Jump to 41:49 to listen to our conversation with 4x Defending Champs: Allison Reilly and Emily Przykucki of UNC Pleiades. We think you'll learn a lot about what Championship teams focus on the most to stay on top. It starts with culture and loving hard work. It also takes a little bit of luck. As we talked it became clear that luck is often the manifestation of a ton of preparation, and Pleiades is more prepared than any other team in the country. Certainly more prepared than any team we've been involved with.

We were blown away to learn that neither Alli nor Kooski started playing until they got to UNC, because they speak about the game like 15 year club veterans. You can only learn that much that fast through hard work and dedication, but they credit a lot of their rapid development to the culture of Pleiades and Coach Jessi Jones.

Before we talked to Alli and Kooski, Quinn gave us some updates on Team USA and Windmill Windup and how it felt to play his first Summit game of the year.

Shoutouts:

Shoutout to Coach Mary Rippe for connecting us with Alli and Kooski.

Shout to everyone who said hi to Quinn at Windmill. Especially our boy, IHACKER! It means a lot to know people are listening. We appreciate you more than you know.

Shoutout to Colorado Cutthroat! Mike played against the U-20 Boys team at Solstice with Johnny Walker. The O-40 team vs the U-20 team. Walker was down the whole game by a couple breaks and finally clawed back to save some remaining pride.

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