| If only the power of true love can break a curse, then no team is more fairytale than /u/.
And indeed, curse after curse after curse has haunted /u/, even from inception. As was the fate of all teams a future commissioner helmed, /u/'s early history was crash-and-burn -- only qualifying for their first Elite Cup by virtue of Dragongate's upheaval. But once Elite, /u/ would stay there. Occasional sojourns into the Babbies aside, /u/ began to build a reputation as the strongest team, bar none, to never have won a star. Until Winter 2016, it had been said that /u/ was cursed never to win a quarter-final -- and there, they lost in a final to /fit/. They would make the final again, a year and a half later -- only to lose, again, this time to a resurgent /lgbt/. And so the chants of "c/u/rsed" continued -- and worse, cup superstition had by then come to associate /u/ with a graver curse: that of meeting /mlp/ in the group stage, an ill omen that twice lead the dreaded horsefuckers to a star.
This Winter, /u/ was determined not to let history repeat.
In a stunning show, /u/ once again marched to the final, crushing /co/, /sci/, /n/ -- and, yes, /mlp/ -- along the way. The gears of destiny, however, would move mighty and nigh-inexorable as on the other side /mlp/ returned to an Elite final, here to claim once more what seemed all but their third star -- and the match to follow was as much a defiance of fate as it was one for the record books. A tactical duel marked by /u/'s desperate defense against an all-out /mlp/ assault, /u/ would nonetheless take the lead thrice on their precise and deadly play, only to be denied straight victory at the last second by the invocation of /mlp/'s most eldritch spell: a cheeky stoppage goal to send an Elite final to penalties for the first time.
Call it a miracle, call it a script, call it whatever you like -- but ten kicks later, /u/ emerged victorious, and now, at last, they stand at the pinnacle of the 4chan Cup as living proof of one thing, and one thing only: it is love, pure love, that conquers all.
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