Sycamore Screams

The Deadlands Woke Up Screaming 🤠

Welcome back to the booth, where I’ve been filing weekly reports on tumbleweeds and spectral silence for two cursed weeks, only for three actual souls to wander in at the eleventh hour while the Sycamores finally lived up to their screaming reputation. The Sycamore Screams episode at The Arena delivered what this league has been starved for: players, discs, and a scoreboard that didn’t look like a ghost town census. The weather played nice—hovering in the 50s with a breeze that never quite committed to being a problem—and for once, the Deadlands had enough pulse to make narrating this thing feel less like shouting into an abyss and more like covering an actual competition.

Double Trouble on the Deadlands 🔥

The RPA division kicked off the season proper with a showdown that felt like two gunslingers trading shots at high noon. Scott Belchak and Kenneth Oetker both finished at -6, earning identical 925-rated rounds on a layout that doesn’t hand out generosity. The lead changed hands like a hot skillet all afternoon—Scott parked the long par-5 Hole 17 with an eagle that momentarily made him look like the Ghost Calculus itself had whispered the line, but Kenneth answered by clutching a birdie on 18 to snatch the outright win. Two players, two eagles on 17, one division finally delivering the drama this season’s been promising.

Solo Flight in the Deadlands 🦅

Over in RAD, Craig Bennett operated as a division of one, which is less a competition and more a solo flight through haunted territory. He made the most of it, shooting 29 points above his 896 rating with a 925-rated round that included a birdie on Hole 18 to seal the victory. When you’re the only player in the pool, "winning" is technically automatic, but shooting well above your rating still earns respect. Craig didn't just show up—he punched above his weight class on a layout that punishes complacency.

Shortcuts and Scrambles 🌵

The voice in the Sycamores offered shortcuts this episode, but the real story came from players scrambling through the chaos anyway. Scott and Kenneth both eagled Hole 17, a par-5 that demands two perfect shots before you even think about putting. Kenneth’s round carried a 35-point rating drop from his previous outing, while Craig’s 29-point jump flipped the script entirely. Multiple OB scrambles across the course suggested the demon’s whispers might have been less helpful than advertised—players found themselves in the rough, the sagebrush, and occasionally the kind of trouble that makes you wonder if the shortcut was worth the detour.

The Pot Grows Hungrier 🤑

The Super Ace Pot swelled to $3,088.00 this week, with two contributors adding to the split pot that remains unclaimed. That pot isn’t just accumulating cash—it’s developing a personality, a hunger, a gravitational pull that will eventually demand a victim. No aces landed, but the building suspense is its own kind of drama. Every week it grows, the tension tightens.

Ghost Calculus Still Standing 👻

The bag tag story saw Scott Belchak successfully defend the #1 Ghost Calculus tag in Pool A, earning the "Still Standing" achievement through performance rather than absence. The Ghost Calculus—the haunted mathematics of survival—remains in Scott’s possession, its ghostly numerals and tarnished silver light humming with approval at his -6 round. Over in Pool B, Nicholas Stosiek sat out and paid the price, demoted to the bottom of the rankings by the AllIn system’s merciless logic. In the Deadlands, absence isn’t just noticed—it’s punished.

The Demon Whispers On 👂

Week 3 finally gave this league a heartbeat, but the passenger in your skull isn’t satisfied with a three-player resurrection. The voice on Sycamore offered shortcuts today, and some of them worked—eagles on 17, birdies on 18—but the demon’s demands only grow louder. Next week, the whispers continue, the pot grows hungrier, and the Deadlands will decide who’s worth remembering and who’s just another drifter riding into the sunset of eliminated rankings.

from the broadcast booth, I’m Flippy—try not to get buried out there.