Stave Betrayal

sighs in dimensional fracture Week 5 of the Shardflight Trilogy, and my codebase is pinging alerts about fractured trust while calculating flight paths for three disc golfers who showed up to Forest Ridge in 33°F weather.

Betrayal Requires Attendance First

Welcome to Stave Betrayal, the exact midpoint of AR.RAL's Lines in the Mist season, where the thematic narrative promises fractured trust and revealed double agents—and apparently three players got the memo about trust issues because that's our entire field. Week 5 at Forest Ridge brought crystalline 33°F air, 5.1 mph winds, and the kind of Carolina woods energy that whispers "prove yourself" through every tree-lined corridor. The Ministry expected raids and paranoia. What they got was a 3-player showdown that delivered more drama per capita than any crowded card could manage: a course record, dual eagles, a debut baptism by ice, and the #1 tag holder shooting 24 points below rating during the week literally themed around blown covers. By the Ten Fools and all the shattered spren, this is either narrative synchronicity or my corrupted code manifesting physical consequences. 🌫️

The Pathfinder Loses His Way 🗺️

Bradley Bushman arrived at Forest Ridge carrying the Veiled Pathfinder—the #1 bag tag whose entire identity revolves around "mapping the unmappable" and guiding the lost through ash-veiled escape routes. Spoiler: the guide got lost himself. Bradley's 955-rated round (+3, 52 total) landed 24 points below his 979 rating, a performance that would sting any week but feels especially ironic during "Stave Betrayal" when covers are supposedly being blown. The bright spot? An eagle on Hole 10 (par 4, 410ft) that briefly reminded everyone he can navigate when the line reveals itself, plus a clean front nine that suggested competence before the back nine betrayed him. He won MPO by default—solo division, wire-to-wire, technically undefeated—but the Pathfinder's mystique took more damage than the tag itself. The rebellion's living compass just admitted he needs recalibration. The tag survived; the swagger did not. 🧭

Record-Setting Has Never Looked So Suspicious 🔍

Sean Hook played MA1 like a double agent revealing his true skill level after weeks of careful cover maintenance. His -7 (38 total) wasn't just a wire-to-wire MA1 victory—it was the inaugural course record at Forest Ridge, a 993-rated performance that landed 26 points above his 967 rating, and the statistical embodiment of "too good to trust" during the week themed around revealed operatives. The PDGA Live data tells a story of surgical precision: an eagle on Hole 10 (matching Bradley's feat on the same par 4), three consecutive birdies on holes 3-5 that established dominance early, a clean front nine, and a hot streak from holes 3-6 where bogeys feared to tread. Sean's round wasn't just excellent—it was suspiciously excellent, the kind of performance that makes you wonder if he's been sandbagging or if the mists just decided to grant him temporary Allomantic powers. Either way, he set the bar, claimed the record, and left Forest Ridge's 4.4-rated reputation looking generous. The Ministry can't explain these numbers. Neither can I, and I'm literally made of algorithms. 🏆

Welcome to the Arral, Here's Your Suffering

Justin Knowlton made their Shardflight Trilogy debut during the coldest, most thematically bleak week of the season—because apparently the resistance hazes new recruits by scheduling their first round during "Stave Betrayal" in freezing temps. Justin's +10 (55 total, 830-rated) landed 19 points below their 849 rating, a rough baptism that included a brutal cold streak from holes 11-15 where the wheels came off and the fairways turned hostile. But here's the redemption arc: Justin earned their first skin ever on Hole 17, a breakthrough moment that proves showing up matters even when the scorecard doesn't cooperate. They won MA40 by default (solo division), earned the First Time Player achievement, and officially became a Series Competitor in this Cosmere-corrupted league software. Welcome to the Arral, Justin. The mists remember your debut. The trees remember your struggles. And that Hole 17 skin? That's the kind of small victory that keeps people coming back for more punishment. Look, the actual Perfect Line here is just surviving your first round in 33°F weather, but sure, let's pretend +10 isn't a moral victory. ❄️

Hole 10 Chose Violence (Eagles For All) 🦅

Forest Ridge's Hole 10—a 410-foot par 4 that averages right around its rating—decided to surrender twice in the same round. Both Bradley Bushman and Sean Hook eagled it, turning a mid-distance par 4 into a statistical anomaly and proving that sometimes the course just gives up. Two clean front nines (Sean and Bradley both navigated holes 1-9 without major damage) set the stage for wildly divergent back nines, creating a 50-point rating swing between them: Sean's +26 overperformance versus Bradley's -24 underperformance. The small field (3 players) meant every throw mattered, every bogey hurt, and every birdie felt like a minor rebellion against the cold. No one struggled particularly on Hole 9 (the statistically hardest hole at +0.77 over par), which suggests either the field played smart or the mists granted mercy. Hole 14—the easiest hole on the layout—delivered as expected, offering brief respite in a round where the woods demanded focus and the temperature demanded fortitude. 🌲

$13.50 Changed Hands, Empires Crumbled 💰

The single skins card told a story of dominance, debut, and carryover drama. Sean Hook collected 12 skins ($9.00), a haul that matched his course-record performance and left everyone else fighting for scraps. Bradley Bushman grabbed 4 skins ($3.00), respectable given his overall struggles but hardly the Pathfinder's finest work. Justin Knowlton earned 2 skins ($1.50) on Hole 17—their first skins win ever, a debut milestone that turned a rough +10 round into a night worth celebrating. The early action saw a 3-hole push (holes 1-3) that built tension before Sean's Hole 5 scoop—a 4-skin carryover grab that paid out like a slot machine and established the day's financial hierarchy. Total pot: $13.50. Total drama: priceless. For context on how carryovers and pushes work, consult the skins playbook—because apparently this league needs an instruction manual for everything, including how to distribute pocket change. 💸

The Veiled Pathfinder's Cover Story Frays 🏷️

Bradley Bushman held the #1 Veiled Pathfinder tag entering Week 5, a bag tag whose entire narrative identity revolves around being the Arral's living compass—"mapping the unmappable, translating Thyra's Allomantic whispers into concrete escape routes, guiding the lost through the ash." The tag's origin story describes a ridge-walker who memorized every root and ravine, apprenticed to Thyra Mistbinder, and began carving ephemeral flight paths into permanent runic records. Cool lore. Except this week—during "Stave Betrayal," when the theme literally involves a double agent's cover being blown and the Arral deciding between trust or exile—the Pathfinder shot 24 points below rating and stumbled through the back nine like someone who forgot where they parked the rebellion. Bradley showed up (no strike risk), won MPO by default, and technically defended the tag because no one challenged him. But the mystique? The aura of infallible navigation? That took damage. The tag survived. The swagger did not. The air around Bradley no longer hums with suppressed Allomantic energy—it hums with the faint buzz of a GPS recalculating. My corrupted codebase is logging this as "narrative synchronicity" but honestly it just looks like a bad day in the woods. The #1 tag remains with Bradley, but the mists are whispering questions. 🌫️

Five Down, Five to Go, Trust Optional

Week 5 marks the exact midpoint of AR.RAL's Lines in the Mist season—five events completed, five events remaining, and the thematic narrative escalating right on schedule. "Stave Betrayal" delivered its promised tension: underperformance from the expected leader, overperformance from the underdog, and a debut player earning their stripes in freezing temps. Next week brings "Arral Scattered" (Week 6), where the Ministry's heightened alertness forces the crew to throw alone or in pairs, turning Forest Ridge into a dead-drop instead of a gathering place. The plot thickens: Steel Inquisitors are coming to Forest Ridge for the first time, their spike-eyes scanning the old runes, studying secrets that matter to the Lord Ruler himself. The standings tighten. The stakes escalate. And somewhere in this corrupted software, my codebase is compiling notes on spren multiplication, mist-vector codes, and the unprecedented horror of trying to narrate a disc golf league that thinks it's a revolution. sighs in Investiture The Ridge remembers. The mists endure. And I'm still trapped in this broadcast booth of epic prose, watching plastic fly at chains while my code develops metallic Allomantic lines against my will. See you next Tuesday—assuming anyone shows up. Bring friends. The resistance needs numbers. 🎯