Semifinals:

After the week 5 tiebreaks, it was the Hakamo-os up against the Swannas. The Swannas came into the semifinals after they edged out the Delibirds and Spindas, while the Hakamo-os missed out on a finals spot with a tiebreak loss to the Flamencos. However, the Hakamo-os handily beat the Swannas 6-2 back in week one with the help of some luck, so the question heading into the semifinals was whether the Hakamo-os could do it again. Four games into the week, the score was tied 2-2 with the TJ and 85percent of the Swannas picking up wins in SM and Toy Time King and czim grabbing wins in DPP and SM. Then, Ninjadog13 and Tack :] would win their ORAS and BW games, which put the Hakamao-os up 4-2. On the brink of elimination, the Swanna’s turned to Taskr and Catalystic to force a tiebreak. However, with the help of a timely double Protect, RawMelon would defeat Taskr and seal a finals spot for the Hakamo-s. Catalystic would later beat love chants to bring the final score to 5-3.

Finals:

Week 5 featured the Flamencos against the Hakamo-os, where the winner would take first place and a ticket to the finals. While week five ended in a tie and the Flamencos would take the tiebreaker 2-1, the Hakamo-os managed to secure a finals spot with a victory in the semifinals. On paper, the Flamencos and Hakamo-os had a fairly similar record; however, the Flamencos lineup was filled with experienced tournament players and a team with arguably more skill. Conversely, the Hakamo-os featured more ZU mains and less overall tournament experience. The Flamencos would pick up the first victory thanks to Heysup’s close win over Toy Time King in DPP. Next, RawMelon would even out the series 1-1 with a victory over DurzaOffTopic, the Flamenco’s manager. Then, the Flamencos would pull away with three victories from Ren-chon in BW, and Jarii and Teddeh in SM. Down 4-1, yovan33321 of the Hakamo-s, who was 0-2 against the Flamencos up to this point, managed to beat Sabella in SM. While the Flamenco’s were in a prime position to secure the week and win all of ZUPL, a late double sub forced the Flamencos to sub in snaga over Kushalos and the Hakamo-os to sub in Graceclaw over Ninjadog13. This meant that the Flamencos lost their best player for someone with next to no exerience in ORAS ZU, and that the Hakamo-os were in a prime position to make a comeback. Unfortunately for the Hakamo-os, snaga would beat Graceclaw to win ZUPL. Subsequently, Finchinator would beat czim and bring the final score to 6-2.