Only three more days left in this series. I'll be revealing #5 and #6 today, then the top 4 tomorrow and Saturday. Today's games are actually both of the most recent championship games, so let's take a look at the modern matches...
#6) Season 14: Tess defeats Ben 80-72
Season 14 concluded with an interesting match in the championship: the rookie vs the three-time champion. And for only the second time in league history, the new player won their first season. It was a season full of new rules, surprising results, and it was the debut of a new championship belt. It began the modern age of ACFW and ended with a new player being the first to hold the title.
Tess picked up Goldberg shortly before the championship game and that ended up being the difference. Especially since Dolph Ziggler kept bringing Goldberg back out while Ben yelled at the TV. This game is ranked high on the list because it was competitive, high scoring, and had a new player winning. It was everything that Season 7's championship game was, but with an actually close final score. Not quite entertaining enough to break into my top 5 but definitely one of the better endings we've seen.
#5) Season 15: Austin defeats Jacob 74-68
Season 15 was weird. It was missing several former champions, went back to head to head matches for the first time in almost ten seasons, had some strange scoring rules, and had relatively low participation compared to other seasons. But it was an important season for the league. It helped transition the rules from the wacky Season 14 to the modern Season 16. And it certainly ended on a high note. After a solid win in the playoffs, Jacob seemed to be on track to win his first ACFW championship.
Austin was an 8-point favorite but going into the Royal Rumble match, Jacob needed only 10 more points to win the championship. With both John Morrison and Kofi Kingston, and with eliminations and finishers scoring 2 points each, it seemed almost certain that he'd pull off the upset. Until Brock Lesnar tossed both of them out of the match with little effort. It was a depressing conclusion that even left the eventual champion wishing it'd gone differently.
This game is ranked highly because it told a story unlike any other we've had. I personally am hoping that Jacob successfully wins a championship in the near future. But it was not to be at the 2020 Royal Rumble.
The top 4 games will be revealed tomorrow and Saturday. They are what I consider to be the truly great matches from our league's history. The only thing that was difficult was deciding which order to rank them in. Tomorrow, we'll see what game I ranked #4 and what game I ranked #3...
Here is a full list of the championship games:
Season 1: Ben beat Chris 64-61
Season 2: Terry beat Austin 62.5-44
Season 3: Brandon beat Jordan 56-50
Season 4: Brandon beat Jacob 90-30
Season 5: Jeff beat Brandon 72-42
Season 6: Ben beat Terry 72-50
Season 7: Bo beat Ross 70-32
Season 8: Austin beat Ben 122-104
Season 9: Jeff beat Bo 60-46
Season 10: Terry beat Bo 66-54
Season 11: Austin beat Terry 88-60
Season 12: Austin beat Jeff 48-36
Season 13: Ben tied Terry 76-76
Season 14: Tess beat Ben 80-72
Season 15: Austin beat Jacob 74-68
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