Kate Mulligan once again shocked the Schmoedown community with her tournament selections. She ended Ben Goddard and Paul Preston’s seasons and gave opportunities to the less proven players on her roster. While the choice was certainly unexpected, in the end, Mulligan’s tournament choices do not matter. After Saul’s loss, they are well out of the faction race and would need a miracle to come back this season, especially with their first-round singles tournament matchups. Does this justify giving others a shot in this tournament instead of Preston and Goddard? In my opinion, no it does not since this choice should cause Goddard and Preston, both extremely promising players, to leave the Den. Let’s discuss how Mulligan’s tournament choices impact Preston and Goddard’s futures and why it should lead them away from the Den.
Let’s start with Paul Preston. Before joining the Den, Preston was 3-4 but showed flashes of excellence. He held his own against Ben Bateman and Shazam! in the 2019 Ultimate Schmoedown tournaments and had some memorable character work. Most thought Preston was a future star within the league. Since joining the Den, Preston has been surprisingly unmemorable with a record of 1-6. It’s a problem when his most memorable moments in the Den are being on the wrong side of upsets against Deep 13 and Eric Zipper: neither of which got nominated for upset of the year. Even with the prospect of a singles and teams tournament run with the Den, I thought Preston should have considered leaving at the end of the season.
With Mulligan’s choice to end his season, there is no way Preston can stay with the faction. Preston, supposedly one of the stars within the faction, got sidelined for no conceivable reason. Taking his place are two 1-1 rookies, both having a lower accuracy rate, Alonso Duralde, an 0-1 veteran who had gameplay issues, and Jader Paramo, who is already out of the tournament. The biggest surprise about Preston’s exclusion is he’s not having a bad singles season. Like Gubbins and Schloth, Preston is 1-1. The only difference is his matches were not against rookies and he was also a 5 pointer away from beating JTE. Before Preston announced he was returning to the Den, he went on Backstage to discuss what he is looking for in a manager in season 8 and said the following, “So whoever is excited about me, I’m going to listen. If it’s Kate, great. I mean she knows what she did last year in terms of mistakes. I mean, I made a ton of mistakes too. If she’s hungry to win I will go, there… If you’re thinking ‘maybe we’ll fall back on Paul if something else doesn’t work out,’ I don’t want to go that route. You know I want to go where I am wanted, and someone is excited about me.” Firstly, Mulligan isn’t excited enough with Preston to give him a tournament slot, and secondly, with Mulligan’s tournament decisions, it’s unclear if she is hungry to win or is preoccupied with giving others a chance. Because of this. I’m not sure if Mulligan was the manager Preston was looking for, and so far, the Den has not helped Preston advance his Schmoedown career in the slightest. With Preston entering the most important season of his career, he needs buzz and wins, something he had troubling finding during his time with the Den. Preston leaving the faction would already create some fan intrigue and future storylines that he desperately needs.
Goddard, unlike Preston, did see early success with the Den. Goddard started out 4-0 with wins across three divisions. Yet his momentum halted when he missed out on joining the singles tournament. Since that 4-0 streak, Goddard has gone 0-6 across three divisions. Given Goddard is the captain of the Den and has expressed regret about missing last year’s tournament, it seemed like Goddard would be a lock for this singles tournament which is why most were shocked to see he was excluded from the Den’s tournament plans. The singles tournament is a huge opportunity and for Goddard to miss out on this opportunity two years in a row hurts Goddard’s development. Goddard’s explanation for his and Paul’s exclusion from the tournament on the most recent Backstage was “hey, me and Paul 0-2 (in teams), we should’ve beaten Lightning Time and we should have beaten Press Room… But should’ve won, could’ve won, 0-2 giving other people a chance to shine.”
The worst part about that quote is “giving other people a chance to shine.” If this is the reasoning behind his exclusion, then it is unacceptable. To quote Brad Gilmore, “This isn’t everyone gets a turn, right? This isn’t a participation trophy league. This is do you want to win or do you not want to win?” Goddard is the Den’s star and most accurate singles/team player. He is their captain and to not be rewarded with a slot in the tournament is ridiculous. This is also an opportunity Goddard needs now coming off of six straight losses. Why do they deserve this slot more than Goddard? Why do they need this slot more than Goddard? If this is about “giving other people a chance to shine,” why isn’t Goddard in the Innergeekdom tournament? After all, Goddard has not had an Innergeekdom match yet and Saul had his opportunity. With Goddard needing any momentum he could get at this point, he could use the matches much more than Saul. Yet despite that, the Den has affirmed Saul is their best Innergeekdom player, and therefore he gets the tournament slot, a mindset the Den will not take with either Goddard or Preston. If it’s about Goddard’s losses, Goddard played great against JTE, Lightning Time, and Press Room, and against Kan, he fell to opponent’s choice. To not reward the captain, who most likely has spent a lot of time training his teammates, because of these losses makes no sense especially when rewarding players like Gubbins, Paramo, and Schloth, all of whom have similar losses this season.
Now to address the elephant in the room. What if Goddard and Preston cannot participate in the tournaments because of personal reasons? What if they are too busy? Even in this scenario, they need to leave the Den because its more interesting if they do leave. There are storyline possibilities and new rivalries formed if they leave. It creates a compelling fan narrative of Mulligan not rewarding her star singles/teams players and because of that, they left. It could be a similar arc to the one Brandon Hanna went on after he got traded. For Hanna, right after leaving the Den was when his character was most interesting and talked about. It is also awful optics for either of them to stay. Especially for Goddard, to stay with the manager that left him out of the singles tournament two years in a row would be like an NBA shooter staying with a team that doesn’t pass, or an NFL quarterback signing a long-term deal with a team that just benched him. Fans will start to question Goddard’s commitment to winning and his own career, if he has the killer instinct, or if he is too content with his current situation.
This season’s Den was built around both Goddard and Preston in singles and teams. They were the stars of the faction and have the potential to be stars within the Schmoedown. But the partnership between Goddard/Preston and Mulligan has not worked. Goddard and Preston cannot risk staying put heading into a crucial season of their careers. If they do not produce within season 9 then their championship window might be closed, especially since they are in a highly competitive league with limited opportunities. They need the opportunities the singles tournament offers. Preston said on Backstage, “Talking about tiered players. I’ve heard that told me after the match with Tom. Someone brought up, you know, ‘There’s the guys trading belts back and forth then the rest of us is just having fun’… I am not happy with that statement at all. I’m not going to live that statement at all.” If Preston or Goddard do not want to live the previous statement, then their best bet is to leave the Den.
