Author's Note: I am not an editor or a professional writer. I will write this and edit it to the best of my ability. I also do not own Uma Musume, which is owned by Cygames. Watch the animes and read the mangas, for they are pretty good. Finally, please enjoy.
Foreigner Fanboy POV:
When I was a kid I found and fell in love with the FSRL. I watched it grow from an upstart league to the behemoth it became. I had grown with this league as it fought the rigid, boring, and corrupt Noble Racing League. Now it's been 20 years since I discovered the league and I still watch it with excitement. I watched epic races and superstars rise from multiple generations of rookies.
I saw small teams grow to become the biggest teams in the league as the league grew and expanded worldwide. Still, there are places it hasn't expanded to yet, and, sadly, this might be the last tournament I ever watch. Recently my wife and I had a child and now I can't go to the games live in person anymore. I also had to throw my free time to my work and family. That's why I took my family and my son to the tournament, even inviting the friends I made and their families.
Thereafter arriving at the gate I saw my best friend Tom. I yelled," Tom over here." He looked and smiled saying," Bill how's it going, man?" We greeted each other as our wives and kids caught up with one another. Soon everyone else came with their families.
Sarah always caught up on the recent news and stats, and Roger the loyal fanboy always cheering for his favorite teams. Finally Jerome the fitness guy who understood the physical abilities of everyone he sees. Tom was the guy with the connections to get tickets and money to get the TV streams to watch games. Finally, I was the guy who kept us together when things got rough. It's too bad this might be our last time together for a long time.
While we were waiting for the gates to open cause we were early we began to catch up. Jerome went first saying," The minor today might not be the best, but there might be some unknowns and some hidden diamonds." Tom responded," There better be the travel fees alone with these tickets are expensive enough." Sarah smiled," There might be, I've been hearing about a player that's been conquering all the Opens out here. Now her team is coming to the minor, if she's the one they sent to crush all the opens there team might be full of talent."
Everyone nodded and she continued saying," Yeah, and I hear they got good backing so they might be better than the local giant the Valued Gods. They might even have a chance against the scene's big dogs like the High Stars." Roger then responded," Nuh uh the Valued Gods are the best they're gonna win it all this year." He and Sarah started arguing and Tom and Roger were liking what they heard. That's why I interrupted saying," Guys we'll see for ourselves when we get in there."
I then looked down saying," Cause either way this might be a great farewell game for us after all." Tom put a hand on my shoulder saying," Yeah, sorry I couldn't get us tickets to the Major last month man." I smiled saying," It's okay, cause at least we're all together and it's not an Open." They all laughed at our terrible luck. Soon enough us and our families went in as soon as the gates opened.
The kids all sat together near the other parents and we all got to sit together cause everyone knew what this meant to us. I could hear the kids playing on their phones, and the adults uncaringly talking about their days. They weren't interested like we were, and soon the teams were being introduced. That's when they came out. They all wore masks and had obvious code names.
One of our kids looked up and soon got the attention of the other kids and parents. It was my daughter May and she spoke saying," Guys look, they're wearing cool masks and have code names like secret agent wrestlers." Tom held back his laughter at that but failed and soon began laughing out loud. All of us smiled or laughed with him. Sarah then said interrupting the moment," Hey they're the ones I was talking about earlier, and the one who conquered all the Opens is the tall girly one over there."
I saw her and she looked menacing but cute in her outfit. Still, it's really hard to read this team. Tom was confused like me, Roger looked down on them, but Jerome and Sarah took them seriously. Then I heard their name, The Bloody Broncos, which made me ask," What's a Bronco?" Surprisingly it was Tom's son Jacob who answered me saying," According to the internet Uncle Bill it's a breed of Uma that is known to be wild, untamed, free, and sure-footed."
Sarah then spoke saying," Kid's right." Tom laughed boastfully proud of his son and I'm happy learning something new today. I then tell him," Thank you Jacob you can go back with the others now." He then nodded running back to the other kids who were all interested in the Bloody Broncos. After all the introductions were done the first race was being set up. The first race is a flat relay on turf.
I remember so many moments happening with this race. The comebacks, the disasters, and the controversy. It is the only team-based race in the world and it was the FSRL that brought it to prominence. I heard when it first came from Sarah that it was doubted to be good, but it immediately became an instant classic. There are now so many strategies for this race depending on distance, track, and race type.
There are even strategies for whichever part of the race you're at. The most popular is Lead off, which has to escape the group and get a lead so the most evasive and quick Uma Musume usually leads off. Leg 2 is the high-speed race to expand the lead so the fastest Uma Musume are usually here. Leg 3 is the beginning of the second half and is where the highest amount of cheating and distractions happens. This causes it to have the highest failure rate, which is why the Uma Musume with the best focus and control races here.
Finally, the Anchor is where teams either catch up or use their advantage to win. The job is not to fuck up and mess everyone's effort or catch up and make a comeback. That's why the best are usually places here to race. Sarah soon snapped me out of my reminiscence and told me," Hey Bill the races are a Flat rules Relay on turf distance mile to start. Then after is a Flat rules Marathon, then an Obstacle race on a dirt mile long. Finally, it ends with a mixed relay race where half is flat rules the other is obstacle rules all 4 times around all on dirt also a mile long."
She continued saying," It seems everything is mile except for the marathon." The marathon was some brought in for long races. With the introduction of the league, they needed something that they could add to flat races to make them more exciting. One was the relay, another are strange shaped tracks. Some are just weird which have zigzags, S turns, and some are just a straight line or circle.
The marathon was added and it has an interesting history with its being so long, the strategy seems harder, so they try either the most conservative strategies or the dumbest. With some even running that distance at full speed. That's why it's considered controversial with some saying it's too long distance-wise and time-wise making it boring. Next is obstacle races the violent creation of a psychopath. He literally said let's mix together steeple chase racing with obstacle course races, dirt bike racing, hurdle racing, and street fighting together.
There have been so many retirements, injuries, and tragedies in this track. The only good byproduct is that it made medical research on injuries better. Plus maybe also since the aggression is released it lowers crime for a bit every time there's a race. At least firearms and devices are banned by the race cause they still need to respect physical ability. Still, you at least get to see the cruelest and toughest Uma Musume race on this field so that's something.
Finally, the last race is something new that they added this year. Mixed race is where they mix elements in a race. Like an obstacle/flat that we're seeing today or a dirt/Turf mix. There could even be Marathon/Obstacle/Flat, there are a lot of different creative mixtures. Plus so far it's been received by audiences well but hated by players and coaches.
Speaking of the teams this year so much drama happened. The captain of the High Stars Faded God got traded after a contract dispute to a small unknown team. The top star in the league Van Gophe got injured badly last season and is missing most of this one. Still, even with the loss in stars their head coach Thomas Brande is close to getting his team enough points to qualify for the Premier. He really is a Hall of Fame coach who deserves his titles.
Using the point system to his advantage was brilliant. We know points can be attributed in multiple ways. There are match points spread out to the placings of each racer and tournament points for winning the most races or getting the most points in the tournament. The High Stars have been using champions advantage that is only given to the reigning champions by allowing two to three racers in a race to capture points. They've been winning tournaments by just eating up all the points in a race.
Thank goodness they only need a certain number of points since the points they gained from Premier races at the end of the year tournament only count the following season. It allowed them to rest and skip tournaments with few points like today's minor. It also allows other teams to gather points by using the same strategy. The top teams from last year are still here though. Teams like our local Valued Gods, the team of talented monsters Team Supreme from Scotland, and even the team of elites Blank Craft from England.
Still, there are teams on the rise like thanks to the trade Faded God now leads the Chinese team Healing Break. There's also the team containing talented new superstars from the French Golden Horseshoe and Trifecta Union a team from Saudi Arabia created by using money to buy old stars and elites. There are also many rich teams and organizations and Sarah telling me that these Bloody Broncos are from an organization that is new to the scene doesn't surprise me at all. I'm going to miss this scene and the interesting races and tournaments that revolutionize the racing world. The players I've cheered for and the teams that I bought jerseys from.
I did everything I could to get my wife to love the same sport as I do. Still, she thinks the flats are boring, the obstacle races are violent, and the relays are mid. She doesn't want our kids to be fans of this as I am. Still, I wanted to say goodbye to my friends one last time and after telling my wife she agreed and we even got the rest of the family to come. This was my attempt to befriend the families outside of the scene outside of racing.
I look at each of our families, we've had them meet several times. They're all still awkward with each other. Guess it's not happening, they're all too different with nothing related to each other to connect them. Even though I love their families and how kind their spouses and kids are. I just wish there was something that could make the families unite like us friend did.
The starting gun fired and soon the families and we looked up with the rest of the fans. We all made a deal with the kids and spouses that they have to watch the first race all the way through with no distractions. That's when it happened boom. A miracle I was glued to the race, and the sound of one of the kids dropping their iPad made me look at the families. They were awestruck and soon they were cheering.
I look forward again and I started cheering along with them. The races redefined what I knew about them, and the team that did it made fans out of our families. Then as the last race ended it was announced that a concert for the fans held by the Broncos was happening. Sarah spoke saying," I thought this was an optional thing no one wanted to do? Are they wearing masks because of embarrassment or something else?"
The music played and we got our answer, this wasn't pop music. I immediately respected their courage and made sure to signal my friends to watch over the families just in case the pop cult showed up. Then the song began and I was immediately hooked. The beat made my heart race and the song made me love them all even more. Once all the songs were played we all left the stadium just in case.
I looked around as the families were reminiscing about today. Jerome Uma Musume's daughter Star Rain asked him," Daddy I want to run like them one day." Jerome asked his daughter," Oh little Star like who, there were so many Uma Musume running today?" His daughter was speechless before going off saying," uh... daddy you know who, I wanna run like the Bloody Broncos. In the first race, Ruby was so cool running as if nothing could touch her."
Then she continued saying," Vice Captain Cobalt is so fast no one could catch her, and Amber's control was amazing. Then the team's strongest Crimson was so good she was so much better than her opponents." That's when Sarah's Uma Musume daughter Snow Cloud butted in and said," Yeah then the marathon that everyone said was boring was reborn thanks to Ivory and her speech afterwards. Then the obstacle race that was so violent before became a work of art thanks to Lady Viridian." The two Uma Musume soon looked at each other who had just become best friends and began talking forgetting they were talking to Jerome.
Star began," Girl whatcha think about the last race?" Snow responded," Girl it was a master class, the way Ebony could cruise through dirt. The way Captain Primrose showed how obstacle races and mixed races should be run. Then how Ash showed who the cruelest in the world truly is. Finally how Azure flew like a bolt of lightning through the track."
Star responded," I know and the promise afterwards that they'll be in the next one got me so excited." Jerome and Sarah looked at their kids with pride and joy. Then Roger's daughter Martha said," Yeah I also like their music, they're the best." Roger soon screamed lifting her on his shoulders," No baby, I'll show you when VG races next week that VG is best." Martha responded with the same stubbornness as her father," No, Papa, BB better."
We laughed at their argument and soon Tom's daughter Dalia asked him," Daddy can we watch next week's tournament?" His son Jacob nodded seriously agreeing with his sister and Tom almost crying responded," Don't worry darling leave it to daddy we can get the broadcast for the São Paulo Super Major next week." That's when my daughter May asked," Daddy what's a Super Major?" I smile and pick her up saying," It's one of the biggest tournaments of the season." She reacted in surprise saying," Even bigger than this one?"
I smile telling her," Yup, and there's one called the Premier which is the biggest tournament of the year." Her eyes shone and she asked," When can we go to a big tournament, Daddy?" I tell her," There's one coming in Sydney this May, but that depends on mommy." She gasped saying," That's my birthday month and my name, Mommy, can we go?" My wife smiled rolled her eyes and said," Fine, go Broncos."
All the kids screamed," Yeah!" They all began talking and bonding and so did the spouses. They loved the music and what the Broncos did today. I looked at my friends and they looked at me. We all smiled happily knowing this wasn't the end.