/sci/ History

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Reason: Last edit: September 2018 (Added on 2021-12-22)

For info about the current team see: /sci/

Team History

2012 Spring Babby Cup

The original /sci/ kits, the home kits donned the black and blue colours of the team based off Inter Milan's kits.

Discussions to field a team representing /sci/ started off on January 6th, 2012 by Lion !FvAwVR8cv6, the board welcomed the proposal and started throwing proposals for players on the team. Between these proposals were included some logo ideas that featured then /sci/'s mascot /sci/duck and a generic scientist on a square background, but ultimately a square logo featuring Carl Sagan, Thorium and its atomic number and the number pi won the attention of the board and was declared the official logo that still stands to this day. The roster listed below was fielded for the 2012 4chan Spring Babby Cup Friendlies but /sci/ failed to submit a roster within the deadline by 4 minutes, commissioner GermanBro was harsh on the team and punished them with no medals, thus affecting them on their debut against /d/, but /sci/ took it quite well and even joked about the incident by making 4 minutes their goalhorn for the friendlies. Of course /sci/ lost their game against /d/ but somehow managed to beat /vp/ thanks to some serious spaghetti by them including 2 own goals by their players.

By the time the proper competition came, /sci/ incorporated now famous striker Bill Nye the Science Guy after being suggested by board goer Luca, Bill Nye quickly became /sci/'s gold striker in the GSBB era. The tournament had /sci/ drawn with /pol/, /r9k/ and /mlp/. /sci/'s start was a heartbreaking 1-1 draw against /r9k/ with a late minute goal by Japanese Lettuce Hardcore. Against /mlp/ the tables turned around as Bill Nye scored a near last minute equalizer. Facing uncertainty for their last game after /r9k/ defeated /mlp/, /sci/ had to beat /pol/ in the first edition of the Progressb Owl and got the result they wanted, a 2-1 win with goals by both Richards: Dawkins and Feynman. A play-in had to be made in order to be in the proper knock-out phase, so /sci/ as runners-up of their group faced /gif/, before that game the first actual live manager stepped up to help /sci/ under the name of Dicks !BYmn6QVNCw who managed to defeat /gif/ 1-0. In the quarters /sci/ routed the now infamous Durgen /n/ team to make the semis. But the dreams of gold ended with a 2-1 loss against /3/ with a failed rally attempt by Bill Nye that wasn't enough. Consolation came as /sci/ managed to beat /d/ to obtain the third place spot, a very fitting way to end their first official tournament by defeating their very first rivals.

Original roster

No. Position Player   GK Stephen Hawking   LB >biology >hard science   CB Putnam Math   CB 300k Starting   LB Eugenics   DMF Deep Sea Bro   DMF Nikola Tesla   CMF Thorium   AMF Magnets   AMF Richard Feynman   SS Carl Sagan

No. Position Player   GK LaTeX   LB CERN   RB Agnostic Atheist   CB Internet Philosopher   DMF Troll Science   LMF Evolution   RMF Homo Engineer   RWF Saged Homework   LWF Transhumanist   CMF Tsoukalos   AMF >tfwnogf   SS Richard Dawkins

• Players in Bold have never been removed from the team and still are on the team up to this date. Players in Italics are still on the team but after being removed.

2012 Summer Cup

The famous Summer Friendly set up that gave /sci/ their biggest win yet and with a record tying 5 goals from Brian Cox.

With a third place finish in Spring, things looked promising for /sci/ heading into summer. But a couple of issues were soon to appear with the team. First it was that third place winning manager Dicks stated that he wasn't going to be available for summer, therefore /sci/ was into a managerial uncertainty heading into summer. Second was that the usual people in charge of /sci/'s wiki page were clashing heads over roster changes on one side was Luca and on the other side was Triviaguy88, the controversy came after Luca allegedly made some roster changes without consulting the board and ignoring the fact that there was a poll to make the roster changes, that and the fact that both were clashing heads on whether how the player Theory (A Guess) should be named, on one side there was a campaign to name him Theory (A geuss) and on the other Theory (a gauss).

With these elements in mind /sci/ was drawn in a group with defending elite cup champions /k/, /int/ and /mu/. The first game was a complete disaster featuring a very poor set of conditions that /int/ managed to take advantage of with a hattrick by Putin and goals by Maradona and >argentina >white. Next up came defending champions /k/, who came after a very close draw against /mu/, their offense was swift and effective as 3 goals were scored in the first 18 minutes. /sci/ managed to pull a late rally bringing the deficit to 3-2 but a 90+1' goal by Deagle Brand Deagle put any efforts of a comeback void, even with a last attempt by Bill Nye and the score ended 4-3 for /k/. The final game against /mu/ was a do-or-die for /sci/ since they needed to win to have a chance to at least avoid relegation despite not making the knockouts, but thing started off badly with /mu/ scoring 2 goals in the first half, it looked like it was going to be another devastating loss, but with a joint effort by Bill Nye and Thorium made a last minute comeback to draw 2-2. This result sent /sci/ to Autumn but managed to salvage some dignity.

2012 Autumn Babby Cup - 2013 Spring Babby Cup: Atrox era and uncertainty afterwards

After the disaster that followed the Summer Cup, a man named Atrox !TmSV8N.Vwo asked /sci/ about taking over as their manager, which met with immediate approval by the board, taking over on August 20, 2012. His debut came on the 2012 4chan Autumn Babby Cup Friendlies where he got off to a wrong start losing 3-2 to /lit/, a scoreless draw against /co/ and the worst loss up to this date, a 7-1 loss against eventual tournament champions /wg/. By the time Autumn came a cloud of incertainty came above the team whether their Spring run was a fluke and if they were really a weak team, that was going to be proven in the Group Stages. In the proper tournament they were drawn with newcomers /trv/, spring returners /f/ and >molly's /cgl/.

On the first game things got off to a great start with a 4-1 win over /f/ including a hattrick by Bill Nye and a goal by Carl Sagan. The next game was a close call as /sci/ was drawing against an all 1's /cgl/, but Richard Feynman came to save the day and effectively secured a place for the Winter Cup. Next up came an entertaining match against /trv/ which featured /trv/ GK Noobius Expedia scoring a free kick goal and Bill Nye's reserve striker Epicurus scoring the equalizer and getting a draw for both teams heading into the knockouts. In the Round of 16, /sci/ encountered /mlp/, a team that got a draw against them in the last competition they both were. Things look promising as Bill Nye scored an early goal but then it got bad quickly with /mlp/ turning it around 2-1 a bit after halftime, Bill scored the equalizer fast but with 19 minutes to go Best Pony scored the goal that ended /sci/'s run in Autumn, although the goal of getting into Winter was met, there was a feeling /sci/ got into winter with a relatively easy group, a theory that had to be debunked by the time winter came.

With the new rules of the Winter Friendlies, there was only a friendly scheduled, and it resulted in a not-so exciting draw against /3/. In the proper Elite competition they were drawn with elites /int/ and /fit/ along with promoted 4th place babby team /vg/. Due to certain discrepancies, /sci/ was sanctioned with having a bronze without skill cards for the competition. First off was /int/, who /sci/ had suffered a humiliating loss in Summer, were expecting to turn things around but it looked like history was bound to repeat itself as Putin scored in the 25th minute and again with a penalty after a poor challenge in the box, /sci/ got a consolation own goal by /int/'s goalkeeper but it wasn't enough and went off with a loss. Next up came /vg/ who had lost against /fit/ after leading 2-0. /sci/ took an early lead with Bill Nye but /vg/ replied almost immediately, the RNG blessed /sci/ with a red card for a /vg/ player which /sci/ capitalized with a goal by subbed on player Aquatic Hamster, but there was a feeling /sci/ needed to take more advantage due to the fact that they needed goals to have a healthy goal average coming to the last game. The final game against /fit/ started horribly with 2 goals in 20 minutes before Nikola Tesla replied before halftime, but their awful midfield conditioning combined with a purple Bill Nye made it impossible to attack, and /fit/ capitalized with a goal by Zyzz that put a nail in the coffin on /sci/'s Winter run that had to end with a consolation goal by Epicurus. A report regarding /sci/'s winter cup run can be found here.

By the time Spring came, morale by both manager and board came to an all time low. /sci/ was filled (and still is) with autistic people who report cup threads on sight, and with this the manager faced both /adv/ and /jp/ with mindgame B-I-L-L formations that went off for losses that didn't result in anything noteworthy. These set of tactics carried on to Spring where they were drawn with /lit/, /ck/ and /f/, which looked like no challenge on paper. First off was /lit/, who was Atrox's first rival and beat him on the Autumn Friendlies. After 10 minutes of autism to set up /sci/'s tactics and then with a late reply by /lit/'s manager, things looked like the audience was in for a borefest, and it was, Bill Nye scored the first one for /sci/ but 2 replies in the second half by /lit/ complicated /sci/'s chances for the summer cup. Next, came /ck/ who were trying to redeem themselves after an embarassing winter run, /ck/ tried to pound hard over /sci/'s defence but it was useless as they collided against the wall of Thorium and with a cheeky goal by Not Science, which was the only goal in the game and the only shot by /sci/ as well hope arised coming to the /f/ game. /sci/ needed to win after /ck/ drew against /lit/, but disappointment came as /f/ got their revenge from Autumn and left /sci/ on the road to autumn. This made Atrox resign and leaving the team managerless, allegedly Goldenratio was going to take over but it later fell through as he left to join the /b/ testing squad instead. Then Dragongate happened, a scandal so big a lot of teams in summer were consequently disqualified as they were managed by the same person, /sci/ was one of the 8 teams benefitted from this scandal and got to summer, and now with a diminished manager pool, Atrox decided to stay but wanted out of the team so /sci/ was heading into Summer with more doubts than ever.

2013 Summer Cup - 2014 Spring Babby Cup: Aitor Karanka era and decline

The concept of disappointment was common during the Aitor Karanka era. (Click to see .gif)

With a manager looking to bail out of the sinking ship, manager Aitor Karanka !!vHwU8e1Ta/3 took over less than 2 weeks before the proper Summer Cup to avoid /sci/ going out with a nearly dead B formation, an apparently solid export was submitted and hopes went up, only to be shut down when they got drawn in a group featuring 2013 Winter third place /pol/, /ck/ and /co/ who were granted a second chance along with /sci/. First up came /co/, who had managed to scrap off a draw against /sci/ in the 2013 4chan Summer Cup Friendlies with a new management as well, things started off well with a goal by Nikola Tesla, but a very last minute rally gave /co/ a 2-1 victory, it later turned out that some games were affected including this one were affected by draw scripts that had blowouts and determined results, there wasn't a replay so /sci/ got stuck with the loss. Next up came /ck/, who had lost against /sci/ in spring thanks to the wall of Thorium, and it looked like it was going to be the same way with an early goal by Tesla, but then disaster happened, three goals in the first half for /ck/ combined with /sci/'s awful defence conditioning made it a nightmare and lost 5-1, effectively relegating the team to autumn thanks to the fact that upcoming rivals /pol/ lost their first 2 games as well. Since there was nothing left to play for but some honor, both /sci/ and /pol/ were determined to go out and give the fans some entertainment with a blitzkrieg formation by /pol/ and the B formation by /sci/ and played on the now famous Doompaul pitch, /sci/ managed to get a win to salvage their honour and a conclusion was reached that /sci/ wasn't really relegated by being weak, rather than from an unfortunate turn of events.

Heading into Autumn, /sci/ had two teams affected by Dragongate, /y/ and /diy/ which resulted in a loss and a draw, it was more of rather if some tactics worked or not heading into Autumn, in the way /sci/ picked up tester and eventual co-manager SUPERtwinky !!G5xDaK3GlNe after being sacked by /3/ after a series of doubtful results against /vr/ giving them their first win ever and /r9k/. /sci/ was yet again drawn into the hardest group out there with powerhouses /tg/, Winter fourth place /cm/ affected by Dragongate and /vr/ that blazed through the Qualifiers. First up came /cm/, a seemingly accesible game, and it started off with a goal by Bill Nye but /cm/ quickly equalized, and although /sci/ kept on knocking only to be denied by trollbars and had to settle with a draw. Next up came /tg/, a game on which Aitor wasn't there due to IRL stuff and had twinky managing, and started off great with a goal by Tesla but 2 quick replies by /tg/ including Doomrider's bycicle kick lead to panic which made it worse and lost 4-1, seriously damaging /sci/'s chances to go to Winter. Finally came /vr/ who only needed a draw to advance, and given /tg/'s shocking 5-0 loss to /cm/, /sci/ had to win by 2 to avoid the Spring Qualifiers and 3 to advance to winter, /sci/ started swiftly with an early goal by Richard Feynman followed by a second half goal by Bill Nye, this avoided the qualifiers, but Doomguy put the score at 2-1, /sci/ replied with a goal by Nikola Tesla to avoid the qualifiers and were a goal away from Winter, but deception came as Doomguy challenged physics and put the final 3-2 score to put /sci/ into the Spring Qualifiers, the general perception of it was that /sci/ could've advanced if Aitor was managing on the /tg/ game to at least help their goal differential to avoid the Qualifiers.

With a new revamp of rules there was no Spring Babby friendlies, so the 2014 4chan Winter Cup Friendlies were vital to know /sci/'s strength on the new platform that was PES 14 and it went fairly well with a 4-2 win over /an/ and a 2-1 comeback against /cm/ as revenge from Autumn. As for the Spring tournament, which had 40 teams instead of the qualifiers that had been discontinued, /sci/ was drawn along with /c/, /u/, /vp/ and /vg/ and were favorites to at least come second at least. First came /u/, who got relegated in Winter and was a fairly tough team, /sci/ parked the bus and got a 0-0 draw. Then came /c/, who was also relegated from the Winter Cup, /sci/ was parking the bus up to the 70th minute when they decided to gamble but backfired with a goal by /c/ leaving them with 1 point out of 6 posible with 2 games to go and with the fact they were going to rely on results on the final matchday, the next game was against /vp/ who took advantage of the confused /sci/ defence and scored, but later equalized with an euphoric goal by Richard Dawkins only to be shut down immediately and being the first team to head into Autumn. That's when Aitor decided that it was best for the team to not continue hindering them while trying to help and looked out for a sucessor, the cry of help was met and his final game was against /vg/ who had won their 2 games with a +6 goal difference, but that didn't stop /sci/ from winning 2-1 and culminating Aitor Karanka's era with a consolation win, while leading the way for the new generations.

2014 Summer Cup friendlies - 2016 Spring Babby Cup: The Ordinate Era, Managerial Madness & Death

The first one to answer the call of succeeding Aitor was Ordinate !!TxrSE+XU35V and surprisingly given his mercenary background, SUPERtwinky stuck around and convinced Smugleaf !!WROPMzfJikm to join the team as well, they decided to keep Aitor as mentor for the managers and as a species of chairman to give the green light on roster moves and non tactical issues regarding the team. However, SUPERtwinky was more focused on his /vg/ League team and other projects non related to PES rather than paying attention to /sci/ while trying to make the team a pandering ground for the boards he liked. This bothered the other members of the /sci/ management and was quickly confronted by Aitor and a conclusion was reached that it was for the best that the /sci/ management team continued on without SUPERtwinky, therefore leaving Smugleaf and Ordinate managing the team for the 2014 4chan Summer Cup Friendlies, which have /tv/ and /r9k/ as rivals. Unfortunately, Smugleaf's first (and only) match as manager ended in a disappointing 2-1 loss to /tv/, which has been his bane in testing for some time now. The second friendly ended in a 1-1 draw against /r9k/ with the only /sci/ goal being scored was from Nikola Tesla off a face-smashing free kick by Carl Sagan. This marked Ordinate's opening match as the best managerial start since former manager Dicks. Hopefully this is a sign of better things to come.

After a controversial change in the rules before Autumn 2014 by the new cup commissioner tottori !!sRN5AxsnGLL, ex-manager Aitor Karanka saw his retirement cut short as he returned to help out the team once again. And after discovering that Mr. Smugleaf had lied to both of his colleagues, Aitor and Ordinate decided to part ways with Smugleaf and not with this former manager begging Ordinate to remain as a tester and he accepted but only limiting him to it, and to both parties' surprise he announced a "retirement" post to announce that /sci/ allegedly didn't need him any more but far from the truth. As a result of this incident both managers Aitor Karanka and Ordinate have pledged to have no outsiders joining the team staff and that all further applications must be approved by the two parties.

After months of waiting, /sci/ finally got their chance to shine in the 2014 Autumn Babby Cup with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over a disheartened /soc/. After a narrow 2-1 victory vs. /m/ and a 1-1 draw against /o/, /sci/ were sitting pretty at the top of Group F with 7 points. This presented an interesting situation for the three still contending teams, /lgbt/, /m/, and /soc/. If /sci/ drew or lost vs. /lgbt/, /lgbt/ went through. If /sci/ won, then it was a game between /m/ and /soc/ for the final spot, with /lgbt/ going through if they drew. /sci/ won their next match 4-1 with help from a Sun of Fire and Ice goal, his first as a player. /m/ then attained a decisive victory against /soc/, pulling a 4-2 result to send them to Winter and eliminating /soc/ and /lgbt/.

With /sci/ looking it's most dominant as ever, the team pushed forward to the knockout round, being drawn against the pirates of /t/ in the Round of 16. The team took to the field with an extremely wide 4-2-3-1, specifically engineered to keep the Pira/t/es from stealing possesion. It was a tight match through and through, with only a tactical blunder allowing a goal to /t/ in the 86th minute, tying it at 1 a piece. After extra time ended with no goals scored, it was on to penalties. There were lots of KAPOW's, spaghetti, and skyed shots, but /sci/ somehow came out on top, 3-2 on pens. The day after, they had to face /n/ in the quarter-finals. After sleepless hours of headache-inducing testing, the team stepped onto the field to face their biggest opponent yet. Unfortunately, /n/ player Tite Gapz scored a goal in the 74th minute, making the game 1-0. This was enough to knock out /sci/ and leave them with a 5th place finish, their best in 2 1/2 years.

After another 3 months of waiting, /sci/ got their chance to compete in their first Elite Cup in years. After being drawn into a relatively strong group of /ic/, /diy/, and /s/: things seemed more bleak than normal for the newly promoted side. Still, the /sci/-borgs pushed forward with a more defensive focused 4-2-3-1 and faced their first opponent, /ic/. In what can only be described as a glitchy snore-fest of a match: both sides held on for a 0-0 draw, much to the chagrin of the commentators. The next match was against newly promoted Babby team /s/. Again: another draw in what should have been a decisive /sci/ win but due to some defensive blunders, both sides were only able to come away with one point. This left the /sci/entists in a terrible position. The only surefire way of getting in was with a win over /diy/: the former holder of the Babby 3rd Place trophy. It all seemed hopeless at first, after falling 2-0 down by the 23rd minute. However, /sci/ somehow found a way and staged the greatest comeback the 4chan Cup has ever seen. With 2 goals from 77 CB Triple Integrals and one each from Tesla and Feynman: /sci/ overcame the odds and found themselves with 5 group stage points and a spot in the knockout round. The draw put them against the dominant and dank [s4s], a team that finished the group stages with an astounding +8 GD. Still, science would not give up so easily and the team took the field against their toughest opponent yet. Unfortunately, due to some managerial stumbles, /sci/ was eliminated on a 3-0 loss, their worst since Summer 2013. Although the loss was a bit crushing for /sci/'s spirits, the positive note was that /sci/ would keep an elite cup status, something that was never done before. With this in mind, manager Aitor Karanka retired from the team knowing his goal that was set back in Summer 2013 had been met.

After securing their first knockouts in history, /sci/ entered Summer with somewhat high expectations, said expectations came to a shuddering halt after being routed 4-1 against one of their former managers, followed by another 4-1 route by [s4s] who had their number and while trying to salvage some dignity for the final game, /sci/ once again succumbed against /mu/ in the final stretch of the game, only a mere goal difference saved /sci/ from earning the dubious award of the wooden spoon.

Things were not looking great for the team of science as Autumn 2015 came after the disastrous performance in Summer, so much so that Aitor returned back from retirement to help the team promote again. The tournament proper saw /sci/ being drawn in a group featuring 2015 Babby 3rd place autopilot /cgl/ running on Juventus tactics, /sp/ coming after a disastrous Spring performance, a /diy/ side that had returned from the grave and a freefalling /hr/ team. For the first game /sci/ on a stroke of bad managerial decisions by Aitor lost to /cgl/ 1-0, but given that this was a 5 team group, hope wasn’t lost, next up came /hr/, the game went off well for /sci/ as they had a 3-1 lead but /hr/ out of nowhere caught fire and in the dying seconds managed to snatch away a draw that tasted like defeat, the panorama was looking bleak for the team facing a /diy/ side that was coming from beating /sp/ convincingly 5-1 and were 6 points and on top of the group… then Richard Feynman happened, a performance that was almost perfect, scoring a double brace to give the team its largest margin of victory ever, a 5-0 victory that allowed the team to enter the final matchday with hopes of promoting against /sp/, any victory would guarantee a spot in Winter, but unfortunately all /sp/ needed was a draw to promote and decided to park the bus as if there was no tomorrow, thus ending /sci/’s dreams for promotion dashed with a 0-0 draw.

A new year brought a new face for the team, the management made a roster thread that was well received with the board, and with that a shakeup came along with it, Bill Nye and Nikola Tesla, the team’s most recognizable figures were demoted to non-medals, with Shinichi Mochizuki and Sun of Lava/Ice being promoted to medal status, a move that proved that the team was ready for a new beginning with the upcoming Spring tournament, said tournament had the team was drawn with /tg/, whose last encounter had the infamous 4-1 loss with Doomrider getting the goal of the tournament, /biz/, which were under new management after >Art ragequit and /sci/’s retarded little brother /g/. The first match had a promising look with a draw against /tg/, somewhat shaking off the demons from that 4-1 match, the managerial team felt confident against /biz/… then reality hit them hard with a 4-0 loss, which was a blow to the morale of the team and almost killed effectively the chances of promoting, the trio came to realization that a combination of ineptitude and real life issues affecting their ability to test would never help the team and they would hinder it if they continued to managed the team, so after the /g/ match that felt like a swan song, the three managers decided to step down and let any fan that was interested in aiding the team to take over, for the first time since 2013, /sci/ was managerless, and this period was the darkest moment for the team ever as it failed to get a manager by Autumn, effectively forfeiting the tournament, an all-time low.

2017 Spring Qualifiers - 2018 Summer Cup: Lab Coat era and success

The new year came in and /sci/ still looked like they were going to be managerless for a while, until Spring rolled in and an user by the name of Lab Coat !!xjloyu2m+mY took over and presented its respective proof of evidence for the resurrection of the team, with it came yet another shake up, amongst the most tenured players on the team it was time for Nikola Tesla to say goodbye as the team faced its first ever qualifiers. Lab Coat was a complete newcomer to the game, so much so that he requested the aid of Aitor as a consultant, with his help they put together an export according to Lab Coat’s requests, as confusing as those requests were on paper. But before the team took on the field, the team faced the hardest shakeup it ever faced, while the team sent its export for the qualifiers, once beloved player Bill Nye got a new show on Netflix, on which he decided to sell out every scientific principle in exchange for pandering to the Tumblr crowd. This angered the board and managerial team alike, but they were at a crossroads, they couldn’t change the export to expel Bill Nye and replace him, so the managerial team decided to not field Bill Nye at all during the qualifiers, and so their journey began with 3 well known rivals, once elite champions /trv/, once babby champions /pol/ and once babby-runner up /co/. The 5-4-1 /sci/ fielded was regarded as weak and nonsensical, but managed to eek out a draw from /trv/, then they changed that to a 4-5-1 to see if fortunes would change, but /co/, just like in 2013 beat /sci/ after being down 1-0. The final matchup saw a do or die match for /sci/ and /pol/ with a draw favouring /sci/. Before the match the rivals decided to have a joint anthem in protest of Bill Nye’s brainlet views. Richard Feynman ironically buried /pol/ on the very same anniversary of Hitler’s suicide, and /sci/ barely qualified from the babbies despite having only 22 players to their own disposal.

Now having promoted from the fetus, Aitor decided to aid Lab Coat by changing the 5-4-1 into a more respectable looking 4-3-3 (given the little time to change tactics) for Spring. The rivals were /n/, /his/ and everyone’s beloved team /mlp/. The /n/ match was a see saw affair which provided with a 2-2 draw which felt like a defeat given how late /n/ scored the equalizer. Then the /his/ match rolled in, and before the match the managerial team decided to pay homage to the runners up of the initial babby /3/, which were not alive to participate on the fifth year anniversary of the Spring Babby cup using their beloved goalhorn as their own, a move widely approved by a lot of fans and neutrals as it provided a great game which saw Sun of Lava/Ice score a hattrick, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough as a very offensive /his/ scored a late goal to win 4-3, dealing a deadly blow to the team’s aspirations of promoting. Before the final game, the team was already out from promoting to summer, all that was left was avoiding defeat against /mlp/ to avoid relegation to the Autumn Qualifiers. A lone goal by Shinichi Mochizuki proved more than enough to win the match and not only avoid the qualifiers but having the absolute honour of sending the two star team to the Autumn Qualifiers, ending the tournament on a high note and on a respectable 18th place. The team was ready for the Autumn Babby cup… or so it looked like it. After the Spring Babby Cup ended, a much controversial announcement known as “The Cull” sent promoted teams like /t/ and /out/ (and prospective promoter /p/) from the Summer Cup to a state of managerless limbo as the commissioner determined that said teams did not try to interact with fans. As a consequence from this, /sci/ was awarded a spot in summer alongside /o/. The managerial team felt at a conflict from having such a golden opportunity to participate in an elite cup but at the same time feeling bad about promoting in such a controversial way. Nevertheless, this was an opportunity to participate in the elites and try to have a shot at a elite cup star.

The Summer campaign saw the integration of returning manager ordinate as an aid to Lab Coat, the teams to beat in the group stage were /m/, /tg/ and /vp/. The first match saw the incredible oddity of /m/’s Dan “Game master” Kuroto getting the fastest red card ever in cup history, this shakeup of events was topped by a rollercoaster of emotions which ended in a 3-3 draw which made PES not declare a man of the match, to the amusement of everyone. Next up was /tg/, it was time to put the demons from past tournaments behind and get over the hump against them, and two amazing goals from Carl Sagan and Does 0.999… = 1? Alongside a Sun of Lava/Ice header off a corner were more than enough to put these demons to rest and give /sci/ a 3-1 win and sitting pretty on top of the group. The final match against /vp/ was the final match of the group, with /m/ beating /tg/, only a catastrophic result against /vp/ would have seen /sci/ being relegated, nonetheless the team kept playing its trademark defensive aggressive brand of football with effective attacks against a /vp/ team that needed to not lose against /sci/ to stay up. Shinichi Mochizuki started off with a great goal coming off a cross by Brainlet, then /vp/ equalised at the 65th minute, things were looking good for /sci/, but decided to play it safe and go with tiki-taka and to most people this would have been an indication that the game would have ended with a draw, but at the 90th minute Shinichi Mochizuki put a dagger throughout the collective hearts of every /vp/ fan as /sci/ inadvertently sunk them and helped /m/ stay up, and for the first time ever /sci/ topped an elite group.

The knockouts faced them against /f/ in the Round of 16, the flash team played with its desperation tier brand of football as they felt the clock ticking as the countdown to their format being entirely obsolete by 2020 had begun, /sci/ studied all the opportunities and thought ahead of them and neutralised them with solid defence and a goal by GauB to win their first ever elite knockout game. All good things must come to an end as the team was paired up with incumbent babby champion /lgbt/, on a string of unfortunate events which stemmed from Boris accidentally rigging /sci/ to allow an equaliser from the legbutts to a panic attack from the manager which led to a lot of questionable decisions, led to a monumental collapse in extra time to see their hopes of an elite cup dashed, a punishing blow that will live in the memory of not every /sci/ fan but also every cup fan. Morale was low after the match but moving on was necessary, so Lab Coat sent a request for help in managing, which was answered by an user named OGRO !!HEaa+iIocNu, the new journey would see a turbulent start with Aitor leaving his role as consultant over differences with Lab Coat, ogro going MIA and Lab Coat himself facing real life issues that hindered his ability to perform, leaving the steering wheel of the boat to once head manager ordinate heading into Winter.

The tournament proper saw the team facing /gd/, /jp/ and /o/. The first match was a narrow defeat on the last minutes of the game, things were looking uphill for /sci/. Next up was /jp/, on a match which can define itself as pure PES saw /sci/ somehow winning 2-1 in a matter of minutes despite displaying a pretty rotten performance, but a victory is a victory, which made things looking into the final match a lot better than a draw or much worse a defeat. The match was a must win for /sci/ as the draw favoured /o/, Shinichi Mochizuki started things well ironically against Elon Musk’s Don’t Panic! car, Miata quickly answered back, but a catastrophic clearance by the Burgerking (Nürburgring) lead Shinichi to take back the lead for most of the game, and as crunch time came, Mochizuki delivered an assist to Richard Feynman to ensure a ticket to the knockouts and the first time /sci/ maintained elite status. The Round of 16 saw them square up against /vr/, a hectic affair that had /sci/ sweating for a bit but nonetheless managing to win comfortably 3-1 thanks to two deadly counters by Shinichi Mochizuki and Carl Sagan. And the aspirations of silverware were once again dashed in the quarterfinals, on which again the eventual cup winner would see themselves going past the team at this stage. The main difference between Winter and Summer was that Summer was caused by severe misfortune and Winter was caused by severe futility, nothing the managers did could stop the bleeding against /u/, not even a valiant effort by backup goalkeeper Norman Wildberger was enough and the /sci/entists were sent home in shame with a 3-0 loss.

After the humiliation received in the quarterfinals, /sci/ faced their third straight elite cup appearance, an unprecedented event in their history, the group stage looked on paper one of similar prowess between the four teams in the group. It was for the most part a group of retribution, a particular vendetta against /sp/ given that they parked the bus hard against /sci/ to advance to Winter 16; /fit/ on the other hand relegated /sci/ to the 2013 Spring Babbies, and as for the other rival, it was actually a matter of avoiding retribution as /sci/ put the cherry on top of /pol/’s humiliating debacle that spanned from Summer 16 and ending with failing to advance from the 2017 Spring Babby Fetus, which they also ended dead last in the overall standings. /sci/ was described by many as the weakest link, calling their previous performances a product of luck and circumstance, it was up to them to silence the critics once and for all.

To the delight of fans and managers alike, backup goalkeeper Norman Wildberger scored a goal against /sp/ in the 2018 4chan Summer Cup.

The first match was against a pastebin /fit/, meaning they should’ve acted fast and swiftly before any automated response, which they did in the first fifteen minutes with goals by Triple Integrals and Richard Feynman, /fit/ managed to reply but it was too late and with a late collapse by their striker Zyzz sealed a 2-1 win for /sci/. Next up was /pol/, a match on which both the /sci/ managers forgot to submit a nightly export and both were under the influence of drugs, was a certainly tough match in paper, but once they kicked off /sci/ laid a siege on /pol/ on which the latter had to rely on heroics by their goalkeeper to reduce the damage from the two swift goals scored by Sun of Lava/Ice and captain Shinichi Mochizuki, a small counter as a product of panic managed to tilt the score a bit but it was not enough and /sci/ won again 2-1, and as a product of /sp/ also winning their previous two games, both teams were guaranteed a knockout berth and were only playing for bragging rights, both sides decided to play it safe and not field their medals for the final game, as such they fielded odd lineups but in the end /sci/ won 2-1 with goals by Spectrum and to the joy of the fanbase and managers, backup goalkeeper Norman Wildberger. This is the first time in their entire history both in elite and babby level on which /sci/ finished a group stage by winning all their games. So it was time to move to the knockouts with their heads held up high for such an achievement.

Despite their solid performance on the field, people still doubted /sci/’s achievement since they won by narrow margins, despite not considering that the final game was one that was not really intended by either side to win and the fact that /pol/ had to rely on their keeper to not lose by a wider margin. Nevertheless, the round of 16 rival was /r9k/, a team that finished undefeated in their group stage and that managed to knock the reigning champion /u/ out, it looked like /sci/ was facing a team that could’ve ended their aspirations early, but in the end it turned out to be a lopsided clobbering of 3-0, putting an end to all doubts to the team’s prowess. Next up was the match to exercise their quarterfinals demons out, /tg/, a worthy adversary. For reasons unknown the /sci/ manager for the game decided to use the cursed ESA kits for the game, and also lost the cointoss and therefore homefield advantage, things looked bad, and they took a turn for the worse when /tg/ scored first but managed to reply back, and after a horrifying display of ineptitude by Richard Feynman on an one on one situation against the keeper, /tg/ capitalized and left /sci/, yet again, in the quarterfinals. A devastating blow on one of the strongest teams the board has ever sent, it will be a matter of time to see if Winter 2019 will finally be their year.

2019 Winter Cup - 2019 Autumn Babby Qualifiers: Decline and autopilot blues

With the announcement of the winter tournament to be held in PES 2016, there was uncertainty within the team if staying elite would be plausible, with a very aggressive approach, the team was paired with /g/, /h/ and /f/. For the first game /sci/ was on the wrong side of the history records as they would go as the team that scored the most goals in a losing effort, a 6-8 goalfest against /g/, a last minute collapse against /h/ and a failed valiant effort against /f/ effectively condemned /sci/ to be relegated to a babby cup for the first time in two years. Following this and real life issues, Lab Coat decided it was time to retire and left the team to ordinate and newcomer Yuyukow !!EOZVjSE1Oud in charge of leading the team back to an elite cup as soon as possible. The next tournament would be held on a new(ish) game, PES 2018, on such short notice and with absolute silence coming from the managerial team, uncertainty was clear as on how would the team fare, this time they were going to face /cgl/, /vp/ and /x/ for the Spring Babby tournament. And to summarize all three games it's as simple as the Pythagoras theorem, they were all boring 0-0 draws that unceremoniously earned /sci/ the Least Exciting team award for the tournament, the team was on a nosedive and no salvation in sight, this would be a dark age for the team unseen since the Summer 2015 debacle.

The team was in absolute disrepair, the managerial team was nowhere to be seen when the 2019 Autumn Qualifier signups were up, seeing this, the managerial team decided to step down in the last days of signing ups and decided to appoint Lab Coat as the team's caretaker and pray for an autopilot miracle to leave the depths of the Fetus. /sci/ was set up in a group with /trv/, /vr/ and /x/. Things seemed to start great with a 2-1 victory over /d/ with a goal by Shinichi Mochizuki on the final minutes of the game, unfortunately a squandered lead against /vr/ would see them lose 1-2 and hoping for a victory or draw against group leaders (and eventual Babby cup champions) /trv/, needless to say it wasn't even close and /sci/ fell short once again and was automatically given a berth to the 2020 Spring Babby tournament as a result.

2020 Spring Babby Cup - 2021 Autumn Babby Cup: The second Aitor Karanka era and mediocrity

The team looked to be without a manager for the foreseeable future, that was until someone from Wuhan ate some bat soup and made everyone stay home, this turn of events made a former manager in Aitor to have an unexpected amount of available time, which was the catalyst to his return to the managerial helm for the 2020 Spring Babby Cup. Running a mostly unchanged roster from the past year, the team was drawn with /r9k/, /d/ and /int/, the first two games were considered incredibly miraculous considering that the first was a draw against /r9k/ which came with a 90+ goal by Shinichi Mochizuki, the next game saw a buzz saw between /sci/ and /d/ on which again Shinichi saved the day by scoring his third goal in the dying seconds to nab a 4-4 draw. The next game saw /sci/ needing to win or at least score more goals in a draw to advance to the Summer Cup. The previous game saw /d/ draw their third game 1-1, this meant that /sci/ had to win or draw 2-2 to advance, a 1-1 draw would send the /d/eviants and the /sci/entists go in a playoff game. Which is exactly what ended up happening, and in typical snakebitten fashion /sci/ lost the tiebreaker game 4-2 and missed out on the summer cup while /d/ went on a miracle run and won the Spring Babby Cup.

The following cup was Autumn and this time saw /sci/ being pit against old rivals in /co/, /pol/ and /int/, the tournament followed the same trends that the team had against the three rivals in question, /sci/ kept their overall historical dominance over /pol/ with a 1-0 win, the first one in a year, which was segued by a Halloween slaughter against /co/, their eternal white whale saw the Ahabs in labcoats needing to win against /int/ and in an exercise of futility faltered well short with a 3-1 loss against /int/. In a normal scenario this would have meant that /sci/ would have stayed put until Spring 2021 but that was no longer the case, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the first elite cup, the committee decided to have a 64 team tournament, which saw the team of science being automatically qualified.

Although the idea of participating on an elite cup was tantalizing, managerial team which now comprised of Aitor and returning manager Yuyukow did not find the idea of having to participate on the 2021 Autumn Babby Cup regardless of performance to be any motivation. The group on which /sci/ was drawn was done at random and fortune dictated that they would face /biz/, /s/ which saw a temporary resurrection just for this tournament and the final ride of the /asp/ team which was going to be put to rest after the mods decided to partition the board into /xs/ and /pw/. The first game against /asp/ was a poor offensive show as the team scored too little too late in a 2-1 loss. The next game saw /sci/ struggle against an autopilot /s/ and barely holding on to a 2-2 draw thanks to goals by Shinichi and newly promoted silver Norman Wildberger. The final group stage saw the team go on a shootout against a /biz/ team that was interested to keep on scoring and not go back and defend even if a draw benefitted them, it ended in a 3-3 draw to close an unceremonious performance. This and alongside new real life obligations made Aitor announce that Autumn 2021 would be his final tournament.

Autumn saw a return to the Megababby concept, which ended with a 5 team group and four rivals in order to advance to Winter, the rivals in question were /lit/, /u/, /b/ and /fit/. The first game saw a competitive game between /lit/ and /sci/ which unfortunately went out of control in the second half and lost 4-2. The next up was a tall task against a two time elite winner in /u/ and despite being heavy underdogs, /sci/ won 2-1 with goals by Shinichi Mochizuki and non medal Does 0.999... = 1? The next game was a Halloween game against /b/ on which it was imperative to at least draw to keep their elite chances alive, and keeping on the tradition of not winning in the dreaded spooky weekend saw them slip the game out of their hands thanks to a very reckless performance by Jon Tooker, the game ended in a 2-1 loss. /sci/ was nearly fatally wounded but the chances to advance were still there and they involved winning a game against a traditionally weaker side on /fit/, a game on which for once the team of science was actually favored to win, unfortunately theoretical victories on paper do not translate to victories on the pitch and that cemented the team's performance with another disappointing loss. And as promised Aitor Karanka announced his definitive retirement shortly afterwards.

External links

• All /sci/'s kits from pre spring 2012 to Winter 2015