Recently, rumors have been circulating around about a smaller roster in season 9 of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. While we already know that Kristian Harloff wanted to make the Schmoedown roster smaller heading into next season, there is some buzz about the roster going down to around sixty people. While sixty seems like a large number, a move to sixty competitors would shrink the roster by more than a third. The shrinking of the roster would not only change the complexion of the Schmoedown, but many of the competitors who leave the MTS may end up in the First Class League. The FCL, which is transitioning from a developmental league to be the digital league next season, could see its roster expanded due to this. Having players not return for the next season is always difficult, but after the expansion of the roster for Season 8, the thought of shrinking it down again for Season 9 may mean some favorites won’t be returning.
There are several competitors who are looking to accomplish more than they already have. For example, Dan Murrell has talked about entering the Innergeekdom division, something which could grow his already stellar legacy. While Mike Kalinowski has already proven himself as the greatest Innergeekdom player of all time, his accomplishments in teams and singles cannon be denied and it would not be a surprise to see him grow that list of accomplishments further in Season 9. Former champions such as Ben Bateman and Adam Collins would be looking to bounce back after having a down year in Season 8.
There are also several competitors that will greatly benefit from being local. With Harloff looking to limit or completely remove digital matches, competitors that are local will most likely be locks. I also think that the MTS roster has room for players who are not local such as Paul Oyama and Alex Damon. Both are former champions and their accomplishments, gameplay, and character work could be considered beneficial to the league. Even if competitors are not former champions or one of the league’s biggest characters, should they be considered by Harloff to bring something special to the Schmoedown, whether through their gameplay, character work, or their ability to bring wider exposure to the league, they will most likely be back.
Some of the newer competitors who have shown a lot of promise are not local, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be considered for the main roster. Their location may be a disadvantage and they also might not have the accomplishments that would make people consider them one of the best in the league, yet they have too much potential to have them leave after this season. For example, I don’t think that we would get only one season of Griffin Newman, especially after his gameplay and character work this year. He will play for the title at the Schmoedown Spectacular after having shown he can play in front of a live audience as part of the undercard at the New York live event in October. While the Star Wars league is said to be all digital next season, seeing the Dragon Con players that entered the league this year get to play studio matches would be nice. Thomas Harper is the current champion, but seeing more of Marie Wilson and Zack Burkett would be great. The Dragon Con players came in with a lot of hype and Harper winning the belt puts added pressure on Wilson and Burkett to win. It would be interesting to see whether they can match what Harper has accomplished next season.
The Schmoedown is essentially a game of inches, sometimes coming down to a single letter in a word, such as what happened to Gold Leader in the mid-season Star Wars tournament final against Harper. Those smallest of details can lead to devastating losses, and it brings up the question of how many losses like that a competitor can take before they start to question whether competing is something they want to continue to do. That is, of course, up to the individual, but there are competitors, such as Laura Kelly during her appearance on our Collision After Party in July, that have spoken about how draining competing can be. With players such as John Rocha and Jeff Sneider retiring, this opens up roster spots for other competitors. It remains to be seen if any other competitors step away.
If the roster is shrunk to around sixty competitors or less, the FCL presents a secondary option for Harloff and competitors to consider. There are some talented players who would be able to transition to the FCL, and doing so should not be seen as a demotion. It is important to remember that the FCL is going to be the official digital league in 2022, and the ease with which some players can travel to Los Angeles to tape studio matches is something that is likely to be considered. The FCL has created an identity of its own during their Season 1 and could provide competitors, perhaps those who are non-local, a chance to develop their trivia skills and character work.
The hardest part of breaking down these roster rumors is that we do not know the scale and criteria on which Harloff is making these decisions. If the roster is really shrinking that much, then Harloff is having to make some difficult ones. It is possible that there is a hard cutoff for who will be on an MTS roster in Season 9, or there might be a more flexible number. Competitors who start the season in the FCL might even be brought up to the MTS via free agency periods such as the ones that occurred during Season 8. The return of studio matches also means the return of storylines, with competitors on the MTS roster likely to be heavily featured within them. Managers might be available. There will be tournaments. But with the limited space, there are bound to be surprise competitors left off the MTS roster. It also remains to be seen whether competitors who had stepped away, such as Marc Andreyko or Kevin Smets, return for Season 9, and there may be some rookie competitors as well.
Harloff has some tough choices ahead of him when it comes to the Season 9 roster. It will be interesting to see which competitors return as their characteristics will most likely show the direction that the Schmoedown is going in for Season 9. But regardless of who is competing in the Schmoedown next season, it is clear that an overhaul of the league is occurring and Season 9 will be something different than we have had for the past two seasons.
