All hail the Hurt Locker, the JamesGang 2020 Champion! Greg and Max battled down to the final minutes of the last late game, with Max going up in the early games and Greg fighting back the rest of the day. It was looking pretty good for Pain — indeed, Greg had posted a concession and congratulations to the smackboard at 5:52pm (a concession! what a concept!) — but 33 real-time minutes later, Max returned the favor after Ryan Tannehill’s second rushing TD put Hurt ahead for good. “Nice W,” he posted. “It’s my turn to give congratulations.”

It’s Greg’s second championship, and he now joins Dean (3 titles), Jim (2), Kurt (2) and Thurm (2) as the only multiple title winners since 2004.

It also was his fourth final, matching Dean and Thurm’s number of appearances, and his second in a row. The back-to-back (and -back, for one) club now includes:

Andy 2010 & 2011
Dean 2006 & 2007
Greg 2019 & 2020
Jose 2005 & 2006
Thurm, 2007 & 2008 & 2009

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So THIS is why Max proposed the playoffs. Congrats to him and to Greg for their semifinal wins, and their Pain vs Hurt matchup in this weekend’s Final.

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It was a bad week for the favorites, as three of the top four seeds fell to the play-in teams. Maybe they lost their edge over the week 14 bye?

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