The season began with a record number of retentions, with the Classiest retaining 5 players, the Tigers and Sharks retaining 6, the Cryonicles retaining 7, and the Wolfpack retaining 8. With 6 retentions, the Sharks started off the auction with a very solid core of players, albeit with less money than some of the other teams. The Sharks draft plan revolved around creating a very solid old-generation foundation, and then attempting to find steals in the lower tiers and in XY OU. This was made easier by the versatility they already possessed in their retentions of Malekith, -Tsunami-, babidi1998, SoulWind, Conflict, and Stellar, who could play multiple tiers and give them more options. The team also knew that their manager, makiri, could help them out in Doubles if they went with a cheap option, and that their assistant manager, panamaxis, in tandem with help of Aeroblacktyl, could help make their lower tier players solid as well. After the auction began, a reset occurred during the bidding for Bloo, which effectively cheated the Ruiners of 5000 credits. During the auction, the Sharks managed to pick up most of the players they wanted, which was helped by being able to get Choice Specs + 2000 credits in a trade with the Frogs for Furai. Soon after the auction, the Sharks managed to trade 500 credits to the Scooters to acquire kael, a veteran who was skilled in both XY OU and ADV OU, improving the already-stout versatility the Sharks had on the roster. This article further details the teams at the beginning of the season. The Sharks started off the season well, going 2-0-1 in the first three weeks. However, they started off Week 4 against the Scooters facing a 0-5 deficit that was sure to be a loss. However, the Sharks managed to rally and eventually tie the week after a great deal of controversy surrounding what would be ruled as a dead game between ]V[ajinTupacZ and make. The Sharks were clearly in a great position before midseason, and the midseason auction made them even stronger. They Sharks picked up a much-needed Ubers player in Edgar with their leftover auction credits, leaving them with 3,000 sellback credits they acquired after selling back gene on grounds of inactivity. The Sharks wanted to get Atticus, a top DPP veteran who had been allowed to sign up for the midseason auction despite being a manager on the Team Raiders that very same year. They sold back Choice Specs in order to build their midseason funds; however, Atticus was already nominated by that time, and the Sharks would have to wait for the 24-hour veto window to pass before they could claim their 3,000 credits. However, soon after this, tennisace decided to petition to veto the sellback; fortunately for the Sharks, there was enough evidence to allow the sellback, allowing the Sharks to claim their credits early enough to steal Atticus in the auction. The auction results allowed the Sharks to start Edgar in Ubers and Atticus in DPP, thus allowing them to rotate LUST and -Tsunami- to XY OU, and babidi1998 to BW RU. The auction also featured a massive amount of trades between the Scooters, Ruiners, and Cryonicles, all of whom improved; the Scooters also benefited from the Raiders trading them top Doubles player Braverius for a mere 2k in an attempt to spite him. After midseason, the Sharks went 2-2, leaving them with a 4-2-2 heading into Week 9, which was enough to effectively guarantee them a playoff spot. In the semifinals, the Sharks faced the Wolfpack for the second season in a row; the previous year, the Wolfpack beat the Sharks in a close series. The week started off well for the Sharks, as make and Al_Alchemist both won cleanly over their adversaries to give the team a 2-0 lead. However, this was when the Wolfpack started their comeback, as aim dismantled Edgar with a Swords Dance + Refresh Arceus. Following this, Laurel persevered over LUST thanks to the latter's team having no answers for Laurel's Gengar. babidi1998 won the next game over SilentVerse in a luck-filled match, as he responded to SilentVerse's late-game critical hit on his Golurk with a game-saving flinch on the second to last turn by his Durant. Atticus won the next game against DracoMalfoy in DPP after effectively KOing the latter's Hippowdon on turn 1 with a critical hit, and Kevin Garrett, who was starting in BW OU over SoulWind for this series, destroyed Marth with a Double Dance Landorus-T after having a perfect matchup. Heading into Sunday, the Sharks had a solid 5-2 lead, needing only 2 games to close out the series and advance to the finals. After FLCL gave the Wolfpack some hope by beating Malekith in a close BW NU game, -Tsunami- managed to defeat Adam with the help of a well-timed full para on Adam's Mega Scizor. Lastly, Conflict took revenge against Jorgen for the SPL semifinals the previous year by beating him in GSC OU, advancing the Sharks to the Finals. There, they would meet the Cryonicles, who had obliterated the Classiest 11-1 earlier that week. The finals were notable in that they were extremely one-sided in terms of the tournament community's support; the Cryonicles probably had about 99% of the tournament community on their side. The week started off with ]V[ajinTupacZ defeating make in a close game after the latter misplayed, prompting the tournament community to say that the Sharks should have lost Week 4 since the same result would have occurred if the two had played back then. Soon following make's loss, however, -Tsunami- defeated dragonuser in a game between two hyper offense teams, in which hyper offense master -Tsunami- controlled the momentum from turn 2 onward with the help of his Mega Mawile and Assault Vest Goodra. The next game was in LC between Al_Alchemist and blarajan; however, Al_Alchemist disconnected late into the game and the two agreed to replay with the same moves later on. In the next game, Edgar defeated SPL Ubers legend Blim with the help of some full paras on Blim's Arceus-Water. CyberOdin beat LUST in the following game in a very luck-filled match, winning off of a last-turn critical hit by his Azumarill on LUST's Landorus-I after being haxed the majority of the game. Following this loss, however, the Sharks began to take control of the series, as Atticus defeated Fakes in an extremely close and well-fought DPP game. babidi1998 then proceeded to defeat HSA in BW RU after the latter misplayed and allowed his Omastar to get knocked out by the former's Braviary. Facing a 4-2 deficit, the Cryonicles needed a win, and were sure that BW OU master Aqualouis could defeat Kevin Garrett. However, Kevin Garrett had different plans, as the team that he had made along with his teammates minutes before the match had perfect matchup against Aqualouis. KG proceeded to devastate him, albeit getting a little help from a Toxic miss by Aqualouis's Tentacruel against KG's Kyurem; the Cryonicles were in such disbelief at the matchup that it led them to remove a well-known OU player, gr8astard, from their channel due to suspicions that he leaked Aqualouis's team. It seemed as if the Sharks would cruise through the series, but R Inanimate defeated Arcticblast in XY Doubles with the help of a critical hit. Following this, the Sharks subbed in TheFourthChaser to finish Al_Alchemist's battle against blarajan, but the latter got lucky once again for what was probably the 6th game in a row to cap off SPL's first ever 11-0 season. The Shark's lead had shrunk to 5-4, which was when Hikari beat Stellar in BW UU with a well-built stall team, tying the series at 5-5 heading into Sunday. Fortunately for the Sharks, they had two of the best and most clutch players on their roster left in Conflict and Malekith. Malekith took control of his game against Cased with the help of a Max Speed Regice, which lured in Cased's Klang and decimated it with a Focus Blast, making the game much easier for the former to win. The Sharks had taken a 6-5 lead, and the final game was a GSC OU bout between two veterans in Conflict and Picollo. For the second week in a row, Conflict managed to clinch the series for the Sharks, as he took control of and won his match to give all of the Sharks players a well-deserved trophy.