

                Our game was against USD Flat Tax, a team that one of our teams lost to during KFall. But after a close game, we ended up on top with a win of 9-8! This win was only achievable through our strong will and finish, playing hard enough defense to cause the final break of the game. The following game was against the Cows of Cal Poly Pomona, another tough team that we lost to by a lot during KFall. Coming off our previous win against USD Flat Tax, we were able to hold CPP to a one point deficit going into soft cap, meaning that if they scored the next point, they would win but if we scored, we would have to go into a tiebreaker. The final line of that game was a long and hard point, but they managed to break through our defense and win the game. Regardless of our loss, we showed that games against strong teams such as the Cows are winnable, and that we still have room to grow, each and every player. Nevertheless, each and every player, especially the newcomers showed great improvement from KFall, and to say that we bonded as a team would be an understatement. Our next game against PLNU’s Loman Empire was a rather hard game for us, being down 6-1 by halftime and eventually losing by 11-3. But a loss is not just a loss, but rather a lesson taught the hard way as playing against the Loman Empire showed that our defense in the deep space needed some work to be done. Our final game against the FEDs of SDSU was really where we showed how much we have improved since KFall as we lost to one of their teams and almost lost to a team of all rookies. We were able to finish the day off with a win of 8-5 in spectacular fashion, with returners like Nefty and Double-O showing who they are and finishing the game strong. Nothing feels better to end on than a win, so now we should take these experiences to propel the rest of the team to greater heights!