End of the 2018 Skin Lore Tournament! And the General End

Alright folks, that's it for the tiny tournament, the last stories of 2018! The final schedule turned out like this:

January 2nd: The Lure vs Interview: Inside K/DA January 3rd: The Man With the Grinning Shadow vs The Slumber Party Summoning January 4th - 3RD PLACE FINALS: Interview: Inside K/DA (loser from January 2nd) vs The Slumber Party Summoning (loser from January 3rd) January 5th - FINALS: The Lure (winner from January 2nd) vs The Man With the Grinning Shadow (winner from January 3rd)

It was a smaller affair than the main tournament, but the final was a very close neck-and-neck contest! In the end, The Lure pulled away, and Dan Abnett's rip-roaring galactic quest of Odyssey Kayn won first place. Jared Rosen's gritty Western tale, The Man With the Grinning Shadow put up a hard fight as well, so credits to both the excellent finalists.

And with that, I would like to announce a change in plans: I've asked some people around, particularly on the Lore Discord, and it's been agreed to skip the Loser's Bracket. For one, it's happening after the fact, so it would be a very complicated affair to organize. For two, the tournament schedule was extremely unconventional and not well-set up for double elimination. For three, it might seem slightly repetitive after we have just contested these same stories for an entire month.

And the last and most important reason: we are one day away from a non-stop, two-month-long hype train to start us off in Season 9! The likely schedule for the first four patches will start with the Blood Moon event, followed by the upcoming Demacian chained champion, then followed by the annual Lunar Revel event, and after that, the annual Heartbreakers event! What with all the continuous hype and excitement coming to League of Legends, this bracket would surely get swept under the rug.

And I myself am more than ready to get into Season 9, starting tomorrow! We already have two pre-season stories to give us an intro to the upcoming ride of the year, and more will surely come as the season goes on! Be prepared for the comeback of the Lore Tournament at the end of next year, since it was quite the enjoyable competition in its first time around. [poppy-wink]

So go out there, have fun, climb your ranks, and enjoy the upcoming Season 9 lore ride! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]