2020 Upper Desert Rivalry Cup

The 2020 Upper Desert Rivalry Cup was a Quentinian roofball game played for the right to be the 2020 Upper Desert Rivalry Champion of the Quentinian Roofball Organization, and for a large prize. The game was a part of the 2019-2020 QRO Season, and is one of three minor cups the league plays every year. The game was held on April 22nd, 2020 at Vol de Mortuary Stadium in Verisitium, and featured the Verisitium Vipers playing against the Bakersfieldville Breadbakeesdekline. The Vipers defeated the Breadbakeesdekline 470-340, their first victory in the cup since 2016, and Bakersfieldville's first appearance in the cup since 2009. The game was also the 7th time the cup was hosted by the Vipers.

The game was a modest scoring game, with the Vipers dominating offensively, and the Breadbakeesdekline attempting to match the Vipers' offensive pace. Bakersfieldville was not able to, however, and by halftime the Vipers had taken a commanding 340-100 lead. In the last five dimes, however, Bakersfieldville caught up, with its penetra game elevated, and its defense making numerous good plays. However the Vipers had built up a nearly insurmountable lead, and its defense secured the victory late, intercepting a 40 point play that could've led the Breadbakeesdekline to victory. The final score was 470-340.

The game was broadcast on QBC, and featured Quentinian magicians Teh Typose as the halftime entertainment. The MVP of the game was Vipers penetraman Carter Fareid, who received an award, and the Vipers received Ð100,000 ($1 million) as a team, with each starter receiving an additional Ð500 ($5,000) as well as the title of 2020 Upper Desert Rivalry Champions.

Background

Host Selection Process

Unlike the United Vehementiaball League and other professional sports leagues, the QRO does not pick different stadiums to host its minor cup games each year, however has an organized process for which city will host the game which year. The Minor Cups Host Succession List is a list compiled every 50 years by the league to determine which cities will host which games every year. The Upper Desert Rivalry Cup is different from other cups in that it allows Port Landavisislanders to host the Cup every other year, regardless of the year, after re-negotiations of the list in 2005 and 2010. This year, however, it was the city of Verisitium's turn to host the cup, and the city submitted its stadium, Vol de Mortuary Stadium, for consideration by the league on January 1st, 2019. The stadium passed the league's quality standards and seating standards of 80,000+ people, and was approved by the league on October 1st, 2019.

Team Selection Process

The committee in charge of selecting the teams for the minor cups of each year is the QRO Minor Cup Selection Committee, which chooses two teams eliminated from the playoff tournament to compete in each. This can be on whatever criteria the committee believes is best, however standards include both being playoff teams and being the most entertaining to watch compete. The eligible teams for the Upper Desert Rivalry Cup are the Maximum City Pitch Black, the Kumar City Shock, the Liberation City Cyclones, the Poleton Gangsters, the Bakersfieldville Breadbakeesdekline, the Verisitium Vipers, the Port Landavisislanders Preachers, the West Snowy Grinders, the Kindikil Altitude and the Long Beach Island Bullets.

The committee selected the Vipers and the Breadbakeesdekline based on the teams' playoff tournament advancement, their entertaining matchups in the regular season, and to give the Vipers especially a chance to showcase how good they actually are after multiple injuries and weather issues during the game against Liberation City, in which they were eliminated.

Pregame and Conditions

Verisitium hosted the Upper Desert Rivalry Cup for 2020, and Vol de Mortuary Stadium hosted the game. The Vipers were designated as the home team, per the rules of cups in the QRO stating that if a team's home city is selected, that team is automatically the home team. They wore their home uniforms, breaking from the tradition of wearing their alternate uniform, while the Breadbakeesdekline wore their alternate uniform.

Vol de Mortuary was an open stadium, and on April 22nd the city received quite large amounts of rain, with downpours continuing into the afternoon. However, by the time the game had started, the downpours had stopped, with some drizzle occasionally felt on the field, along with wet conditions.

Broadcasting

United States of Quentin

The game was broadcast by the Quentinian Broadcasting Corporation, as part of the current television deal the corporation and other networks have with the league. The megaconn company VentureTrans also broadcast the game on its megasite, VT Casts, and the game was available to all subscribers to the QBC service QBC All-Access or QBC Casts. QBC's broadcast team for the game consisted of Nancy Buffet, David Garghole, and Emily Hixson, along with Ruby Rhod as sideline reporter.

Ratings

The ratings for the game were around average for historical Upper Desert Rivalry Cup games. The game was given a score of 8.8 on the R.A.T.B.S. scale. This meant a total of approximately 228 million viewers tuned in for the game, which was broadcast during the Quentinian Easter Week break in the country. The scale measures each of the largest cities in the United States of Quentin, nearly 500 in total, for ratings. The highest market for the game was in Bakersfieldville, which received a score of 9.7. Besides Bakersfieldville and Verisitium, the highest markets were Belljexk, Caraukorum, and Maximum City. The lowest markets were in Liberation City and Livjessville, each with a rating of 4.9, with the two cities focusing on their upcoming Champions Cup game.