It's session 4 of season 18, and the senseless shenanigans have started in earnest! We're not exactly sure where earnest is, yet it must be situated atop a wonderfully BUM-oriented fault line because the reverberations were felt all over the TMVL map!  We've got new top 3's in blowouts and upsets and highests and lowests, and there were even some good matches that didn't result in Olmec-induced bangings of heads into walls, desks, or other solid or semi-solid structures!  The Imperial Forces of powers-that-be were all on notice that no ratings-difference is too large for the rebellious rabble to raze in fiery radiance!  And thus we fire off our opening salvo of the session our Blowouts, so grab your favored beverage and put some distance between you and the closest favored home team, because no one is safe when the BUM Report's latest edition goes live!

First, an honorable mention (at least to us at the BUM Report) to the Carlsbad Chameleons, for almost getting blown out it the match 10 conference game at San Diego.  More on both teams later in the column, I promise you.  The Cavern-dwelling Colorchangers got swept by a combined +29 score by the Swordfish, yet the truly impressive part is how Phil rose to the challenge that Max threw down last week.  In the session 3 BUM Report, I noted that the Scarecrows had a clean sweep for the three lowest road ratings on the season, having just dropped a 51 to seal the #3 spot.  Phil couldn't resist the bait, and promptly replied at the earliest opportunity to play a road 50 and get himself in the #3 spot instead!  A truly BUM-worthy effort and the glove is passed back to Max to see if he'll retort in kind!  Moving on to the weekly top 3 in Blowouts, we turn to a pair of matches managed by Olmec Head teams.  Match 12, WGM tourney opener, with Burlington (62) continuing their conference focus and sending the Tadpoles to flop around in the Compost Pile where the Fightin' Fungi flourish.  Mendon has been quietly (because Olmec Head hasn't been programmed to taunt us all yet) posting some impressive team ratings of late, and their home 89 in this one ties #4 on the season and was the third-best (tied) of the WGM matches.  The resulting +27 also tied the largest ratings difference for the match 12 slate, and after a surprisingly close opening set (20-25) the other two went as the lineups would suggest 9-25 and 10-25, for a final +36 Blowout, good for #3 on the week!  Congrats to... Olmec? For not doing Olmecian things to itself?  And we'll add to that in match 10, conference play, St. Charles and the GourdHeads again showing road anxiety, bringing a 52 to the broad plains of Texas, where the Arlington Vermilingua rolled out a solid home line (82) to welcome them.  This one didn't have a single competitive set, going in sequential order 11-25, 12-25, and 13-25, for a +39 Blowout, tied #2 on the week as Olmec Head 1 and Olmec Head 2 are apparently showing us all how it should be done!  Fear the Stone One!

Shifting gears to human managers, we have heard rumblings from Schenectady that this year might be different.  If match 11 is any indicator, Brian could be right!  The Granite Guardians sent the fledlgings out to play (58) while the Arboreal Rodents sent an impressive 85-rated team to thrill the home court faithful.  Same scores as in the Arlington match, just a different order, as it was a line-em-up and knock-em-down night for the NutMunchers, 12-25, 11-25, 13-25, and the same +39 #2 Blowout of the Week!  Congrats, Brian!

That brings us around to our final Blowout of notice, this time on the home court of... Schenectady?  Again?  But, yes!  It's a double-blowout kind of home week for the faithful who frequent Brian's Nuthouse, home of the Fried Fircone Fritters (TM)!  Who were the victims?  The Kittens of Kentucky came with their almost-litter-trained lineup (62) as the Big Cats had already prowled around the SEC and won a home sweep over the Firefoxes earlier in the weekend slate. Not sure if Matt simply didn't care about the WGM or had other plans, as you can rarely tell what a cat is thinking, apart from the every-other-second-accompanied-by-a-disdaining-glare, "That human is an idiot, yet it provides food and takes my poo away, so I will let it live another day."  As for the Squirrels, I know what they were thinking when they saw the opening lineups: "See a nut, eat a nut!" and the feast was on!  After the Kittens spent all their energy trying to fend off a barage of spikes in the opening set (14-25), they ran out of kibble-power and it got progessively worse for Kentucky.  Set two went 9-25, and then capped by a 7-25 set, as Schenectady held the Panthers to a season-low (tied) 7 points in a regular set, which led to the #1 Blowout of the Week, and #2 (tied) on the Season at +45!  Congrats to Brian and the Squirrels for the double-blowout special!

What also comes out in session 4 is where priorities are lying for most managers.  Try in the WGM?  T7 the conference matches and play whatever is left in the WGM?  We saw it both this past weekend.  Teams that were clearly making an effort in conference play once again featured the Big 8, as four titans clashed without any upsets or blowouts, though we did have a very entertaining 5-set match in the mix.  Pekin (90) @ Portland (89) went the distance, with an extra-point set and a final 15-13 set 5! Roger's Legume Legion set the new #1 road rating mark in this one.  Quincy (87) @ Columbia (92) was also tight, with the Mules and their #3 road rating taking the opener 28-26 before the home team shot up some fertilizer between sets and righted the opening wrongs, coming back to win 3-1 while tying the #1 rating on the season!  Other teams playing impressive home lines all came in at 89, namely Nashville (twice), Mendon (twice), Mat-Su (twice), with two other teams topping that, Porkopolis (90, more to come on that one shortly) and Spokane, where the Hirsute Hitters played a home 91 in the WGM match, #2 best lineup on the season so far, as they dominated a purplish-and-yellow themed SEC team that played the top road WGM lineup and may have as well played their B7 for all the good it did them! At least it wasn't a blowout.

On to the Upsets!  There were a handful across the weekend, from the minor to a major one of BUM-record proportions!  Giving small credits where due, we should note that Dallas showed signs of life to pick up their third win this season, with a -2 upset of Ames to stay alive in the "not last in the brutal Big 8" competition. And last weekend's graphic-featured team, the Livid Lupines of Denali, pulled off another PAC 8 upset, bringing a solid road-rated 82 to the familiar scapes of Tucson, where Amy's Spiny Spikers played a home 84 that fell just short of holding home court, allowing Denali to get the -2 upset and claim sole lead in the PAC 8 for now! Congrats to Andy as the Angry Wolves stalk their way to pole position! Can they hold on before the conference tourney seedings are set?  Have the Wolves ever been the #1 seed before?  Did we just curse their chances of getting it this season? Fear not, Pack Faithful, we have not the all-awesome curse powers of Al!

Appetizers aside, we drift now into the WGM match 12, where a home team and road team tied for our #3 upset of the week.  Starting with the #5 seed Manatees, who hosted the Alton Bald Ballers, who had the edge on the ratings (road 81 to home 77), yet couldn't overcome the watery home court confines of the Do-Ragged Dugongs.  Set 1 was a shocking tone-setter, 16-25, as the Eagles couldn't get any good run going. Then set two saw a back-and-forth affair before Mark's Manatees pulled away 25-22, and the upset was primed!  Alton didn't go down without baring their talons though, taking set three in extra points 27-25 to keep it alive.  In the end though (as you know because we're reporting it here!), it was too much to do in two sets back-to-back and the Pirates of a Protected Species pulled out the 20-25 set 4 to claim the -4 upset, tied for #3 on the week, and keep their WGM hopes alive!  At the same time, halfway across the continent, in Porkopolis JT's Swinging Swine dropped a home 90! That ties the #3 best on the season, making it one heck of a tall tree to climb to get up to the Winged Hogs' heights!  But wait! Who was the opponent? One who doesn't climb trees, but instead one who hews them down, as the Flanned Fellsman, seeded #31 to Cinci's #2, brought a road 86, tied for best of the WGM road ratings in the round! Olmec saw fit to flip the script in this one, and gave the opening set in an all-too-easy 25-19 final to Portland!  James' Tusked TruffleLovers kept it close in the second set, yet still fell 25-23!  Could it be, should we see, on the court in Cinci... Yes! 25-17 set 3 and we have our top Upset Sweep of the Season at -4, and in the WGM #2 seed match, where three prior weekends of efforts are undone with one fell sweep of the axe! Commisserations to James, and congrats to Antoine and the Axemen who are rewarded with a road trip to St. Charles and the all-tourney specialist Scarecrows.

Staying in the WGM, we now go to the home of #1 overall seed San Jose, which is a very ominous place to be at this point in the BUM Report column, because your heads are undoubtedly starting to spin, saying, "Wait, did both top seeds lose in the opening round?!"  Oh they did, and did they in BUM-glory!  Following the straight-set sweep in Cinci, the Shrimp (in a different time zone, so playing later and already seeing that result) perhaps got complacent.  Or maybe they just missed the pattern shifts as the Chameleons came to town.  Phil's side was a road-rated 77, which was a far cry from Vick's home 88. Phil even played a 57-rated Libero, and two C-rated players.  The Crusty Crew had 3 A's and 4 B's, and the home edge.  They also opened the match hitting .615 in the first set, with just two hitting errors and some key blocks to take it 27-25.  Vick was sweating though, knowing how Olmec seems to like Phil's teams and seeing that it took extra points just to get one set in the bag!  In set 2, fortunes reversed, as San Jose hit a match-worst .348 to drop set 2 25-22!, and then the Chameleons caught on fire!  They hit .667 in set 3 and .625 in set 4, with a final .571 for the match and a blistering .702 set rate despite just a 15 at setter!  Vick's, by the way, was a 19! When you look at the lineups, San Jose had better-rated players at every spot and every key stat, making this 4-set upset, taking 26-24 in set 4 to finally end it, a massive -11 #2 Upset of the Week and our new #3 Upset of the Season!  For the second-straight season, the #1 WGM seed goes down in the opener!  Can Phil repeat that result against the Shaggy Spikers of Spokane in the next round, who played the highest opening round lineup (91)?  All bets are off when the Stone One rolls the dice!

Wait, that was a -11 and there's one more to go?  Yes, yes there is!  We turn to match 11, conference play, in the upset-fruitful fields of the PAC 8!  San Diego, no strangers to this portion of the column, and the Gladius-Gilded Gilled Ones were clearly fielding the top school in other waters.  A road-rated 71, and the minnows swimming in the warmups looked like they were wielding knitting needles more than swords.  Perhaps that was the point, to get the Mighty Meese and their 5 A-rated players already looking ahead to the next weekend? Or to lull the powerful blocking tandem of Bartoli and Townsend (both home-rated 19 blockers!) to try to only block one-handed in a one-up-mooseship contest?  We don't know for certain what they were all thinking, yet we all can see the end result!  This was a match of self-induced destruction for the denizens of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, as they had 9 hitting erorrs in the opening set, and 10 in the second!  Meanwhile, San Diego had only 5 combined in the openers, and despite being out-killed (32 for Mat-Su, 24 for San Diego), those errors led to the key points that let San Diego take both sets to start the match!  Now into set 3, and the Bearded Buglers did not take kindly to the stern words that Coach Kalmbach gave in a rather not-Kalm mid-match scolding!  Set 3 was all Mat-Su as they rolled readily to a 17-25 win, just 2 errors and a handful of great digs from their Libero (match-high 18 digs, compared to 21 for the whole Swordfish roster!) to keep the sweep from happening.  Having regained their top standing and getting the hooves buffed out for better grip on the overly-waxed court, Mat-Su again limited hitting errors (2) to go with .593 hitting and readily took this to a 5th set, winning 21-25.  We go now to the fifth set in progress, and with Mat-Su serving at 10-11 trying to tie it back up, they hit another service error, their 13th on the day!  Despite having better players and stats at every position, this one came down to luck in the serve and receive game, with San Diego leading both (Rcv .967 to .925, 3 errors to 7; Srv .912 to .875, 9 errors to 13).  Those little points that killed rallies for the Antlered Army meant the difference in this one.  Now 12-10 San Diego, the Moose got it back on a kill from MB Townsend, and Brewer then gave a wicked serve to try to tie it from 12-11 San Diego. L Hall passed on a 1, and hope was alive, following by Orozco setting at a 1 to Dickerson, the best chance for a mis-hit or block! And Dickerson lands it anyway in a critical point for the match as the Swordfish now lead 13-11!  On the next point, L Hall gets the dig to keep it alive, sealing his rating as the Swordfish Man of the Match with his team-leading digs and a perfect 1.000 Srv Rcv rating, and San Diego serves for Match Point #1. The Moose get the receive, and then the set up to OH Wilkins (Atk 16) only for MB Bronson (Blk 13) to get a flailing flipper high enough to block the shot which fell back to the floor on Mat-Su's side and the massive -18 Upset of the Week and Season was completed!  How big was this one BUM-reading faithful?  We turn to the archives and amidst the color-coded index cards taped to the walls of the cellar stairway, we had to go through all of the records to come across the one and only match that matched such a match result!  When has their ever been a -18 upset before? Season 13, match 26, non-conference play where the Vermilingua of Arlington traveled to The Swamp and dropped the Rats (67 road, 85 home) in what has been an untouched record for 5 seasons!  And now it is tied!  Congrats to Matt for tying the all-time TMVL Upset Record, and commisserations to Bryce for now sharing with yours truly the business end of the all-time Upsets board!  What else can this season throw at us when we've already got an all-time upset and both top seeds losing in the WGM? Could anything else be as unlikely to come, except the Squirrels winning the Big East and ushering in the apocalypse? At least they're comfortably not in first, right, and are a full... one game back from Burlington?!?  And playing San Diego at home in the WGM tourney this coming weekend, as the "what the heck" teams of the season meet up?  It's truly a BUM-tastic season for all, and may you be featured (in a good way) next weekend yourselves, with everyone getting in on the action this year!

Can the Rebels defeat the Evil Empires that be?  We'll see what the weekend brings, as the top remaining WGM seeds are powerful forces themselves, Pekin and Starkville, and anyone who thinks that Columbia or Burlington is going to just wilt away in the conference races is in for a deserved jolt of reality! We look forward to next week already, if nothing else to see how high the price on MB Guerra can get and make some of the RP-rich teams finally drop a pretty penny to increase their recruiting hoards! Until then, stay frosty, and topple the giants as best you can!